Bow thruster failure

[dwbettine]

Just wondering if any others have experienced a bow thruster failure similar to mine: I have a new R-23 and have had the bow thruster fail twice in less than a two week period. The thruster motor runs fine, but the prop completely spun off the first few minutes of usage, and it now appears the same thing has happened again. Ranger came out, pulled the boat out of the water and replaced the entire lower thruster unit the first time. Guess the same will occur again.
The first time failure caused us to bang into the dock leaving a nice "bruise" on the starboard bow.
Anyone else experience something similar?

 

[Andrew Custis]

Just to make sure we have others comparing or talking what happened, the prop did not spin off the gear leg shaft. The entire gear leg shaft came undone from the gear leg itself. This is not the side power thruster that many of your boats have, this is a Lewmar unit only used on the R23 and C24. We have not diagnosed what happened this go around but will have a better idea when we go out to pull the motor again.

Thank you for posting Dave.

 

[baz]

Dave:

1) When this happens does the gear leg shaft pop out of the thruster cavity hole and fall down into the depths ? Where is your boat kept/moored ?

2) When this happens what is the sense you get that something is wrong ? I assume with the thruster motor running you at first sense nothing is amiss until there a lack of thrusting motion .... or does the motor noise change in some way alerting you something is wrong ?

Thanks... 🙂

 

[knotflying]

Just a stab in the dark here, especially since I am only experienced with Side-power, but is it possible that there is an alignment issue?

 

[dwbettine]

Andrew, thanks for clarifying the problem. Ranger has been very quick to respond to my concerns.

As far as when I notice something is amiss, it is when I try to use the bow thruster and get no movement of the bow. The motor seems to run fine, and very loudly, but there is no thrust being applied.

 

[dwbettine]

Got to give Ranger their due here...Andrew and Kenny were all over this problem of mine and have now replaced and tested a new lower unit on the bow thruster. They kept me in the loop as the techs worked through the problem and provided updates on the repair. Thanks Andrew, Kenny, and the techs who bent over backwards to help us out with this concern.

 

[baz]

Got to give Ranger their due here...Andrew and Kenny were all over this problem of mine and have now replaced and tested a new lower unit on the bow thruster. They kept me in the loop as the techs worked through the problem and provided updates on the repair. Thanks Andrew, Kenny, and the techs who bent over backwards to help us out with this concern.

Yes.... This is Ranger Tugs at their best.... Customer Service is 2nd to none. Awesome news to read about. The Ranger Tugs community is so lucky/fortunate to have such attention to ownership issues. 🙂

 

[Dennis Koehler]

I am having different issues with my Side-Power bow thruster. It is inop. I have 12.8v to unit but no go. Is there a reset on the unit and/or the ability to rebuild? The unit is a 200 SE30. Any help would be appreciated. Dennis

 

[Ralf H]

Hi Dennis,

Let's see what we can do to help you. Can you reach out to me at ralfhenkel@rangertugs.com and provide me with a few pieces of information? Can you let me know the year of your boat? Your hull number would also be very helpful. Thank you!

Ralf