Annoyed with Eskimo… Happy with Farm & Fleet…

So I’ve owned my Eskimo Mako M43-8″ for a whole whopping 22 days, of which ten of those days it sat in the box (although I bought my own xmas present, I figured I’d better wait til xmas to open it..) I’ve been out and maybe drilled 30 some holes with it.. and well today it failed.. I at least got the six holes drilled for tip-ups and jig fishing.. Decided I wanted to move two of the tip ups to a different area, started the auger up, and the clutch went out in it.. Called Farm and Fleet where I bought it from, they told me to bring it in, they would have their small engine dept get it all fixed up for me since it’s still under their warranty time.. (Which I was glad since it’s Saturday and Ardisam isn’t open today) Get up there hoping that they would be able to fix it today, since I live an hour away.. nope a week.. a week without fishing.. what am I to do?? I guess I go find the ice chisel.. or use my grandpa’s old hand auger…
Maybe I’m not supposed to have luck with augers.. my dad’s blew up on me last year, a design flaw of strikemaster’s back in the 80’s.. Had the Mag II and a spring blew right out of the bottom of the engine… Glad I wasn’t standing wherever that flew out at.. and well now this..
Hopefully this is the only problem I have with this auger.. Just glad Farm and Fleet was happy to fix the problem for me and under warranty.. I was afraid to ask the guy what the problem was with the other M43 powerhead that was sitting on the table when I walked in
Anybody else had problems with Eskimo augers??

Love my Eskimo, have had mine for a long time with no problems. Hopefully they can get you fixed up with no future problems. Every company sends things out with issues every now and again, my buddy bought a brand new Jiffy that ran a whole one minute before blowing a piston! They stood behind it and it has run for the last four years without a problem! Hopefully you are back on the ice soon!

I had my pull start recoil fail after my first 1/2 day of fishing with a Mako 43. Brought it back the next day, and it happened I bought the last one in stock. So I got a cheap upgrade to the Shark Z51 and haven’t had a single issue with it. Sounds like bad luck with yours.

Speaking of Eskimo, My son returned 2 Quick-popups. The first one all the parts were missing from the inside and the second one the brackets on the inside with bent so the rods would not fit in them,with on rod broken. Needless to say he is not going with Eskimo product. It was from our Farm and Fleet down here.

Nope…year 5, no problems, exact model you have popped about 20 holes yesterday with it !!!

PS, the catfish are on the bite

Sorry to hear the problems. Sounds like you have bad luck with augers but all manufactures have some problems My eskimo is going on 20 yrs now and i have changed the plug once and a gas tank but that was my own fault wouldnt trade my eskimo stuff for anything customer service is tops