How bad did I hurt my motor?

[tcbass]

I have a 2014 Evinrude Etec 115 horse on a 18 foot Stratos VLO. Well, I put the motor down to drain and put a thick piece of cardboard under it. It's been sitting in the pole barn for about a month and I went down to the pole barn and saw that the motor was touching the ground. The only thing I can figure is that the tires lost pressure (they look low) and lowered the back of the boat. The boat does have 3 tire chalks, so it didn't move anywhere. The cardboard wasn't cut but did show an impression of where the skeg was. I used the motor's electric trim to lift the motor up. It took about 2 seconds of movement before I could see the boat go down, so the motor was obviously holding the back of the boat and trailer up. I trimmed the motor up and down a few times and it seemed to work fine and sounded fine. I'm just wondering if I did some unseen damage.

 

 

Did I damage my motor or boat?

[Russ E]

I would think you should be ok. A motor and lower unit are designed to take quite a bit of abuse. I have seen guys forget to trim their motors up, when they pull a boat out of the water, and drag the skeg all the way up  the ramp. Most of them just scraped the paint off of the skeg.

[Ski213]

I wouldn't sweat it personally. I think you're fine. Give everything a once over to make sure it's as it should be for piece of mind. 

 

I would try to figure out for sure how it got that way though.

[BigAngus752]

I'm guessing slowly lowering some weight onto it didn't do any harm.  

 

Did someone come in and crank the front of your trailer up?  Every time I park the boat I lower the front of the trailer, tilt the motor completely vertical, make sure it clears the ground, and then I put a red bungee from the handle on the jack to the handle on my strap winch.  This is my reminder to me (and everyone) that you don't touch the crank on the jack until you raise the motor.  

[ohboyitsrobby]

2 hours ago, Weedwhacker said:

I would think you should be ok. A motor and lower unit are designed to take quite a bit of abuse. I have seen guys forget to trim their motors up, when they pull a boat out of the water, and drag the skeg all the way up  the ramp. Most of them just scraped the paint off of the skeg.

I'm one of those guys lol I didn't drag it all the way up the ramp but until I heard it. Just flattened out the bottom 3/8 inch and scratches it a bit. 

[LOZSteve]

Been there, drug the boat up to the ramp until I heard the skag dragging and raised it. No damage done but hurt my pride. 

[DINK WHISPERER]

You're fine I think. I've dragged my skeg on everything possible with nothing but a little paint missing. I recently installed one of those chrome covers on it.

[Way2slow]

You didn't hurt it.  About the only thing you could possibly do is bend the skeg and that didn't happen so no harm done.  A lot of times when changing steering cables and needing to disconnect the motor to get them out/in, unbolt the motor, crank the tongue jack up until holding it balanced on the skeg so i can move it around to get the cable out.  This is with two people, my arms are not long enough to reach the tongue jack and hold the motor at the same time. 

[Further North]

When I raised my motor on my transom, I pulled the bolts out, set a 4 x 4 under the skeg, then cranked up the trailer hitch jack to move to motor up the transom.

 

When the top holes were aligned, I put bolts back, sealed them and moved on. 

 

That's doing what you experienced in purpose.  Worked great, zero issues, very controlled and safe. 4 years later no issues.