New Caterpillar Engines Installed – We Are Ready To Go Fishing

These are our new caterpillar engines

We are so excited to let you know that we just purchased two new Caterpillar 7.2L (350 H.P.) engines and transmissions for the Distraction Charter Boat.    We knew the day was coming when we would re-invest in and put a new set of engines in our boat.   Even though our other engines have served us since 2002, we felt it was TIME to pull them out and replace them.

The 3126 Cat engines we had, were pushing 25,000 hours on them.  They had began to blow a little more smoke out the tail pipe than I liked.  That many hours is about equivalent to 1,000,000 road miles.   Even though we spent thousands of dollars each year on maintenance, there were some signs of metal aging and oil useage that I wanted to address.   Instead of doing a complete rebuild, It made sense to find new engines.

Crane boom bringing new engine inside our boat

The engines we found were Caterpillar 3126’s at $42,000 each and comes with a two year warranty.   It seemed like a no brainer.  So we purchased them.

After talking to my best friend Gary Broussard and lifelong sidekick, he asked about my transmissions accessibility?  He asked “How hard would it be to get the transmissions out of boat and from behind engines, if I had a failure?”    I told him that getting the old ones out would be a pain.   So, I headed his advice and went ahead and purchased two new ZF 220A-1 gears/transmission for the boat.   It would be a whole lot easier to put two new gears in while we had the engines out, than have to do it later or when it was a hot summer day.    Those new transmissions cost me another $13,000.

By the time we got through installing the new engines and gears, we realized that the electronics panel we had was dated and some gauges were not reading correctly on the new engines sending units.   Well, we decided to have a couple of new panels built in California to the tune of $1,600.     They would turn out to be just fine.

After looking upstairs in my wheelhouse at the new panels, I decided it was time to upgrade where my panels held my gauges.   I built the new panel myself and it looks nice.

All in all, re-investing and spending $111,036 to keep my boat in top running order makes sense.   I believe in having my customers informed about how we keep our vessel in top running condition.   Hopefully, with my preventive maintenance program, these new engines will last 23 years like my old ones did.

I hope you understand why we charge what we do for the service we provide our family friends.  We don’t want to ever let you down.  We promise that we will always keep your safety in mind, while providing you a well maintained vessel.

Cant wait to show them off to you!