How far would YOU go?

How far would you pull your boat to have your favorite mechanic work on it?

I thought about this today as I was pulling my boat for service. My mechanic for the past 8 years has been David Terrell from Promarine. In the last year David's business has grown and wanted to sell Malibu. Promarine had to relocate to satisfy territory requirements. David is now an hour and 40 minutes one way!

I pulled in, told him about my problem. He said, "let me look at it before you leave, it may be something simple." In less than 2 minutes he identified the bad relay and had it replaced in about 8 minutes.

And that's the kind of service that makes the extra distance I travel, worth it.

Sooo....How far would YOU go?

The only decent Nautique mechanic I know of in AL is just outside of Auburn at Blue Lake (?) Marine.....about 2.5 hrs away. Add in the fact Im in school about 2 hrs away from home and its 9 hrs there and back.

0 miles, I do all my own work. Never pay someone else to do something you can do yourself. I'm no expert boat mechanic, but I have built a few engines, transmissions, axles, etc. Gives me some play money and for my own stuff I always know it's done right. Don't be a afraid to learn. When I got my first car if you asked me to point to the carburetor I wouldn't have even known to look under the hood.

I would love to do that since I am pretty clueless about engines but unfortunately my boat is always broken during the season and I dont have the time and patience to learn about engines when I could be back on the water.

I agree with Cory. I always change my own oil and impeller. When I do have a problem, I always will give it a first shot. In this case, I had cleaned the "easy to get to" connections. I am very busy with my own work (thank God!) and I wanted my boat running by the weekend. Fortunate for me, my work had me near my favorite mechanic this week.

On a car I am a little more patient and will tackle most jobs. With summer's clock ticking, I'm not as patient with the boat!

My 1992 Ski Nautique hasn't left the lake (and boat house) in 18 years. I can't kill it.

yeah if we're talking basic stuff (oil, impeller,winterization), I do that myself. The more hard stuff that needs diagnostics to figure it out (had a knock sensor issue last year) i have to take to a mechanic. Thankfully the most serious problems I encounter are stumps in our lake but that ish is expensive!

Originally Posted by the_fish

yeah if we're talking basic stuff (oil, impeller,winterization), I do that myself. The more hard stuff that needs diagnostics to figure it out (had a knock sensor issue last year) i have to take to a mechanic. Thankfully the most serious problems I encounter are stumps in our lake but that ish is expensive!

agreed, as much as I can I do myself. Some stuff is just a little too involved at this point.