Acme prop damage

[martini]

Well, it finally happened. I bent a couple of blades on some lake debris a couple of days ago. The weird thing about it is, it didn't really feel like it was a bad hit. I have inadvertently run over these things before without a hitch, but this was different. After the incident, I proceed to throttle up and notice a very nasty vibration. It was terrible. So I shut down, jump overboard to inspect and could not really tell or feel any damage. All the leading and trailing edges were smooth.

Now I start to really worry. We putt back to the ramp(this is after a total of about 30 minutes on the water) and put her on the trailer. I inspect it and still don't notice anythig. Now I'm really pissed. So I get home and hook it up to the hose to run it a little on the trailer and see if I can notice a wobble or something out of alignment. Sure enough, one of the blades was out of phase with the other two. Crisis averted.

I removed the prop to inspect it under better lighting conditions and noticed that the leading edge of one of the blades had "folded" a little in on itself, creating a lot of cup and the trailing edge was curled in as well. I can see a small impact zone that looks like it sent a ripple through the blade that caused it to bend. It is very weird that it didn't damage the leading edge, it just made it wobble and flex out of alignment.

I have my old 13 X 13 and all is fine. I guess that's why we have spare parts, just in case. I'm sending the 541 back to Acme for repair as the local shop here is less that stellar with service and workmanship. Has anyone sent their Acme back to the factory for repair and how much did it cost you and was it the same when you got it back?

[PeteS]

Sorry to hear about your mishap, Martini. I banged my brand new Acme the first time on my new lake this year, and bent one of the blades in about 45 degrees, 3 inches from the tip.

After some thinking, as you are doing now, I sent my back to Acme. The customer service was flawless, and the transaction was smooth as silk. I recieved it one week from from the day of shipping, the charge was $90.00 plus shipping, and the prop looked and performed as good as new. I didn't notice a difference what-so-ever, and Acme claims that they haven't talked to someone who has. You may lose some of the milled "look" on the area that is repaired, but other than that it'll look like it did out of the box. Let us know how it turns out!

[martini]

thanks for the response and that is very encouraging. I'll keep you posted on my experience.

[PeteS]

No problem, happy to help! Good luck!