At Wit's End

Slainte

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We have a 2017 20' SLX Saltwater Edition Bennington tritoon with a Mercury 115 HP Four Stroke motor. Have had all maintenance done by dealer who sold us the boat (new). Boat wasn't running right since we got it back this past spring.....seemed to be OK for a bit and then at around 5000-5100 rpm it would sound like motor was straining but not going any faster. Marina mechanics came out and looked at it several times. In the process they noticed that the sleeve prop bore (thrust ring) was not put on when the new prop was installed....was told it was cavitating. Put that part on. Still didn't run right; called them back. They took it out and experienced issue, told me I had the wrong prop; that I needed a four blade prop; replaced prop with a new four blade prop. Then the boat didn't go fast at all and went through a lot of gas. I checked with Bennington and the four blade prop was in fact the prop the manufacturer recommended. The other day we went back to a new three blade prop as originally on the boat on the advice of a prop expert in our area, who explained that Bennington is manufactured and tested in an area of the country where there are pristine lakes, smooth waters, etc.; nothing like where we are here on the eastern shore of Maryland. Prop expert said that in fact we were given the correct prop when we bought the boat. So now we have a new three blade prop on the boat again.
OK, so we went out today. Boat ran great for about 45 minutes. Then it started "lugging" for about a half hour; then seemed to straighten out again.
To their credit, the dealer did not charge to come out several times, test drive the boat, put the sleeve prop bore in place; come back and switch out the prop. However, it is still not running right. At this point I think we will have a "heart to heart" with the service manager there and tell them to get this fixed or replace the motor entirely.......doesn't make sense to me to switch to another dealer and pay for whatever is going on.
Anyone have any suggestions?
 
You stated your Bennington is a 2017 .Is this new to you or have you had it for 3 years and this is a new issue ?
 
It should still be under the Mercury Warranty .
 
Slainte, please keep us posted on what you find out! Good luck...
 
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