Any experience with KeelGuard?

Guys I’m on the hunt for a bigger boat but I have 1 trip a year to Ontario where it is boulder/rock central.

I’m pretty sure I can’t use a glass boat up there unless I anchor it outside an island but thought I would ask if anyone has experience with this KeelGuard product?

Megaware KeelGuard

I have a keelguard on my ranger 620. What exactly are you looking for? My boat gets beached almost every night during fishing league (10 tuesdays) at least 1 time per night some times 2. It is in sand but I have had a few rocks hit the bottom which is quite awesome!! People like to throw rip rap rock off the shore on pool 2 near the 494 landing and my boat seems to hit it every time(thanks for that). It just puts scratches above the guard since it is only a few inches up on either side. I’m just going to get it repaired when it gets real bad not much else you can do.

I do drag the boat up to eagle lake and have not had any problems with hitting a rock so far but I do not explore new areas in my boat that I’m real unsure of that is what the rental boat is for.

Well ultimately I’m trying to decide if I can use a glass boat for 90% of my time and, somehow get away with 10% in Ontario with some rock risk. Trying to not be stupid, but know if I can “beach” a glass boat in semi controlled conditions with Keelguard, or if it can’t handle it

If you can handle doing this to a $70,000 boat than you will be ok

I have also had sticks lodge in between the bunks and the boat. I tried hard for a while to not scratch it since I’m keeping it for along time but it is inevitable and life goes on

I guess my point is can I beach it safely with Keelguard on a rocky island? I’ll spend 5 nights a year there, every year. If so I’m golden.

Think of Keelguard like a sacrificial anode. It will protect your fiberglass as long as it lasts and then you will replace it. You should get several years out of it with the use you described.

If you use it you will get scratches in it. After a couple years there will be scratches where the carpet bunks rub from dirt in the lake water even if you never beach it.

Anything bigger than Medium sand and it will grind the fiberglass above the keelguard when the boat digs in. If you say rocks hell no wouldn’t beach it you are asking for problems I wouldn’t do it with a nice aluminum boat. A windy day and you are screwed. Look in my picture the bottom one see the deep scrape from a rock that was one rock one time not 5 days of it hitting the hull.

Ok thanks guys I thought it was a dumb question – Confirmed!

I’ll have to stick with Aluminum

Especially in the winter I find myself loading and unloading solo without a dock frequently and my keel is really starting to show some wear and tear.

Assuming these same keel guards will protect and adhere to aluminum too?

Bring some chunks of 2×6 or 2×8 and put on the rocks and then drag it up.

I’m on year two of owning my first glass boat. I love the ride so much over any tin boat I’ve ever been. I will say the first scratch was tough, but you get over it. The keel guard will help reduce wear but it will still get beat up if you beach it on rocks. Something that helped me get over it was the fact that when you scratch up your glass boat, it is quite inexpensive to have it repaired and buffed to looking brand new. The same process I’ve been told is not so simple with aluminum. A good friend of mine is a triton pro and gets a new boat every year or two, he makes ontario trips in which beaching the boat on gravel is common. He just has it fixed up by a detailer before he sells. His last boat looked aweful underneath from beaching, hitting the bow roller, driving up the trailer bunks and using his travel cover. He said the detailer charged about $400 and the boat was looking brand new. Do that every few years if it bothers you that much.

I did see a few folks talk about beaching it on logs, or a custom area so it doesn’t bang on rocks at night on an Island. Might still be possible

They work great. I beach in Canada regularly on sand beaches with no issue. If the island you’re on is only rocks, it’s not the keel you have to worry about, it’s the sides of the hull, and an aluminum boat won’t fare any better.

In the video below we stuck ourselves on a hidden elephant-back rock while trolling at 4mph. The front half of the boat was balanced on the keelguard, not floating at all. Took about 20 minutes but we finally wiggled off backwards.
There was $400 of damage to the fiberglass near the transom. No damage to the keel, only minor rough spots on the keel guard. Without it there’d have been major damage, and an aluminum keel would’ve suffered even worse, imho.

To the guys that have installed this product.
How easy or difficult is it to install if your not the best “Handy man”?

I’ve never had an issue with any aluminum damage to date. Glass makes me nervous

Doug Larsen wrote:

I’ve never had an issue with any aluminum damage to date. Glass makes me nervous

Glass is what I have.
Don’t want to steal your post Doug.
Glad you brought this one up

Doug Larsen wrote:

I’ve never had an issue with any aluminum damage to date. Glass makes me nervous

Anything that will seriously damage glass will dent or hole aluminum.
Bumping rocks daily in Canada in the fall I see aluminum boats start leaking – especially the ones with rivets, where fiberglass boats maybe get scratched or gouged. It’s amazing what I grind the hull on without ever leaving a mark on the bottom of my boat. Glass holds up better and is much easier to repair.
Your question was really whether a glass boat with a keel guard will tolerate being dragged on shore. The short answer is yes, as good or better than a non-protected aluminum keel. Exposed glass outside the keel guard will get scratched if it’s rubbing on rocks all night, so will an aluminum hull.
Anyway, just sharing my experience using a keelguard on 8 different glass boats in case it’s helpful; you should do what makes you feel happy and confident.

Thanks everyone! Tough decision but this information is very helpful. A glass ride where i go would be welcomed but after 30+ years of running in smaller resort style boats anything will be a big upgrade for space and ride for me.

Go glass. Always have a keel guard. It does help for those quick pull ups. That said if there are rocks it will be a mater of time before you get a scratch. I have a black bottom. I never understood why they put white right behind black gel coat. Couldn’t they just put more black gel coat? Gel coat is repairable. If you take the time you can learn to do it yourself. Someone should offer a class in the area. I think they would get lots of takers. I know how but I’m not that experienced.

There are other options for remote docking. They sell anchor bungee cords that stretch up to 25 feet. You hook it up to your anchor drop it off shore. Then drive to the shoreline and unload. Tie up a rope and let your boat slip back out over deeper water. It just floats out there in the waves and doesn’t touch a thing. Pull it to shore the next morning and go get your anchor.

The other thing I did last year on the Rainy. There are always rocks imbedded in the sand on a river. hats where I got my scratches. I got a large piece of carpet from a dumpster and brought it with. Grabbed a couple of 1×2 stakes and pounded them through the carpet on shore. I now could pull up on the carpet without scratching the gel coat. The only improvement I will make this year will be attaching some kind of weights to the deep water edge to keep it down in the water.

Thousands of guys run glass boats and beach them. You wouldn’t crash a tin boat into rocks so you won’t crash a glass boat into rocks. Get a keel guard and go fishing.

Glass is quite easy to get fixed and really not that expensive. I had the whole underside redone on one of my boats. It cost me 1,000. An aluminum boat would have been totaled.