So I bent my prop shaft and made insurance claim and they covered a reconditioned lower unit. Went to shop and signed the check, well the shop ordered and installed a brand new lower unit. The shop was like, there is a unpaid balance of $3000 or so. I looked back at the insurance quote and it says reconditioned lower. So has anyone had this happen? Insurance agent is going to contact the shop in the morning. Been without the boat for 2 months, and have tournaments coming up within a week. Will they just order the reconditioned lower and I have to wait or what? Thanks for any info

I bent my shaft last Fall, took it to the shop, adjuster went out and the insurance company covered a rebuilt/aftermarket lower just like you. Because of the supply chain issue, no rebuilts were available. In my case, the shop worked it out with the insurance company directly to get me a brand new OEM lower so I didn't even have to fuss with any of that. Luckily the warehouse had inventory at the time so I was in and out within a week.

Ideally your shop should be able to just tell your insurance company a rebuilt one isn't available and advocate for the OEM. Insurance companies are used to this by now - probably one of the reasons our rates have gone up. Same thing happened when I took my truck in to get the door repaired. They replaced it with an OEM door because an aftermarket one wasn't available.

Hopefully they can get you back on the water before your tournament.

Appreciate sharing your experience

So my outcome from this was that the insurance contacted the shop and the shop then contacted me and apologized for the delay on their behalf due to ordering a new lower unit instead of a remaned lower unit. All in all got the boat back in time and runs great.

I would much rather just pay the difference and have a new OEM LU. A lot of the reconditioned stuff is junk right put of the box.

Have a friend who has an aftermarket lower unit on his Yamaha (came with the boat when he bought it used) and he has to keep the motor lowered down constantly. If he tries to trim it up and raise his jackplate when idling up to the bank or just in shallow water it will stop pumping water. He's had it checked out several times it's just how the cheapo lower unit works.