Bravo 3 Hitting Dead Head Question

[OllieC]

Yesterday I hit a small dead head on the Mississippi. It was a submerged branch about 2" in diameter. Anyway, I had never experienced this before. There was no thump but it felt as if the outdrive was severely cavitating.

I immediately shut off the motor, lifted the drive and removed part of the branch along with it's long stripped piece of bark. Checked for an oil streak and damaged blades - all looked good and I was on my way.

Anyway, is that feeling normal for a Bravo 3? It felt as if the props popped off and the shaft was spinning freely.

Thanks,
Ollie

 

[Bondo]

Re: Bravo 3 Hitting Dead Head Question

Yesterday I hit a small dead head on the Mississippi. It was a submerged branch about 2" in diameter. Anyway, I had never experienced this before. There was no thump but it felt as if the outdrive was severely cavitating.

I immediately shut off the motor, lifted the drive and removed part of the branch along with it's long stripped piece of bark. Checked for an oil streak and damaged blades - all looked good and I was on my way.

Anyway, is that feeling normal for a Bravo 3? It felt as if the props popped off and the shaft was spinning freely.

Thanks,
Ollie

Ayuh,.... Don't sound normal to me,... Has the drive been inspected, other than just peekin' over the transom,..??

 

[Fun Times]

Re: Bravo 3 Hitting Dead Head Question

Hi there, The trim system is designed so that when the stern drive is hit by a submerged object with great force, the drive will pop up momentarily to try to avoid greater damage to the drive unit.

Since the drive popped up so far you most likely experienced propeller cavitation, so that would be considered normal.

 

[rowlex]

Re: Bravo 3 Hitting Dead Head Question

i was out in the puget sound once and caught a 1.5-2" round 4' long stick/branch. it was infront of my outdrive. we were going slow maybe 5-10mph.

it did the same thing, no bump, just a loss of power, throttle down was sluggish. I pulled the outdrive up removed the stick and everything was back to normal.

 

[OllieC]

Re: Bravo 3 Hitting Dead Head Question

Thanks for the input everyone. The trials of river running!

Bond-o - I peaked around after I took it out of the water and all looked good to my "un" trained eye's. I was worried maybe I had a coupler failure, however once the stick was out of there it ran fine.....so I don't know, hence the thread....


Fun-Times - I had the outdrive trimmed out and I was cruising at about 30mph - because there was no "bump" I don't think the drive moved an inch - the feeling was as if the props spun off - lack of movement but the RPM's were still there.

rowlex - that's what my situation was except I was going about 30mph. The RPM's were there but I was slowing down. Shut of the engine, Lifted the drive and "Bingo" there's the stick. Removed it and everything seemed good for the rest of the trip which was another hour.