Do You Use a Prop Guard?

I fish a local river that has heavy spring and fall flows that result in heavy erosion of the banks. As a result, the amount and location of sunken tree branches varies from year to year. Careful observation is required while running upriver. In addition, a part of the river goes through park property. I have seen several sunken picnic benches over the years. During the summer the water level lowers quite a bit and water clarity is better but there are still many locations that are questionable.

I am outfitting my new 14 foot aluminum boat and I am wondering if I should buy or build a propeller guard. Is it worth the trouble and expense? Will it prevent damage to the propeller or will it just re-locate the damage to somewhere else on the motor? Should I just rely on shear pins and expect to replace a propeller on occasion?

I was told by the prop shop not to bother. Their reasoning was that the majority of damage they see is to the skeg from bottom impacts and to the bullet shaped surface on the front side of the gearbox housing from floating debris impacts and that prop guards will not deflect debris floating in the water away from the prop, which is what typcially causes damage to the propeller. Yes, a near miss on a rock could result in dmg to the prop and not result in an impact with the skeg, but that's not usually the case.

Also, small outboards without hydraulic trim are free to recoil up if they impact when moving forward, offering another degree of protection.

Before I completed my build with a 50/35 jet, I ran my Tracker 1648 with a 1964 Johnson 5hp. At some point my Grandfather or Dad installed a prop guard. It looks like they just used a pitch fork and bolted it to the skeg. But it worked fantastically. That thing saved countless shear pins for sure. The river I run to fish and hunt is rocky and shallow. I wouldn't run another prop without a prop guard.

I use a Mac's River Runner.

I have a 8 Hp from previous small boat I keep around for a kicker motor. Pitch fork guard on it since new. Works great and fairly simple & cheap to make yourself. I'll take a pic and post it when I get a chance.

Thanks for the replies.

For those of you who have prop guards: tell me about how they have worked in real life. Are you hitting bottom? Tree stumps? Branches? Picnic benches?

Yes, definitely, you certainly don’t have to but after I damaged my skeg only going slow I got one and I love it. This is what I use, you can hit a rock full throttle although, I don’t recommend it. It is quickly removed with one bolt if you are going to use the boat in an area that you are not worried about hitting rocks in. I lost maybe 1 mph on top end, otherwise performance was not hurt, in fact it is a little more responsive in steering so you have to be careful when turning.

surfman said:

Yes, definitely, you certainly don’t have to but after I damaged my skeg only going slow I got one and I love it. This is what I use, you can hit a rock full throttle although, I don’t recommend it. It is quickly removed with one bolt if you are going to use the boat in an area that you are not worried about hitting rocks in. I lost maybe 1 mph on top end, otherwise performance was not hurt, in fact it is a little more responsive in steering so you have to be careful when turning.

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That's really nice. Did you build that?

No it is a Rockhopper, made in Minnesota, I believe, look them up they are a little pricey but well worth the coin if you run in rocky rivers or bays, IMO.

One thing I did though was take an angle grinder and cut a slot at the bottom back of the skeg holder, it needs a drain.

i ran a mac's river runner. seemed to do the job on a couple of low speed impacts.

I'm considering the rockhopper. I have a large gouge in my lower "bullet" that it probably would have prevented, but the river runner would not have.

I keep imagining what would happen if I did not see the sunken picnic table and clipped it with the propeller while missing the skeg. Or a sunken branch hitting the prop point first like a spear. It seems like the ring-type guards would not prevent that type and may get torn away in the process.

I do not use a prop guard, just carry a spare prop. I've hit things full throttle full speed and it was hair raising but the motor kicked up like it's supposed to and just a ding in the skeg. If I were to get some kind of protector I would definitely do the Rockhopper one, that looks nice.