Skeg repair

[jjohnson69]

I broke off the bottom 3" of my skeg on my 175 Opti-Max. Anyone have an idea for a reasonably priced way of repairing? Would there be any significant reduction in performance or potential damage to other parts of the motor if I don't fix it? Any advice is much appreciated!

[propmann]

Originally Posted by jjohnson69

I broke off the bottom 3" of my skeg on my 175 Opti-Max. Anyone have an idea for a reasonably priced way of repairing? Would there be any significant reduction in performance or potential damage to other parts of the motor if I don't fix it? Any advice is much appreciated!

Theres no performance difference, you will ding your prop more often if you don't fix.

[SLE]

The easiest and best looking way would be to simply put a Skeg Gaurd on. They look good, are durable,and won't break the bank at a little over a $100. heres a link to one at cabelas.

http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/te...cat420002&rid=

[REW]

JJ
Take the rig to your local prop man and he will be able to weld a new skeg on the motor without pulling the lower unit for a reasonable cost.
When done, you won't be able to tell that it was ever broken.
REW

[ohiojmj]

Skegguards are a band aid fix. They look pretty, help improve steering if you a good chunk, but provide no additional protection for prop. Worse yet, if you thump something and shear the two tiny attachment screws (drilled wthough the skeg), it could kick up and damage your prop. I have been there and done that. I would recommend running it as-is (with somewhat less prop protection) or get a simple weld repair so it's back to like new.

[phowler]

Originally Posted by ohiojmj

Skegguards are a band aid fix. They look pretty, help improve steering if you a good chunk, but provide no additional protection for prop. Worse yet, if you thump something and shear the two tiny attachment screws (drilled wthough the skeg), it could kick up and damage your prop. I have been there and done that. I would recommend running it as-is (with somewhat less prop protection) or get a simple weld repair so it's back to like new.

Buddy of mine were just talking last weekend about these, seems he tried one once, hit something, and to the bottom of the river it went,,,,,,,with the 100 bucks he paid for it.

[SLE]

So it did it's job then! The bolts sheared as they were designed, the rest of the motor remained undamaged, and he likely saved a $300-$600 stainless prop. It appears his 100 bucks was well spent!

ohiojmj, the only way a skeg gard could come in contact with the prop would be for the gard to split at the front and slide straight off the back or if very little skeg was left to attach the gaurd too when installed. I put a couple of these on and have checked if this is possible and have yet to run into a senerio where it could happen, however the ones I have installed were installed on skegs that were mostely intact and were simply chipped up and missing a small peice.

[phowler]

SLE, you may have read something in to my story. The "something" he hit was insignificant enough that it wouldn't have caused prop damage. Maybe I should have added more detail, regardless the moral of the story is that the bolts sheared far to easily.

If someone wants to install one that's fine by me, I'm just relaying one mans experiance.

[ohiojmj]

SLE, 1/2 my skeg was gone, but enough meat left for the 2 drill holes. When you hit something with my first s-g, the front-most screw took the beating, sheared and the skegguard rotated about the back screw then got a little chopped from the prop. It was not pretty and I was 20 miles from our very remote cabin. I ended up with a twisted up s-g plus a chucks out of my prop by the s-g. Not sure it did it's job as the skegguard provided little resistance before turning into poohpooh.

In my opinion, two small screws can not possibly provide much protect to prop. I can take some measurements of a skeg cross section and two small screws and calculate load to failure of screws or skeg in shear , but I already know that the screws are many times weaker than even a portion of a skeg. I'm not talking love taps on the s-g. Of couse, if it was actually a lot stronger than the skeg, you would run the risk of a thump directing a load to lower end that would be above the failure load of the skeg. In that instance, you risk more severe damage. Stronger is not always better.