Cracked Jet Foot

[hoglaw]

Well....dangit. I put in at Ranchette on the White yesterday and ran downstream a ways. Zero units had been running for a while, so water was dead low. Got to a shoal that's quite a ways above buffalo shoals still with some big rocks sticking up. Found a nice slot with a few inches to run in, and managed to traverse it fine on plane. I let off the throttle once I was through it and came off plane. Bang. Hit a good sized rock just below the surface and cracked the foot of my intake. Ugh.

Seems finding a replacement may not be cheap or easy. Anyone have any experience with the molded plastic ones made by Rock Proof Boats? Mine is still usable and it isn't broken all the way through, but it's a good sized diagonal crack running from almost the middle of the leading edge to the right side edge, and the leading edge doesn't sit flush anymore so the tiller has some pull to it when I'm running fast. I don't really want to take any chances and don't mind upgrading to something that's a little tougher since this is bound to happen again.

[Goggle-Eyed]

I have only heard good things about the UHMW jet foot. I have heard of a couple of guys that had to add washers to the mounting bolts after they hit "very hard" and pulled the bolt heads through the UHMW.

[gramps50]

Go over to www.tinboats.net do a search in the jet forum there. The guys there are getting a heavy duty foot machined somewhere and I think the price is reasonable. As I recall the turn around was pretty fast too.

[Greasy B]

Sorry I can't help with the cracked foot. I know that rock well and my boat wears several scars from it. The foot on my jet has had the crap beat out of it, I'm curious about the plastic models too.

[Goggle-Eyed]

Hoglaw, what size pump do you have. Unfortunately, I am running a 50/35 which uses the smaller pump and the UHMW are only available for the larger pumps.

Do you have insurance on the Boat/Motor? If your deductible is low enough my be worth exploring. I carry a low deductible on all my "toys" and $250 on my truck...

Joe

[gotmuddy]

how bad is it? I weld aluminum.

[Mitch f]

I agree with Muddy, should be able to weld it up

[hoglaw]

Muddy:

I'll take a pic. It's a pretty long crack but I don't see why it couldn't be welded. I asked a buddy about it who has the necessary equipment to weld it, and he said that I probably needed to talk to a professional as cast aluminum has a lot of impurities, or something like that. Hell, that part doesn't take a lot of abuse unless I inflict it, so I don't see why it couldn't be stuck back together. It's basically a long diagonal crack that's all the way through from top to bottom, but not all the way through horizontally (diagonally actually). But I'll get you a pic. You're in NWA, aren't you?