Bent rudder

I bent the rudder on my 06 Malibu 247....how much is this gonna cost me? Any suggestions of where to take it in the Sacramento area? Amazingly enough...not a singe scratch on the prop. I think I snagged it on some vegetation from the bottom of Hog Slough.

Is it leaking water into the boat? Can you feel it while driving? Is it bent in the blade or on the shaft?

It looks like it is just the shaft on the rudder. You can do this yourself. Contact Malibu and order a new rudder for your boat. Go into the engine compartment and you will see how the rudder is attached in the boat. Disconnect it and the rudder will drop. Then simply put in the new one and re-attach it.
It looks like you could bend that one back too if you had the propper equipment.

I don't think it's leaking water into the boat, it sat in the water tied to a dock for two days afterwards and the bilge didn't have to kick in or anything. It's really hard to turn her around, especially when the ballasts are full and am trying to do a turn around...that's when I realized something wasn't quite right with my girl. I can't really tell where it's bent...but Murphy and his stupid laws follow me around like a monkey on my back so I'm guessing whatever is more expensive to fix...that's what's broke.

If it is not leaking water, but it is hurting performance. I say go ahead and bend it back, you have nothing to lose. If it breaks, it had to be replaced anyway. Rudders are not too expensive $150-$250.

Yikes, but you don't want it to break and leave you stranded, or worse sink the boat. I'd talk to someone that knows more about these things. Personally I'd probably just replace it. You may want to send the prop out to have it checked, too. It could easily be slightly bent. If it's still totally smooth, then you may be able to skip that step.

Look close... I bet you athe gel coat is cracked which can also mean the fiberglass underneath has cracks.

-Uj

You should be able to leave the rudder box and just re-place the blade. It's most like a rudder from marine hardware. Just have your model number ready. It's etched on the rudder and the rudder box.

Call Marine Hardware at 425-883-0651

I am going through the exact same thing right now. Except I bent the rudder, trashed the prop, bent the strut and propshaft. You can't just buy any rudder. That is a malibu rudder with the adjustment tab on it. Retail for the rudder is a little bit over $600. My boat is over at Larson Marine In Rancho Cordova. Nearest Malibu service center to Sacramento. Sorry to see this.

l1spoogy, ouch, sorry to see that. Rudders are definitely not proprietary nor do they cost $600 retail. I assume they are running it through your insurance company, hence the markup.

Marine Hardware is great and I used to get most of our replacement hardware from them when I ran my service shop. We once had a customer bring in his VLX with the entire bottom cleaned out, Fins, Packing, Shaft, Strut, prop, Rudder box and rudder. The boat showed up on Monday and we had him on the water by friday because Marine Hardware was on their game.

Kathleen, sounds like the forum doesn't like my advice of attempting to bend it back. At least take off the rudder and take it by your local prop shop to have them look at it. It looks totally salvageable to me.

Alan the price I quoted was for the rudder and the rudder box. After I tore everything up I stopped at the nearest malibu dealer and asked if they had one. It was $585 plus tax.

Here is a fairly normal rudder including through hull assembly for $386. http://skidim.com/prodinfo.asp?number=DISC-RPTNSLOTASS

Add the adjustment piece, a malibu logo, and some dealer markup and you are at $585,

Kathleen will not get out of a dealership under $800 if she takes the boat in as is.

During our boat parade this year I had 8 people on the back of my boat plus my huge batteries so 1500+ pounds. I went through a shallow part of the lake and got caught up bending my rudder. It's not as bad as yours Kathleen but it was noticable immediately. I used a hand sledge wrapped in several layers of duct tape to protect the rudder and banged it back into position. It worked well and is fine now but I intend on removing it and having it repaired or replaced at the end of the season.

My vote would be Hate's suggestion, but I would remove the rudder from the boat. If that does not work just put a new rudder in. You will not need a whole assembly I doubt. Just the rudder on the shaft.

Thanks for all the input....I don't plan on taking it to Larsen's...I wasn't real happy with them after my last service there. Maybe I'll call around to some other smaller repair shops first to get some opinions about whether or not the shaft is bent. If it's just the rudder and not the shaft, maybe I'll try Hate's suggestion. Thanks guys!

I bent mine a few years back. I dont remember the price but i have a 98 vlx, so the rudder is more basic. I did it myself and it's a bit of work(at least on my trailer) I had to lift my boat off of the trailer in the back to get the rudder to drop out, but my prop guard on the trailer is very close to the prop.
I found out a while later that I also bent the strut( the same incident which was cause by a 20ft+ log in the delta at 35mph) I fixed that myself also and the only hard part was trying to get a nice bead on the silicone from under the trailer lol.
For those who are curious, Yes the boat got airborne...

call kevins prop shop in antioch,ive had great luck with him,couple years back i wiped out all my underwater gear on my early malibu,ran about $1500 or so.he might be able to strighten it.(925) 757-4468

also maybe call the frame man in sac,used to take motorcycle stuff to him to straighten out,worth a phone call atleast,916-920-1010

Replace it. Rudders are made of a brittle alloy that is designed to break when you hit something to protect the rest of the assembly. When you bend and straighten them, they lose significant strength and are much more prone to fail.

It's easy to replace a rudder and they aren;t that expensive in terms of boat repair cost.

kaligirl,
there is a shaft on your rudder. that is what bent i imagine. just pull it out and put a new one in. Pretty easy. Have a boater friend help you if you are not sure what you are doing....

So it sounds like if I get a new shaft, bend back or replace the rudder I'll be ready to go. Now all I need is a handy boater friend to help me...time to beg for help from all those boys that my Malibu has pulled around...thanks everyone!

kaligirl
when you order a rudder or pick one up from your malibu dealer it will have a shaft connected to it. Simply slip out the old rudder/shaft and slide the new one in.....
Easy as that.

Call Gary at Classic Craft in Sacramento. He fixed me up w/o issues. (916) 383-2150

I had something like this happen to me. A good machine shop will be able to get it back with no issues.