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-   -   How long can I go on bent prop? (http://www.wakeworld.com/forum/showthread.php?t=807920)

RPM_DLX 07-14-2017 8:54 PM

How long can I go on bent prop?
 
Okay, I know this sounds stupid. I just put on a brand new acme 911 prop this morning for a three day weekend of camping. Five minutes out before even pulling the wakeboard off, I hit submerged debris at about 30mph. It bent the prop but not nearly as bad as before. It's not violently shaking. My spare prop is not great so I'm thinking about leaving the 911 on until I get home and buy another one. I plan on pulling the boat out of the water for inspection in the morning but I'm considering running it for the next two days. Any harm in doing so? It feels like a mild bend. It almost still feels better than my repaired 525 prop. I'm in middle of a camping trip

bass10after 07-14-2017 11:11 PM

To answer your question as to how long you have I'd say: to the dock. You need to see how bad it is but any vibration is bad. If your spare is worse than a bent prop then you need a new spare as well. I wouldn't run either a second longer than I had to. If it will ruin your weekend then dig deep and buy something to get you through, it will be cheaper than the alternatives in the long run.

simplej 07-15-2017 10:21 AM

Is it bent, scuffed, nicked?

scottb7 07-15-2017 10:57 AM

you know it kind of depends what it looks like. I had one that bent the blades a little, and I took a crescent wrench and bent the ends back slowly and carefully, and it didn't vibrate at all afterwards.

infinitysurf 07-15-2017 11:18 AM

Depends on how bad it is, but you risk messing up your prop shaft or transmission. You said its not "violently shaking"...but is it shaking at all or have vibration? If you cannot carefully bend back to almost new and so it does not have any shake/vibration, I would not run with it, you could cost yourself a lot of other issues with shaft or trans. Know it sucks but you will regret it a lot more later if it messes up something that costs thousands, compared to hundreds.

Droopington 07-15-2017 2:29 PM

You can do massive damage and end up having to do fiberglass work etc. I wouldn't run the boat with a bent prop, or bent shaft. The long term damage is not worth it.

Droopington 07-15-2017 2:31 PM

There are places that fixed warped props and straighten them out FYI. Not sure about where you live but in Florida there are many places. Cost you $100 to fix the warped prop...

RPM_DLX 07-17-2017 7:38 AM

The prop only had a small vibration in it. I ran it the rest of the weekend. I was in middle of a camping trip and nowhere near a place for straightening. I just ordered another new 911 prop for next weekend and I'll take this other 911 prop to get repaired and use it as my back up prop. I have a 525 back up prop right now and had it repaired but I am not happy with the results of so called being fixed. Any good place to get them fixed properly like sending them back to ACME?

baitkiller 07-17-2017 9:02 AM

Delta Prop does a good job fast and fair. There is a discount code on the CCF site.

denverd1 07-17-2017 9:25 AM

safe to IDLE back to the LAUNCH. where you pull it out of the water and put whatever prop you have back on. NOT SAFE at all to say F it, I like this prop better so I'm gonna risk screwing things up big time!

engine internals are what's at risk. Fiberglass will be fine

denverd1 07-17-2017 9:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RPM_DLX (Post 1963101)
The prop only had a small vibration in it. I ran it the rest of the weekend. I was in middle of a camping trip and nowhere near a place for straightening. I just ordered another new 911 prop for next weekend and I'll take this other 911 prop to get repaired and use it as my back up prop. I have a 525 back up prop right now and had it repaired but I am not happy with the results of so called being fixed. Any good place to get them fixed properly like sending them back to ACME?

how many hours are we talking about here?

RPM_DLX 07-17-2017 9:54 AM

I put only maybe an hour or two on. Ended up mostly swimming in a cove and drove at idle when going across the lake. I wasn't saying F'it, I like this prop better....lol....I just felt like even the slight bent 911 felt smoother than my 525 that was fixed. Which is why I'm buying another 911 prop. I wasn't impressed with my 525 after being fixed.

Droopington 07-17-2017 9:57 AM

@Nacho you can definitely do fiberglass damage FYI. The club I coach wake at had a boat hit a reef, and the captain drove it back slowly probably slightly above idle, and the shaft was bent enough that it bore into the fiberglass. The repairs to all said and done cost around $15,000.

denverd1 07-17-2017 12:21 PM

@RPM - who did the 525? should be smooth as butter, or they didn't fix it right. perfectly balanced and like new. Time to get on that ass if its not like that.

@droops I thought we were talking about running a boat with a dinged blade on a prop..... I definitely wasn't saying that fiberglass damage NEVER happens. people do stupid ****. and it's expensive. Holy hell, how does someone run a boat with the prop hitting the glass??? Captain, here's your sign

infinitysurf 07-17-2017 7:28 PM

Nettle Props out of Austin, TX. They do a really good job fixing prop to brand new condition @ 512-837-7707. I sent them an old prop at beginning of summer so I would have a spare. That prop had hit rocks and I was just figuring they could straighten it, but it would still have dings on the edges....Nope, it looked brand new when it came back.
I actually just put the spare on last week and ran a few hours with it on Sunday. Its like a brand new prop with the repair.

denverd1 07-18-2017 6:25 AM

just got one back from Nettle a few months ago. still need to put it on, but it looks perfect.

RPM_DLX 07-18-2017 7:39 AM

Thank you for the heads up on Nettle. I had a local prop repair shop fix my 525. He had plates for a template and beat it into shape. It didn't seem like the best way to fix a prop but it saved my weekend of camping/boating. Luckily the bend on my new 911 prop is very mild and borderline un-noticeable. So my replacement 911 will be here from wakemakers tomorrow and then I can send my other 911 in to get repaired. I may just retire that 525 prop. That ACME 911 prop really woke up my Sanger V215.

kenerator 07-18-2017 8:12 AM

Tru Pitch
 
I've used Tru-Pitch Propeller Repair 916-397-1126 with good results. They are in Carmichael.

CALIV210 07-18-2017 8:17 AM

Hey just an FYI . My good friend had a slight nick in his prop and the harmonics of the nick caused his drive shaft to break . The drive shaft people said this is not unusual . Its not fun trying to keep the water from coming in as the bildge pump cant keep up . His whole shaft and prop went to the bottom of Camp Far West lake .

Connolly_Crew 07-19-2017 8:15 PM

Until your shaft breaks and the prop and shaft and maybe boat end up on the bottom of the lake...

WLF 07-24-2017 1:40 PM

Well I can say from experience: nope, change it immediately! If its just a 3mph slow evening cruise hanging out, no biggie, but using it to surf and board...no way.

Story, I put in at Crooked lake in northern Michigan, did the series of locks and the Indian River through Burt and Mullet lake...eventually spilling out into Lake Huron. It was an amazing day, almost dead calm on Lake Huron which never happens, we decide to go to Mackinaw Island for a beer (great idea right! lol) about 3 miles away with the bridge and the harbor in our sight common sense took over and we turned around and headed back. The last lock closes at 9PM and we had probably 60+ miles of lake and river to cover to get back.

We are motoring through Mullet Lake at 38 MPH when the worst sound I've heard in my life happened, I thought the boat was exploding! Luckily I was quick on the throttle and went to neutral...we all thought we must have hit something underwater like a log. Diving under the boat to access the damage we can find anything wrong...goggles would have helped. We limp back 2 hours against the current to a marina, get the boat pulled out and I'm missing a prop blade. Broke off completely clean...luckily when it broke it went down and not up through the hull!

Before putting in that day I had noticed what I thought was a small ding in the prop that happened the day before on Torch. There was zero vibration that could be felt through the boat, believe me I know the feeling because my home lake is so freaking shallow. The amount of distance at speed that we covered that day was enough to cause the blade to break clean off. We are damn lucky it did not happen in the middle of Lake Huron with the blade being ejected in to the hull...boat would have most likely sunk. But it is a hell of a story and I display the 3 bladed prop with pride in my library lol.

mikeski 07-25-2017 11:47 AM

Like a few others have mentioned, depends on how bad. Here is what I would do if it were my boat, not a recommendation, just a reference.

1. I always carry a spare, I see you kept your old prop as a spare, good call. Swap to the spare is probably the right thing to do.
2. If for some reason I didn't have a spare, forgot it with my prop puller at home, then I would pull the boat out of the water and take a look.
a. Spin the prop, make sure the shaft spins smooth and true. If it binds in any way the boat doesn't go back in the water until it's fixed.
b. if it does spin smooth, assess the prop damage. Slightly bent or warped blade = hammer it back into shape. I have made a lakeside repair that ran better than a professional repair (poor repair job, sounds like your repaired prop is in this category). Put it back into the water, if it doesn't have a noticeable vibration I would use the boat and enjoy the rest of the weekend. If it does vibrate then I would try to limit my speed to 5mph just hanging out on the boat, it's hurt so treat that way, or hammer on the prop more.

I have had no luck with repaired CNC props. Once it's dinged it's retired or repaired for backup use only,


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