Home › Forums › Bass Cat Boats › Venting aoubt Lower Unit Problems with Mercury 225 Pro XS
badpuma.
I am still without an answer to the question of whether Mercury will hold true on their warranty of my 225 pro xs lower unit. I have been very pleased with Bowden Marine up to this point; however, now it seems like they are looking for a way to make it my fault. This is problematic when you pay so much for a rig and expect the warranty to cover certain things. I know that Mercury makes them jump through hoops to do warranty work but as soon as the boat was dropped off I was given a speech on all the many ways that I could have thrown a gear through the side of my lower unit (hit something, prop came out of the water at wot and then came back into the water). Now, here I am with a tournament this weekend, no boat, and my lower unit on its way to Mercury with a prop shaft in two pieces and all Mercury and Bowden can say is well you can pay for a new lower unit ($6500) and if Mercury agrees to warranty it then we will reimburse your money. This is a terrible feeling when you know that all you were doing was running across the lake and pop there goes the lower unit. I guess I am done with tournaments for a while b/c Mercury is telling me at a minimum I will be getting a lower unit in 14-30 days. This is ridiculous and I dont understand why Bowden and Mercury do not give the boat owner the benefit of the doubt provide them with a lower unit and then if they do not warranty the lower unit allow me to file a claim for it on my insurance. Either way the money will be paid. I go out of my way to help Bowden, Basscat, and Mercury market and sale their product. As a matter of fact in the last month and a half I have taken two friends out in my Cat and talked them into buying a Cat Mercury combination through Bowden. Sorry to ramble guys but this whole situation taints my perception of how a boat owner with a problem should be handled.
jw: I have a 2006 pro xs 225 and the lower unit exploded last year and threw a gear out the side of the case. My dealer told me I hit something, but there was no marks on the prop or front side of the lower unit and nothing on the stag. The only thing the stag was bent side ways. The dealer said that was the proof right their. I told them I was in sixty foot of water in the middle of the channel and there was no trees even close. So the dealer finnaly sent the unit to mercury after a few un-freindly words. After two weeks they came back and said Mercury was going to replace it under customer appreciation. If you would like send me a email at bbrake407@hotmail.com and I can send you some pictures. They might help your case. Good luck Bill
Mercury took about 9 days last year to say yes, on the warranty coverage on my lower unit when the gears, tried, to exit the right side. I was doing about 67 in 120 of glass water. They also tried to say I hit something, though I never did. They never did bring up the issue about the prop coming out of the water at WOT. There was no eveidence of hitting anyting on the prop, LU, or skeg. In the end, it about 14 days before I had my cat back in the water. I missed one tourney as well.At the beginning, I also called Mercury Warranty in Fond Du Lac and talked to this very nice lady. First I vented some, on Brett being let go by the Pack. After that we talked calmly about my lower unit.Good luck with your issue.
We are sorry you are having difficulties with the warranty process. It is due to Mercury process and the bent skeg, not Bowden Marine. If you want to get your insurance involved should Mercury not be placing it under warranty, then we would do so now. They would have had images prior to the break down and sending of parts. Please dont put too much on William and John for this. They are going to work with you to do what is right. They will do their part. Surely they have conveyed to Mercury. You are asking them to basically loan you a gearcase till the warranty or insurance covers it, on free will. That is tough on any shop and it is costly for them as well. If your account were covered on a credit card, then the (a) credit could be issued once warranty or insurance were to approve also. Just a thought on another way to handle it. The Bowden family has been honorable in our dealings with them. We know the frustrations of warranty matters. We have all had our share of experiences, though in todays society they have been burned on both sides. So they re more cautious on the automatic yes. If it is Mercury Warranty and valid, they will cover it. NOTE TO ALL>: When you bend a skeg, take a picture of it if there is damage on the skeg and no gearcase damage. Record that the skeg was not an issue related to any potential future failure. We have seen propellers and skegs, as well as bent cavitation plates use on denials in the past. Not that these items are not evidence in some cases of future failures that are related, though they are definitely not always. Further, implosion is usually throwing the gear down while having higher idle or RPMs. Which is not a warranty issue, and another reason we do not like hot foots. Creature comforts have caused issues in the past. BCBLast edited by Bass Cat Boats on February 25th, 2009, 12:22 am, edited 1 time in total.
William will do what he can to help you out. As far as your tournament, you might ask William to allow you borrow a boat. Might not be your boat or anything close to it, but it certainly will get you on the water. He has really helped some out in this same predicament. Good luck with all!
Phil, first off congratulations on a good sack at bass n bucks to you an Jeremy. Second, I am going to call William and Mike tomorrow and see what they can do for me.
I am not putting this on William or Bowden by no means. I just thought when a problem like this occurred a Mercury representative would come to Bowdens shop and take a look at it to streamline the process. I did not know that the lower unit would have to be sent to Mercury (which will probably take a week) then a week to assess the damage then another week either to get the lower unit back from Mercury or get the insurance company involved. I just thought that it would be a quicker process than this. William has done all he could he thought that it would be a simple measurement of the tolerance of the prop shaft then notification of Mercury. However, becuase the prop shaft is in two pieces he cannot measure the tolerance. I have the utmost respect for William and Bowden Marine they have taken care of any little problem I have had with little or no hesitation. The skeg has a small ding in it; however, the skeg was bent when I bought the boat. That was many months ago and I have never had a problem with the way the boat performed or the lower unit. If there was a problem with a prop strike destroying the lower unit wouldnt there be a pretty good ding in the prop. William took his time looking at the prop and said that at most one ear may be bent very slightly, but nothing that should constitute a split prop shaft. The only problem I have is the amount of time it is going to take to resolve the problem; however, I am going to keep my head up and give Mercury the benefit of the doubt and hopefully everything is resolved quickly without issue. I hope no one takes my venting in the wrong way I was just thinking that there could be another way to resolve the issue without taking so much time.
jwhacky wrote: Phil, first off congratulations on a good sack at bass n bucks to you an Jeremy. Second, I am going to call William and Mike tomorrow and see what they can do for me. Thanks for the congrats, but that was Tony and not Jeremy. Yes call William and talk to him and if Mercury doesnt come through let me know. Again, good luck!
The one on Lake Fork that took the entire engine off the jackplate and transom has absolutely no damage to the gearcase. We find often that gearcases do not show damage on obstruction impacts. you can see those images on TFF.
Jw my skeg was bent by just looking down there at it, but after a little closer inspection it was determined that when the gear came out the side it caused the metal to relax. so this gave the skeg the apperince of being bent. Hey give me a call their is some other information but would be bettrer between us (417)988-3430
© 2026 Bass Cat Boats
