Greetings all, as it's been a while. After much effort and attempt, the '22 American is gone and replaced with the above titled boat. Huge improvement. Now, we've been told that due to our boat having the OMC 800 Stringer I/O, that the bellows seal on the transom needs to have a guard/protector in place, to prevent the rubber from being eaten by muskrats and other rodents.
We've been told that boats sink while tied to docks, simply due to rodents liking to eat/chew the rubber. So we've been searching high and low, and the actual part made by OMC has been out of production since 2014. Or any reasonable aftermarket item that does the same job.
Anyone, anywhere, have any suggestions for how to protect our boat short of pulling it out of the water after each use?
We've gotten it for a song, (not yet in the water), including trailer and almost 2 complete SPARE outdrives.
One supplier was telling us that the 'rubber compound' has been changed to make it more 'rodent deterrent' and it's only ~$200.00, but would you trust your boat to a salesman's pitch?
And yes, I've tried searching this forum eleventy different ways, and found nothing. Could be my google-fu is out of zen with my chi, I dunno. All help is appreciated, and I can put up some pic's if anyone's interested.
We've been told that boats sink while tied to docks, simply due to rodents liking to eat/chew the rubber. So we've been searching high and low, and the actual part made by OMC has been out of production since 2014. Or any reasonable aftermarket item that does the same job.
Anyone, anywhere, have any suggestions for how to protect our boat short of pulling it out of the water after each use?
We've gotten it for a song, (not yet in the water), including trailer and almost 2 complete SPARE outdrives.
One supplier was telling us that the 'rubber compound' has been changed to make it more 'rodent deterrent' and it's only ~$200.00, but would you trust your boat to a salesman's pitch?
And yes, I've tried searching this forum eleventy different ways, and found nothing. Could be my google-fu is out of zen with my chi, I dunno. All help is appreciated, and I can put up some pic's if anyone's interested.