Great Lakes Bass Fishing Forum

Went fishing on LSC July 4th which happens to be my birthday. My buddy and I hit the water at 6:00 AM and are doing quite well. We have 11 fish in the 2-3.5 lb class, in the boat using tubes and dropshots. Just drifting with a sock out in 15-17 FOW near that white bouy marker with the K on it that sailboats use as a marker when racing.

About 9:30 we decided to go out to the channel and ck out what all the boats are doing out there. Two things happen. As I start to take off a fish jumps up out of the water right next to me. I about freak because of it's size. I look at my buddy and asked if he saw it. He did and I told him we need a bigger boat as this thing was 4-5ft long. It was not a muskie so we assume it was a sturgeon, unless Asian carp have now appeared.

As we start motoring to the next stop my engine starts making a terrible noise. It does not take long to determine my lower unit has decided to eat itself up. We decide fishing is done and go in. I have a 2007 Ranger 521VX with a 225 HO Etec that I bought new in May 2010. It came with a 5 yr warranty so im confident everything is ok.

I call Cabela's as they do my service work and I get it to them later that afternoon. John Minke at Cabela's is great to deal with and understands customer service. He takes a look and see's no sign of damage to the lower unit that would be cause for warranty refusal. It took John a few days using pictures along with the run history of the engine to get Evinrude to warranty the lower unit. I only have 45 hrs on the engine and according to John and other blogs I see on the web BRP has serious issues with the gear cases over several yrs on this engine.

It's very helpful to have good service people take care of you like John has for me. I'm glad he worked with Evinrude to get the claim approved because I was starting to get upset that they were trying to back out on the warranty.

Sorry to hear you're off the water for a while. Hope they get it fixed soon.

   One thing I learned on my Etec and I'm sure it's not particular to this brand, but the extended warranty is not held by BRP but another company. They made the marina jump through hoops and didn't cover the entire cost of the estimated repair.  The dealer helped me out and I paid minimal considering the $1,700 cost.  Guess I was wrong when I thought the extended warranty was the same as the regular warranty.

Got my boat back from Cabela's last wed 2 wks after I took it there. It was covered 100% by Evinrude. Evinrude did cover there bases by having Cabela's tear the unit down to make sure impact did not cause the damage. I figured they were going to use any excuse to get out of it but John Minke at Cabela's said they always do that and that Evinrude is very good about standing behind their product in his dealings with them.
They sent me a new Lightning 2 gear case which has all the upgrades in it. Cabela's also did my 3 yr 300 hr inspection, updated my computer and put in a new water pump since the unit was apart. My total cost was $66 for the impeller and gear lube.
I can't wait to try out the new unit and I can't say enough about the service I received.
         Mark

Glad you had a good experience.....

jeff is right about checking who is carrying your extended warranty before you buy it..I got burned by an extended truck warranty once...I thought I was buying a manufacturers extention...