Boat ramp made contact with prop

[ktex]

Yesterday I didn’t trim up my outboard enough and my prop hit the boat ramp. Have any of you guys ever done this? It has a small notch/chip on the end of 2 of the SS blades. The shaft doesn’t appear to be bent (if it is, it’s not visible). Question - will small dings/dents make a difference or do I need to get it smoothed out by a prop shop. Question 2 - can shafts take a pretty good beating (laughing as I typed that)? Hopefully, everything is alright and I don’t need to replace my lower unit.

[Double D]

Hard to say without seeing some pics of the damage. Post some if you can. Also, spin your prop while watching the shaft center to see if there is any wobble indicating a bent shaft. More than likely there is no significant damage. You will feel the vibration while running if the blade damage is bad enough.

[Magoo]

You can run on a chipped prop, but next time you hit something it may crack or get worse. I put a bad crack in a previously chipped prop when I hit a stump. Luckily I was able to make it home without much trouble. If it were me I'd get it replaced and keep the chipped prop in the boat as an emergency spare.

[Snowflake Killa]

I've done it recently I used a Dremel to smooth mine back out. I didn't take in consideration that the lake dropped 3 foot but the ramp didn't [emoji12]

Sent from my SM-N986U using Tapatalk

[Dale Moser]

Slick it down with a flapper disc, and hope for the best.

[Hsbtgarcia]

While teaching my son to launch and load our ski boat, we had a pretty significant case of ramp rash from not being trimmed up enough.
So much that I had to have a prop shop rebuild what was missing. 1.5” on each blade.

Didn’t realize it had bent the shaft till the lower unit started vibrating so bad it was obvious something was wrong.

Small dings and dents could cause issues over time but I think you have to really do some damage to bend the prop shaft.

[bboswell]

as has been said, a small ding can just be sanded out. Another good thing to do is crank the hook the motor to water and idle it in gear while standing behind the engine looking from any wobble in the prop shaft

[Nova]

run it

[Capt.Bryan]

Touch it up with a file and give it a try. You will know pretty quick if the shaft is bent.

[Mertzon Man]

Nettle Props in Austin can make it look brand new. Great people to work with.

[twistedmidnite]

Man my ss prop is bent all outta shape lol. It still runs fine but I'm down about 10mph of top speed. Nothing to worry about

[Fishndude]

Nettle Props in Austin can make it look brand new. Great people to work with.

He's in Corinth. There are a few up here that can fix it in a jiffy but I'd run it unless it's on a high speed bass rig.

[samj]

Any kind of disturbance in the prop, is exactly that. A prop job is much easier and affordable than issues down the road. Get it fixed and balanced. You will feel better about the whole deal. I use Bowmans out of Houston, for all my prop work.

[OTL91]

Buy a new prop, ship old one off to be fixed. Then you have a backup AND have a a prop you are sure isn't going to tear up your lower unit.

[Duane]

Small dings or dents may not be too bad of a problem, but if you've lost metal on two blades, your prop is going to be out of balance. You may not notice anything now, but I wouldn't think that's gonna be good on your shaft or lower unit in the long run.