Erie Desire

I am going to pick-up my boat on Thursday from the repairing dealer, and would like a little advice from those who have had warranty work done.
I would first like to commend Baja, and McMachen Marine(Mt. Clemens,MI ) for there efforts in resolving this issue in a timely manner.
I just hope I'm not being overly optimistic.
As some of you may know. I am a proud owner of a 2000 29Outlaw. Unfortunately I am also one of the unlucky ones plagued by the cracking of the laminate near the engines. Sometimes referred to as the ubiquitous "Cracked Stringer Issue"
common to pre 2001 29ft. Outlaws.
Does anyone have any words/advice before I go and pick the boat up? It is going to be difficult to inspect the boat when we have snow on the ground, and it is below freezing. Nor will I be able to "Sea Trial" the boat before Spring.
As always.........Thanks in advance for the infinite wisdom, and plethora of ideas found on this site, by my fellow OSO brethren.

BTW. They have installed what they called "Offshore Mounts" in place of the old motor mounts. Does anyone know what these are? Or perhaps post a picture of these mounts.
Thanks,
Brian

29 OUTLAW

Wow - I might just break my stringers on purpose if they give me offshore mounts as part of the repair. They are typically available only on HP500's (and are standard on those engines). When I ordered my boat with the 496HO's, I asked Baja if I could get offshore mounts if I was willing to pay extra. They said no.

JaayTeee

i have a 98' with 500's, it has offshore mounts,
i just became aware of the "stringer problem"
via this website,
i have "beat the sh*t out of mine for almost
4 years, and i know i dont have this problem,
due to my computer illiteracy, i dont have any
pictures of "offshore mounts", but i will try to
describe them.
basically, instead of the individual mounts,
mounted atop each stringer, the offshore's
use a "cradle",(or a solid plate) bolted to the
engine, that connects to mounts that are thru
bolted , vertically, to the stringers.
this creates a the same effect as having
another cross stringer between the three
stringers the engines mount on.
engine alignment problems that occur
with std. mounts don't appear to happen
with offshore mounts.
the "downfall" is lower engine access to
hoses at the sea pump is made more
difficult.
since they installed offshore mounts,
i would have no worries.
good luck,
jt

H2Xmark

The more I hear about this cracking problem on 29 outlaws make's me a little worried about trying to buy an older one, does this stringer problem only show up in the first couple of years of use, or can it even start to happen on a 97 or 98 older model, say if you buy a crack free 97 today, could it crack in a few weeks or should it be ok, and is Baja covering these older boats that are out of warranty?
Mark

Erie Desire

I bought my boat new, and the cracking started to show after 50 hrs(one season). BTW, It is not the stringer that cracks. It is the lamination to the bulkhead where the trim pump resevoir mounts. Knowing this, I would asume that not all 29's have this issue.
Anyway, Baja took very good care of me. I now have GIL Offshore mounts, and new HD Steel Couplers (or so I was told). All of this was done in a timely manner and at no cost to me.

I would call Baja and ask them about warranty on the older ones.
Don't know if it's true.....but..... my dealer tells me that Baja warranties a pro rated. Goes Something like this; 100% first year,75% second year, 50% third year,25% fourth year, and it's at their discretion the fifth year. My boat is three seasons old and they covered me 100%.

H2Xmark

Good looking boat there , enjoy it, thats good to hear about Baja stepping up and taking care of you, my Dealer took good care of a couple of problems my H2X had when it was new, thats another reason I would like to buy a used 29 outlaw from them, Baja and Marine Max are owned by the same people