Auger troubles

[berfish]

I am on my third Strike master 2hp 8inch mag 2000. The first one was stolen out of my college house and the second one was left behind at a dark loading spot. (doh!) Anyway....the first two augers I had worked great. Now I have the third one and it just doesn't cut right. It doesn't seem to bite. If I don't push down hard it won't cut much at all. Tried new blades. Plus it seems to run a little slower in the RPM department. My roomate and I run our 2hp mag 2000's side by side and his rips compared to mine. His is about 7 years older than mine. I am thinking of stopping by StrikeMaster in Big Lake to see what they can do for me. I used it the last two seasons a handful of times due to the problems I have encountered. Thankfully I have dedicated buddies with nice augers. Anyone have these problems before or know whats the deal?

I am kind of leaning towards buying a new Strikemaster with the lazer blades instead of the chipper.

[zamboni]

Sounds like the blades are out of pitch.

[RebelSS]

I second Zamboni. If the pitch is wrong, blades will just "skip" on the ice, and not bite.

[Fishapalooza]

The pitch got screwed up on my auger too. I was able to fix it by cutting two pieces of .03 brass shim stock, loosening the blades and placing the shims under the leading edge side of the blades. This increased the pitch of the blades slightly and it cut like a million bucks. This was 4 years ago and has cut great ever since.

[NCLaker]

Bring it to D-Rock in New Brighten, they will check/fix the pitch and make sure the engine is tuned properly. They are an authorized SM service shop, assuming it is still under warrenty you should not get charged.

[SP180]

Take it to strikemaster in big lake. I did this summer and they fixed the pitch issue with no charge. I took the power head there last month and they turned it up for about 60 bucks and it started on the first pull. I am pumped. Great customer service and worth every penny.

[PiKeGuY101]

I've had my Mag 200 for about 10 years and have never had any problems! But ya it sound like you blade is out of pitch... The guys up in Big Lake are great and should take care of you free of charge! Good luck

[berfish]

Anybody switched a chipper blade auger shaft over to a lazer blade shaft? Basically keeping my power head but swapping out the auger part.

I am going to swing by Strikemaster in a couple weeks to see if they can fix it.

Thanks for the replies.

[DanS.]

I have a mag 2000 power head and lazer blade auger bit. That's what D-rock set up for me. Power heads are the same, but the color of cowling is black instead of red.

[jwhjr]

Anybody switched a chipper blade auger shaft over to a lazer blade shaft? Basically keeping my power head but swapping out the auger part.

I am going to swing by Strikemaster in a couple weeks to see if they can fix it.

Thanks for the replies.

I swapped to a Lazer bit on my old auger and it worked just fine. The powerheads were the same other than the color/stickers.

[berfish]

Sweet maybe I will upgrade to the lazer.

[Fishingthedream]

did you leave and old gas in the tank between seasons i had the problem with the horsepower on mine and we just cleaned the carb and it soulved the problem. and lazer is the way to go.

[berfish]

*Update*

I replaced the governor spring. Changed spark plug. Dismantled the carb numerous times. Went into D-Rock twice. Finally figured it out why my Mag2000 8" won't spin as fast as two of my friends with the same aguer and motor.

Apparently strikemaster uses two different gear ratios. 40:1 for their 10" drills and 25:1 for their 8". The 40:1 is a high torque gear for more power but it spins slower. Guess what I have in my Mag2000 8"? Yep the 40:1. I called strikemaster and they told me that mine was assembled towards the end of production that year and they probably didn't order enough 25:1 gears and had to fill orders for stores. I figure that is also why i noticed my blade not cutting as well. It doesn't throw the ice out of the hole and it freezes on the bottle really bad. Three times out during the cold snap. Three times I couldn't drill as many holes as I wanted to.

So I can change mine out for the 25:1 but it costs $85. Plus I want the lazer bit for another $130. Around $200 to get to what I want. Sure doesn't seem worth it to me. What do you guys think?

[nemoski]

I think if Strikemasters customer service is as great as everyone claims, they will replace your power head with a 25:1 gear ratio for nothing, since that is what you were supposed to be buying in the first place-it isn't your fault that they ran out of the parts to properly put together the machine you wanted to buy. If they don't want to replace it for nothing-buy something different.

[kittycatcher16]

I agree with nemoski...As much as I stand by strikemaster and their customer service, i agree if they wont provide you with the gear ratio that was SUPPOSED to go into that machine, buy something different.

[berfish]

*Update*

I just got off the phone with Mike at SM. I explained the issue of the 40:1 gear ratio in my 8" and I thought it was supposed to have the 25:1. He said yours should have more power behind it. I said yes I know that but it doesn't spin as fast. He said you wouldn't even be able to tell. I said every one that I have seen spins almost twice as fast at WOT. He didn't believe me. But he did offer to put in a used 25:1 gear box in it for free if I send it to him. Thankfully I am driving right by there tomorrow and I drive right by there about twice a week. So I will be happy if the used one works for me. Still a little peaved about the fact that the customer is clueless to what gear ratio tranmission is in their machine. I would have never bought it if I would have known.

[nemoski]

I personally think that when you bought the auger, you bought it NEW, not used. It is nice that they are willing to replace it, but they should be replacing it with a new gear case, NOT used. Just my opinion, but I would be really peaved!

[Brad B]

beerfish,

if your looking at getting a new strikemaster lazer auger I know of a place that has new ones on sale right now for $339.99 for your choice of 8" or 10". they also have refurbished one which are just basically only used a little at contests and promotion that strikemaster goes to these are then sent back to strike master and get new blades put on them and anything else that they might need to have. this shop sells the refurbs for $299.99.

both of these are the tecumseh motors and not the new solo motors. the solos are $419.95 6", $429.95 7", $439.95 8", $449.95 9", & $469.95 10". if interested in the shop contact info email me at [email protected]

[berfish]

*Update*

Got my auger back yesterday. It only took one day for them to get to it and put in the 25:1 gears. Talked with Jason and he said everything was good to go and I got my old parts back in case I want to switch back.

Of course I took it with last evening fishing and....HOLY COW! the thing rips through the ice. My buddies couldn't beleive it. I didn't have to push down at all....where I used to have to to make any progress. I tried putting my buddies lazer bit on it and it only cut through about 2 seconds faster than my chipper blade. There was about 20 inches of ice and I could get through in about 11 seconds with a lot less effort than before. Thank you Strikemaster for standing behind your product....even though it took some sweet talkin. I am pumped.

I would assume that there are some other Strikemaster 8" augers that have the 40:1 gears in them out there. If you think your auger is slower than it is supposed to be crack your gear box apart and if you have two 4" gears that look like they have about the same amount of teeth on each one....then you have the 25:1(faster). If the top gear has noticably more teeth (96 teeth\about twice as many) than the bottom one then you have the 40:1 (slower).Good luck.

[mtheis]

See, why didn't anyone else know that? I think this may apply to me because I have a XL-3000 Laser auger that came with a 10" bit, that I converted over to an 8" bit that I purchased at D-Rock. It does rotate slow, but so far it has proven effective drilling holes in the ice. I cannot see myself going back to the 10" bit, so someday I may want to convert mine over to 40:1 as well.

Good Information!!!!

[berfish]

mtheis,

That is why I brought it up with SM. How is anyone going to know what gears you have in your auger unless you open it up? It didn't say anything in the manual. I sold augers at Gander for 3 years while in college and high school and nobody knew there were different gear ratios.

If you bought a 10 inch then it came with the 40:1 gear ratio. For every 1 revolution from the auger it takes 40 revolutions of the motor...thus the slower speed of the auger bit. The 25:1 means for every turn of the auger it takes only 25 turns of the motor, resulting in faster rotation.

I may be explaining this a little wrong but the 40:1 was designed for the 10" augers to prevent binding while drilling the larger hole. It was made to be powerful.

The 25:1 was made to spin fast but would be suseptable to binding and locking up. Designed for the 8" augers.

So if you switched to an 8" then you might want to switch to the 25:1 gears to really get it going. But with a lazer you might be getting through pretty fast.

[Dozer]

I never knew they had different gears in them either. Thought they where all the same!

[Brad B]

the new strikemaster are advertised at 40 to 1 for all the models. did they finally do away with the 25 to 1? I have a mag III that is 20+ yrs old and it was a 8" model but this year I put a 10" on it and it seems to spin just as fast as it did with the 8" so I would guess with out taking it apart I must have the 25 to 1 gear ratio in it.

[Brad B]

bumped for deadsea.

[nytelyter]

85 bucks?????? the gear cost is only 35 bucks and there is only 6 5/16th screws to open it up. i know this cuz i just exploded the 25:1 gear in my lazer 3hp 10". i will be getting a new gear from them and having them adjust the pitch. the tech i talked to said that was prolly why the gear exploded when it locked up at the bottom of the hole just before breaking thru. ... paul