Your worst mechanical/equipment failure...EVER!

[GotALunker]

What has been your worst mechanical or equipment failure of your outdoor career? Since the day you can remember, what screwed up the weekend, ruined a week or destroyed an expensive investment?

[Esox_Magnum]

Toasting a lower unit as far away from the ramp as possible and the only boat on the lake. My last Strikemaster that seemed to be broke more than it ran...

[MJ1657]

Hitting a tree and wrecking my sled in the first 45 miles of riding 7 hours from home.

[St_Croix_Banks]

Diesel gelling up on me in West Yellowstone one winter snowmobiling on the way back to MN, which ended up ruining 2 injectors, limping the truck through ND.. well.....I can't tell the rest of my story as I may pop a bolt!

[Archerysniper]

Fuel pump on the truck going out on millacs out on the boot flat when it was -30.

[LMITOUT]

This should be an interesting thread.

[walleyefisher0990]

Ruined the barings on the trailer and then blew something up on the lower unit, all in one weekend, poor boat...

[walleyehunter80]

fuel pump went out on my truck, on the way home at least, from the cool cats get together 2 years ago

[mrfish1991]

I used to have an 8" lazer hand auger. When it got to the bottom of the hole it would bind like there was no tomorrow, so you had to wrench on it pretty hard. Well one time I went around on it and really put my back into it. This extra force snapped the bolt holding the handle to the auger, peeled back the steel on both the handle and the auger portion...needless to say no more holes for the day, and I traded out the 8" for a 6"

[merkman]

Setting my self on fire with a big buddy heater in the boat while sturgeon fishing on the Rainy one spring in a raging blizzard.

A log floating down the river dislodged the anchor and I didn't notice how close my leg was to the heater as I was ducking the fists flying from the guy in the back of the boat who was frantically trying to start the motor, as we were sliding closer and closer to the boats down river.

After the motor started up and my leg got put out a huge wave crested the front of the boat and drenched the guy in the front of the boat.

Had to finally admit defeat after getting drenched by the wave.

The funny thing is, we weren’t the only ones out there.

[deadeye]

Being in the Ely area on a lake a 2 mile walk from the truck through deep snow dragging the fish trap (not a BWCAW lake but close) and having the recoil on the power auger let go on the first pull.

It doesn't really sound that bad but 2 miles through knee deep snow/slush and dragging a 90+ lb sled makes it pretty frustrating. Especially when its -20 and the wind is howling. Thank god I had brought my multi tool with. It wasn't pretty but I was able to fix it in a hour or so. I am so glad I had my heater with or I would have been really screwed.

The tie for this would be getting the call from my Dad that the water pump on his truck failed at his deer camp (2nd week so it was nice and cold) 20 miles north of Ely. That was a fun time too. It was interesting tearing that apart in the dark in the woods with very limited tools. Got it done though. It was pretty funny to see the look on his face when he got back to camp from hunting and seeing all the parts I had to take off to get at the pump LOL. He couldn't believe that much had to come apart to get at the pump.

[bottom-bouncer]

A few years back me and a buddy were up on millelacs for the opener had a room at eddys and a boat slip we went out at midnite for the sake of tradition didnt catch anything as we are pulling back into the harbour people along shore are showing all the fish they are catching from shore. while we were locking up the boat I let it sit at the dock idleing when it was time to go I shut the ignition off and jumped up on the dock made it about ten feet down the dock and I here dude your boats on fire turn around and there is a ton of smoke pouring out from the motor. Jump in the boat and can instantly smell electric fire unhook batterys and rip the hood off and can see the problem shorted out voltage regulator. end of opener. I went to every place from the east side of the lake to brainerd all I heard was jeeze we usaully have those in stock.

[jwmiller33]

first summer with my boat, my lower unit seized up at sunset right when i decided to head in for the night. started the motor up, got on plane and all of a sudden it seized up. i was as far away from the landing as possible for that specific lake (about 15 minute boat ride at WOT), and there was only one boat left fishing that i had a chance to get a tow from on their way back... luckily i flagged him down and he was nice enough to tow me back... i had 2 deep cycles and my trolling motor on board, so i could have trolled back to the landing but it would have been a longgggg troll and who knows if i would have even made it. i probably would have just pulled up to a island and built a fire and spent the night on the beach, as it was a beautiful summer night, but luckily it didnt come to that

[panfishpounder00]

last year on big trout in manhatten beach, cold as heck winds blowing like none other... 1 hr drive south.. auger wouldnt start! after crawling in back of the truck, and getting the auger tore down to see what the matter was, truck wouldnt start.. needless to say i was taking a client out to catch the 1st laker of his life!! we were in the back of the truck( i drive a toyota 4runner). no heat, he actually gave me a hand with the auger.. i ended up slicing the heck out of my thumb! i just happened to have super glue in the glove box! a little hard but still worked... after an hour finally got the auger going.. bolts loose on carb! sucking too much air! fished for 2 hours and left.. i told him no need to pay for any of the trip.. he still tipped me and paid for half! went to ER and got cleaned up and stitched! how embarrasing!!

[mixxedbagg]

This didn't happen directly to me, but once while fishing on Trout Lake (the one you have to be mechanically portaged into from Vermilion), I looked down on a really shallow rocky flat and saw prop fins laying on the bottom...obviously somone had overestimated the depth and smacked bottom. May have ruined just a day of fishing or possibly a camping trip?

[highlife4me]

I heve been lucky - KNOCK ON WOOD - but my brother had his outboard break down on a small isolated lake and had to walk and swim the boat back to the landing, and a buddy of mine broke his hitch off his wheel house getting on to Upper RED.

[Gissert]

Hunting elk in Colorado, about 2 miles off the nearest improved road, my Bronco's fuel pump in the tank died.

Glenwood Springs was the nearest place to get parts or repairs, and that was 18 miles down a twisty, washboarded "improved" road. Then it was another 20 miles on tar after that.

We towed it with a log chain down to the improved road, then I arranged for a tow truck to come get it. Thank goodness for AAA.

[cabin]

Suzuki 150 Super six that broke down a lot. The last time was way back in a swamp on the Mississippi River. It was getting dark, nobody around to help,and the mosquitoes were eating us alive. Traded it in on an Evinrude and took a big loss. The Strikemaster Solo Auger that has ruined three fishing trips in the short time I have owned it.

[Lost Cause]

blew out the forward gears in my lower unit of my older 20ft outboard out by father hennepin, and had to drive back to mille lacs island resort co-op in reverse, took 3 hours and killed fishing out of that boat for the rest of the season. couldnt afford the repairs and my other boat is a 14ft aluminum lund, and im not brave enough to venture that out on the big pond like i see some guys do.

[fishinfey8]

Fishing 10ish miles north of Algoma on Lake Michigan and the motor wouldn't fire (pretty much brand new evinrude E-tech 200hp - maybe 30 hrs on it). Not only did we have to use the kicker to get all the way back (which is honda 15hp), but when we got back we found out that the only evinrude dealer was back in green bay. So on day two we spent the day in green bay getting the boat fixed. Ends up the motor was vapor-locked. The dealer said that he had never heard, or seen this happen before on an E-tech.

[reinhard1]

last june up in bearhead lake park, got up one morning before anyone else to take a walk down to were i had my boat. chrestliner 1850 with a 115hp merc. to my great super shock it was half under water with [fortunatly] the engine part of the moter still on top of the water. turns out there was a small leak on the plastic pipe comming out of my pump for the livewell right obove the rubber hose attached to it. fortunatly i had jusd put a new bilge pump in prior to the trip. with that pumping and me standing in my underwear with a bucket i was able to get all the water out and the boat floating as normal. i loosened the clamp on the hose and pushed the hose passed the leak and that fixed the problem till i got home and put a new pump on. my hear just sunk at the sight of my boat half under water. good luck.

[CaptainMusky]

Breaking the driveshaft in half on my snowmobile on day one of a 4 day trip to UP. We were 30 miles from truck but luckily right along a main road. I told the rest of the guys to ride back and come get me. I didn't want them to have to tow me or rife two up. Dumb idea. It was about -20. I was thinking it would only be a Lil bit cuz we don't ride slow but it took nearly 2 hrs. Well I spent the next cpl days trying to find parts but no luck. As if that wasn't bad enough my buddies enjoyed the best riding we have ever had. Major ticked off!

[KidMoe]

Buddy and I went to goose lake near rush city. We saw a couple other trucks on the lake so we tried to drive out. We got a few hundred yards off shore when we realized we were driving through at least 6" of slush under the foot of fresh snow. Barely circled back to solid ground only to find that one of trailer tires came off the bead. When we were loading everything up to leave, the blower motor went out and filled the cab with smoke! It was about -10 and we were trying to use the cooker to defrost the windshield. That started the headliner and visor on fire! And we still had to change the trailer tire! Thankfully a local farmer invited us to use his shop and air tools to change it. Thanks again to him!

[laportian]

This past fall me and a buddy decided at the last minute to run over to Sucker Bay on Leech and try some full moon fishing. Well we take off not checking anything except that we had enough gas. We go out to Hardwood Point, probably 6 or 7 miles from the landing and the boat is running kinda cruddy. Once we get out there we start slip bobber fishing and moving around with the trolling motor, which hadn't been charged. We decide to bag it around midnite and the motor would not start. We messed around for a half hour or so and figured we weren't getting spark. So with what trolling motor we had we took off. The battery gave out within maybe half a mile. This is an 18 foot Lund and I have a broken canoe paddle, an old wooden paddle that half of the paddle has fallen off of that I threw in there in case of emergency. Well we take turns paddling the lund back. Took us 4 hours to get to the landing. And the kicker of the whole deal was that the next day we decide to trouble shoot the motor and it turned out to be that one of the plug wires was loose! We still argue everytime we think of it over who checked the wires the motor on the lake that night.

[looneyducer]

I set the hook on a pike once and the reel seat broke, dropping the reel down into the bottom of the boat. I eventually got the reel picked up and into my rod hand where I just death-gripped the two together until I landed that bruiser, but there was a short eternity in there where I was standing with an arched rod and a dumb look on my face, let me tell you.