Reply With QuoteDude that sucks big time!
All I can say is good luck in getting that thing back together so you can enjoy the rest of the season. This is where a good credit card comes in handy.
Just think, someday you'll laugh about this.
J
I took the boat out today for the first time since putting it away for the winter and sunk it! After unloading the boat I took about a ten minute cruise around the lake while the brother-in-law parked the truck and trailer and added some ice to the cooler. After giving him time to park and ice down the beer I went to the dock to pick him up and off we went to take a cruise and see who was out. After cruising around another thirty minutes or so at anywhere between 3300-5200rpm I decided to get on it and make a pass or two close to where we were staying before going in. I was rolling along at about 10mph or so when I nailed it, and 2-3 seconds later I hear what sounds like a jackhammer being used on a steel floor, then the motor went to the moon(took rev limiter out two days ago because it had issues) and the boat fell on it's face. Soon after water started rushing up between us and I immediately hit the switches to turn on both bilge pumps(over 900gph combined) but it didn't help, she went down, and fast! Well, it didn't really go all the way to the bottom but it went down stern first and sunk down about 14 feet or so and just sat there bobbing with the bow pointed up towards the sky. Several times I have thought about removing all of those little air filled, round whoopie cushing looking air bladders under the bow to make for more storage room and boy am I glad I didn't, they worked and kept it from going all the way down. Luckily there were a lot of people already at the lake early getting ready for Memorial day weekend so we got help pretty soon. A family in a big deck boat wasn't far away and they came over right away and we got a line on they bow eye which I kept praying would hold. We were only about 150 yards away from shore so we towed it over to the ramp until the pump started to touch bottom(about 75ft from the ramp) and my brother-in-law bailed out to go get the truck and recruit the rest of our family as well as some fellow boaters to come help. after he backed the trailer in as far as he could a guy brought us a big climbing rope that was about 150ft long and we tied it to the bow eye along with the other rope we had. Several people on the ramp started pulling on the ropes which made the bow tilt downward and allowed the boat to get shallow enough for several of us to get hold of the back of the bottom of the boat and we strained and lifted until we were able to walk it up on the trailer. After pulling it out of the water and draining it out I found out where the water came from. Upon inspection I immediatetly notice that my driveline cover is pretty much destroyed at the back and literally ripped loose on the pump end. My pump brace is bent and mangled and there is a big hunk missing from the right side of the suction housing(about 4" x 2 1/2") and a HUGE crack on the other side running from the suction piece mounting foot all the way to the transom and there are some pieces missing along that crack as well . The thrust bearing area of the pump is beat all to hell too and I can't find all of the u-joint pieces. I am assuming I had some kind of driveline failure but I am really stumped on this one. I had just went over evrything on the boat a few days earlier to get it ready for the summer and I am the most thorough person in the world when it comes to my hotrods. Everything had been checked, lubed, tightened, re-cheked and then gone over again before launching as I always do. I can't believe how fast the water came in, it was unbelievable!! So now we are setting around getting drunk at 2:30 in the morning after thrashing on the motor for about four hours to deal with the water. I guess it's time to go ahead and put the big Pontiac in it and really step it up a notch since the boat's tore up and I will be taking it apart anyways. Any ideas on what caused this guys? Oh yeah, by the way, we never lost the cooler full of beer, and that's a good thing because I need it!!!!!
Dude that sucks big time!
All I can say is good luck in getting that thing back together so you can enjoy the rest of the season. This is where a good credit card comes in handy.
Just think, someday you'll laugh about this.
J
That Sucks....i Been There And Done That.....but Mine Was Caused By Beer
OH, I definitely know that feeling!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Same thing happened to me at Camp Far West. Only mine went down 85'. I am glad you got it back on the trailer.
Sorry To Hear This Poncho, I'm Callin My Insurance Company And Gettin Some On The Boat Today.have Herd To Many Of These Stories Lately.
Hey PonchoPower, that sucks. What kind of boat do you have?? What lake? Where's the pics?? I'm curious...if you went over everything so meticulously, then why do you think it came apart?
Do you know a guy named DeputyDog?
that's a deja vu! As Fleet said, the exact same thing happened to him with the driveline.
With my engine out right now, I think I'm going to pull the ujoints apart to check out the needle bearings.
Do you grease the zerks on the ujoints often?
Poncho sorry to hear about your boat.You will get it back together and it will be better than ever.Like the saying goes (Bring On Another Thousand).
I've spun a u-joint in the driveline before, but I didn't take on water when it happened. Just vibrated like hell and I drove very slowly back home. What would cause water to leak in due to this?
If a U-joint fails and comes apart really badly It will cause the whole driveshaft to become a 5000 rpm or more flail that is being spun by the engine. When the driveline came apart it didnt just fall off because it is bolted solidly to the engine. Sounds to me like this is what happened. When it came apart and started flailing the crap out of the pump it tore a big whole in the suction houseing like stated and caused the water to rush in really fast. I'm guessing an 18 foot jet boat with a 4" square whole in the suction housing wouldnt take long to sink. (maybe 20 seconds or so).
Good luck getting it back together in a reasonable amount of time. I have my old berkely pump and suction housing that im removing from my boat soon and I'll donate it to the cause of getting yours up and running again if you want it. Just pay the shipping!!!
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