Don’t know why but decided to pull my prop after our trip this weekend. Haven’t done it in a while. Well, I had about 50-100yds of braid on there. Glad I did it. Might make it a habit of doing this more often. Curious what the general consensus is?
Not as often as I should! Typically only during the annual/100 hour service.
Same here, typically when I service the engine.
Usually right after I am pulling up to the dock to load up and take out ten orange bead double drop dead squid rigs dudes have set out with 15 foot surf spinning rods with 1970 Penn levelwinds spooled up with 100 pound monofilament. The good thing about line that big is it won’t cut your prop shaft seals it will just kill your motor…
But seriously, I don’t pull my prop off and check for line. I just had my prop reworked after about ten years and it was on that long.
I pull mine, check for line and re-grease the splines as part of my annual maintenance check list.
Thanks guys. Admittedly part of the reason I pulled it is I noticed the guy at Bass Pro did not align the nut perfectly with the retention washer when he did my service. So my OCD self had to correct that. Now its perfect ![]()
I do an essential check of the boat before heading out, including checking the prop for any wiggle to see if the nut is backing off or there is line around it.
I pull, grease, check and reseat once a year and carry a prop wrench in my truck just in case it is needed.
Annually
Every time I spin a hub… ![]()
During every maintenance cycle at a minimum.
About twice a year. Early and midseason, and of course if I have suspicions
OUCH!!! Welcome to the party @travis.diller.
I put quite the ding in my dads prop just idling in the canal on my way back to the dock. Was a super low tide and don’t know what it was but it put quite the ding on there!
Yea… I was river running, submerged branch… stupid mistake. Conveniently it was a 13 i was trying in place of a 17. I had the 17 on board so I risked it for the biscuit and trespassed on a country club dock to swap it out.
Im gonna try a 15 now.
changing out a prop when on the trailer takes about 10 minutes.
I check mine every 4-5 trips. Why? Catching braid will eat out the seals of a lower unit pronto.
I keep an extra set of lock washers in my kit…
BTW, DON’T FORGET YOUR TROLLING MOTOR PROP…LESS THAN 1 MIN TO CHECK.
DC
If you’ve found line around your prop shaft (particularly braid…) your next check should always be the oil in your lower unit since that stuff will cut into your rear seal much more quickly than mono will, in my opinion… Pretty simple, crack your fill screw just a bit then crack your drain screw on that lower unit and see what your lower unit lube looks like by catching it in a glass container. - A quarter to half an inch of lube will tell the story - if it looks like chocolate milk you’ve got trouble… Find out sooner rather than later. In some cases you might get away with simply changing your lower unit fluid (then checking after a day or two on the water to see if you seal is compromised…) but most will simply schedule a seal replacement immediately and new lube… Hope this helps..
” Aren’t boats fun?”
Ya’ll pull your props?
Annually or if I’m leaving the skiff for several weeks.
Another reason to pull them is to check if the hub is slipping. Take something sharp and score a line on the hub and then on the prop. Check it after running - if the lines match up, the hub is fine. If the lines do not match, the hub is slipping. Impact can cause the hub to unseat - the prop may not even have a ding and this can happen.
Here is an example with a pencil - use something sharp again (this is a new prop, I didn’t need to score it).

