jeff80kz1000e2
Member
- Aug 25, 2015
- 38
- Boat Info
- 09 185 Sport
2014 Toyota Sienna Van FWD
Air Lift air bags
Class 3 Curt hitch
- Engines
- 4.3L Mercruiser TKS
Hi all, so I figured I would share our first outing experience on the local river. Overall a good first outing. It was the wife, 3 month old and our 3 year old son. The wife and I planned out how the launch and re trailering would go so we were lb the same page.
Just a bit of my background with boats. Been on rivers and lakes with the same size boat, just not mine. Never been on this river with anyone, and I got a few bits of caution areas from the marina cashier which I watched out for. I am pretty familiar with operating, acting with caution, etiquette, etc, and I don't drive like a maniac by any means.
Launched no problem
Retrieval no problem
As much as I like the fact that this is super close to our house, I don't know that we will go back because it ranges from 2.5 to 8
ft for the most part and its heavy traffic on most weekends.
Ending result, a piece of the aluminum prop about the size of a silver dollar give or take got taken off. The skeg?, the bottom most part of the outdrive had a scrap or two nothing to worry about. Obviously should have trimmed up a bit in hindsite to avoid that. I was very aware of depth at any given time. And I think they say if you are trimmed up to a certain point, 1k rpms max?
Perhaps when I moved to the side a bit to avoid what seemed like rush hour on the I290 ( aka the Eisenhower expwy in Chicago) I needed to trim up when idling while we were relaxing slowly moving up river.
Based on the fact that I was reasonably cautious and still had the said result , I don't think this river is for me. Good news is there are plenty of other options within 40 minutes to 1.5 hrs from us.
One other note to add. There were a ton of other boats big and small, vdrives, direct drives, and outdrives. Are they chewing up props as well? I would be interested to know.
In the end, a good outing getting familiar with our boat and the outdrive didn't get trashed.
The guy that sold it to us gave us one more aluminum, and then a SS vengeance if I remember correctly, so I just need to take the damaged one to a local prop shop that was highly recommeded to me.
Oh yea, the 4.3 tks gets up and goes plenty without emptying your wallet........completely. Lol
Just a bit of my background with boats. Been on rivers and lakes with the same size boat, just not mine. Never been on this river with anyone, and I got a few bits of caution areas from the marina cashier which I watched out for. I am pretty familiar with operating, acting with caution, etiquette, etc, and I don't drive like a maniac by any means.
Launched no problem
Retrieval no problem
As much as I like the fact that this is super close to our house, I don't know that we will go back because it ranges from 2.5 to 8
ft for the most part and its heavy traffic on most weekends.
Ending result, a piece of the aluminum prop about the size of a silver dollar give or take got taken off. The skeg?, the bottom most part of the outdrive had a scrap or two nothing to worry about. Obviously should have trimmed up a bit in hindsite to avoid that. I was very aware of depth at any given time. And I think they say if you are trimmed up to a certain point, 1k rpms max?
Perhaps when I moved to the side a bit to avoid what seemed like rush hour on the I290 ( aka the Eisenhower expwy in Chicago) I needed to trim up when idling while we were relaxing slowly moving up river.
Based on the fact that I was reasonably cautious and still had the said result , I don't think this river is for me. Good news is there are plenty of other options within 40 minutes to 1.5 hrs from us.
One other note to add. There were a ton of other boats big and small, vdrives, direct drives, and outdrives. Are they chewing up props as well? I would be interested to know.
In the end, a good outing getting familiar with our boat and the outdrive didn't get trashed.
The guy that sold it to us gave us one more aluminum, and then a SS vengeance if I remember correctly, so I just need to take the damaged one to a local prop shop that was highly recommeded to me.
Oh yea, the 4.3 tks gets up and goes plenty without emptying your wallet........completely. Lol
