I bought a Viper 23p SS prop yesterday and am wondering if I might have paid too much for it. Brand new $353??? Was this a good deal?

thats sounds about right i have a 21 pitch and i paid about 350 for it.

Sounds about right to me.

HOLY [censored]! A prop costs $350.00??? I had no earthly idea... Why are all my hobbies so dang expensive?

Are these props special? I have a 150 Yamaha VMAX, Oil Puker. Do I need a special prop if I ever bend mine?

I will certainly be more careful now.

Jason

OK TH, you can take a breath now. The high cost is because they are Stainless Steel. If you ding or slightly bend a blade, it can usually be repaired. Now, if you're going full tilt boogie and whap a pipe or chunk of concrete, you're probably be in the need of a new one, a prop shaft, and quite possibly a gearcase if not the whole lower unit! Now, if a $350 prop gets your attention, you don't want to know about a lower unit!! But, that's what you have insurance for You do have insurance, don't you? Just get the deductable where that don't sting you too bad.

If you do ever need just a prop, shop around and you'll usually find a deal. I picked up a Mercury Tempest Plus a while back that had about 10 hrs on it for a little over $200, and it looks like it just came out of the box. The prop lists around $400, but you see ads in Bass & Walleye Boats for them around $300 for a new one all the time.

Welcome to the pleasure of boat ownership!

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TH,

Paying for your boat is the cheaper part of boat ownership. Make sure you bone up for a good insurance policy, especially since you got one of them shiny new rigs. And I'm sorry for your early misfortune. My initial worry would have been you were starving the motor of oil for that crucial break in period. I'm not sure on EFI engines but DFI engines are programmed to run richer oil for the first 10 hours. And if you ever get a chance to grab a spare prop get one. Keep it in your truck or boat. If you ever ding one, you can change it out on the water or back at the ramp. If you ding it and know it don't run it wide open - extra stress on the prop shaft. I've also heard of them working themselves off the nut and becoming part of that brush pile you were just fishing if you don't pay attention to them from time to time. And get you some docking bumpers and pre-tie them up to just slip over the sides - docks can be brutal on your glass, especially when they lose the rubber wrapping on them and expose screws and nails. Oh and lastly, bring a stick of dynamite for when you are completely fed up with it - wear your vest, insert dynamite in rear hatch, jump over board, and yell "fire in the hole". Just be sure to mark it on the map where you sunk it to let all the rest of us know of the new structure in the lake.

Champ and JMan,

I do have insurance, I do have fenders that come over the side. And I know that boat ownership is a journey, not a destination per se. I went back to Fun-N-Sun today and talked with Fain, the salesman. He didn't know what the service guys had told me about my oil leak, and he didn't know they took out my fish finder and said "See you in about two to three weeks." He was super pissed and got EVERYTHING fixed right there on the spot. He had them pull a Garmin, and install it and then apologized for my earlier treatment. He made me feel good again about this boat. Basically he made it "right" and wouldn't let me leave until I was happy. I fished out of it today for about 4 hours and only had a bite. BUT, nothing leaked, nothing fell off and everything worked as it should. Its funny, a terrible day fishing is much better than a great day at the office.

Jason

Jason, that's cool! Glad to hear you're back ready for action!!



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