Rear Thruster Sheer Pin

[Irish Mist]

Looking to hear from anyone on frequency of sheer pin replacement on your thrusters. I replaced the pin in the rear thruster 3 times last year and again yesterday I'm pretty sure the first time was due to rough water and it came out of the water and broke on reentry . Other then that I have been careful with it but I do go out a lot and dock a lot so it does get used. Meanwhile the front one is still going strong with the original one. It gets used more then the rear one. I am pretty good at changing them now although it looks like I fell into rose thorns when I'm done 🙂
Thanks

 

[bbrh842]

I don't get it.
After 5 years of using my R-25 weely, and ALWAYS using the rear thruster for docking, never had a problem with the shear pin, never.

 

[joempo]

Just curious...
Is the inside of the tube painted with bottom paint? When we bought the SLO Ranger last November, we had the bottom paint renewed. However, since the tubes, both front and stern, had never been painted, the boat yard did not paint ours. Due to other maintenance issues, we took the boat out of the water last month and found there was a considerable amount of growth in both tubes. I can see where sea life established in critical locations could cause the prop to jam and shear the pin.
Before returning our boat to the marina, I used a brass wire brush on a cordless drill to clean the tubes prior to painting them myself.
Joe

 

[HRowland]

Take a look at the Imtra shear pin failure troubleshooting guide. The manner of failure can provide clues to the problem.

http://www.imtra.com/COLLATERAL/DOCUMEN ... _40_60.PDF

Howard

 

[Zundels]

The only time we had to replace a stern thruster sheer pin was when we used the thruster in four to six foot seas and I touched the thruster and it was spinning in the air between a wave and the high speed of spinning blew the pin. The blades must always be in the water. After replacing just one sheer pin we have not lost another. We are using much better decisions about the use of the thruster now so it worked much better for us.

Don

 

[Irish Mist]

Howard
Big help... it is obivious by the picture of the pin my thruster is misaligned ... That explains why so many replaced
Thanks I will find out how to align and problem should be solved 🙂

 

[commander bill]

I have had to rebuild the rear thruster motor but at 6 years approaching no shear pin failures yet. Opps I should have never said that because you know what happens now!!!!!