Weeds

[Handy]

Hey folks,
I'm luck enough to have a ranger 21ec and have this boat on Lake Erie. The weed beds on the lake are having a great year with unbelievable growth and this is causing issues for me as the boat it weeding up. Is there anything I can add or changes I can make to stop the boat from weeding up? Keeping in mind I'm not looking to relocate the boat.

 

[SGIDAVE]

Hey folks,
I'm luck enough to have a ranger 21ec and have this boat on Lake Erie. The weed beds on the lake are having a great year with unbelievable growth and this is causing issues for me as the boat it weeding up. Is there anything I can add or changes I can make to stop the boat from weeding up? Keeping in mind I'm not looking to relocate the boat.

Hello Handy,

Sorry to hear you are having a problem.

Please forgive my ignorance...what is meant by "weeding up?"

Perhaps the propeller is getting fouled with weeds VS the raw water intake is getting blocked...or ?

Thanks,

/dave

 

[Handy]

Hello SGIDAVE,
It's the propeller getting fouled, sorry I wasn't clear in my original posting. I have never had a cooling issue( nock on wood)
I try and avoid the weed beds but they are all over the place this year. Any after market item that would help?

 

[trailertrawlerkismet]

One trick to unfowl weeds collected on your prop is too stop your forward motion, put the transmission into reverse and get it a little throttle, back to neutral and into forward, back to neutral and then reverse and throttle and this should free up most of the weeds. Let me know if this works for you.

Jim F

 

[tlkenyon]

We have a lot of weeds on some of our lakes, and getting "weeded" is sometimes an issue. I installed a "Prop-Protector" and it has made a lot of difference. It is designed to prevent a rope or such from getting wound around the shaft and causing damage, but it also seems to be highly effective on keeping weeds from getting hung up on the prop. It is easy to install if you are trailerable, like many of us are (at least our boats....)

 

[SGIDAVE]

One trick to unfowl weeds collected on your prop is too stop your forward motion, put the transmission into reverse and get it a little throttle, back to neutral and into forward, back to neutral and then reverse and throttle and this should free up most of the weeds. Let me know if this works for you.

Jim F

Hello Handy,

I do the 'trick' Jim describes above with good success. It usually removes enough of the weed mass to continue on at normal 21EC speed.

I also have a line cutter devise - called a Shaft Razor, like this

/dave

 

[Handy]

Thanks everyone. I think I need to install one of these.