Lund Fisherman Keel Protector Cracked, Looking for advice

[Bubs]

Hey guys like the title says, the "protector" on the keel of my Lund cracked and split last week on a crappy road. Anybody ever had this problem? Anybody know how to fix it? I will try to attach pictures of it.
Thanks

[prodogg02]

wow . how old is the boat. i have a 2012 impact 1675 i spun my mid roller cause it was geting a flat spot i hope this isnt a problem in a few years . i would think thats coverd under there lifetime hull waranty. it deff be worth looking into. wonder if a padded v block up front would be better the the roller setup.

[EZM]

Certainly the more surface area you can support weight, the less likely you are to have issues.

The entire load of the front of the boat rests on the small spot on the center of the roller and a small spot on the center of the keel protector. Bouncing down the road doesn't help either.

I think a padded V block would be a good idea - as long as the hull in that area is supported by a rib, brace or cross member internally at that point ......

[Bigdad013]

Hard to tell from the pic, I had the same thing happen years ago, I had too much downward pressure on the ring from the strap. Did some modifications so there was more forward pulling horizontal pressure, than downward vertical pressure.

[Bubs]

It's a 2001. Had it in at the Lund dealer today...the service tech let out a big sigh and asked if I knew a good aluminium welder? Luckily for me I do so the original plan will go ahead and get it fixed up. I knew the roller was getting in bad shape but was having a tough time finding the proper one...guess I should've just changed it to what I could get at the time, lesson learned.
Thanks for the advice guys.

[Kingfisher]

This scares the crap out of me. I have a 14.5 foot Lund. I just changed out the roller on the front of my EZ loader trailer, because my old one was beat to crap. I went with a more firmer hard neoprene roller, rather than the soft one. Couldn't find a soft one that same size. Now after reading this thread I think I may look harder to find a soft one and swap it out again. If the roller gets chewed up at least it's an easy fix. That keel does not look like an easy fix.

[Bubs]

Kingfisher, If I were you I wouldn't be to worried, just make sure to keep the roller in good shape, if it starts getting pretty beat up replace it. I knew my roller needed to be replaced badly and I put it off trying to find the exact one, I should've replaced it with what I could get for the mean time and ordered the proper one online. Like I said...Lesson Learned for me. I'll post some more pictures after the fix for anybody that may run into this in the future.

[Bubs]

Well, I got the boat back from the welder...he didn't actually weld anything just put a piece of formed aluminium over the cracked keel protector. It looks great but when I pulled the carpet back inside to check the bolts for eyelet there is now a crack in the hull of the boat, not sure where to go from here? There is also a bunch of burn holes in the carpet of my boat from hot metal chunks flying off a grinder or something and into my boat. The welder was a friend of a friend and didn't charge me anything but what a sheety situation now, boat is worse off then when I took it in. Anybody have any ideas what/how to fix now?

[Bubs]

Here are the pictures...sideways and I can't the damn things turned. Anybody have any ideas?