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A testament to the now extinct Tecumseh engine.

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It is actually one of the few that was made with the Emak engine on it. They are a fantastic engine made in Italy. The operating RPM is 11,500. The only reason Eskimo does not use them anymore is the fact that the EMAK engine costs $700 alone. EMAK was offering them to Ardisam at a loss to try to establish a name here in the US, but the partnership was discontinued after just a couple of years. Ardisam DOES still offer parts and service on these engines even though they have not used them in over 12 years. That is awesome customer service.

I have had a 10″ Eskimo Shark 9400sx for 8 years. It was used and 4 years old when I bought it. I replaced the blades when I first got it and I have only needed to sharpen the blades twice since then. I drill HUNDREDS of holes every year. It has worked flawlessly. When I gassed it up this season, it was taking 4 pulls to start. I took the carb apart and cleaned it and now it is back to 1 prime, 1 pull start even when it is 0 degrees outside. The gears inside the transmission are machined and tool hardened. Almost all other brands use cast gears. Machined/hardened are MUCH longer lasting. I repacked the bearings and replaced the grease in the gearbox this year as well and the gears still look absolutely brand new after thousands of holes drilled. I would not trade my old Eskimo for a brand new Jiffy or Strikemaster. The only drawback is the weight, but that is due to the lack of plastic. I do lots of hole hopping and it does wear me out by the end of the day.

Just to let everyone know, I finally got to talk with Mr. Hansen at Marcum. They are sending me a charger and are having me send in my unit to have the power problem addressed. He apologized for the late response. I want to thank Mr. Walleye for providing me his direct phone line. I left 1 message on his phone and he called right back.

I have called 888-778-1208, 763-557-6737, 763-512-3970, and 763-512-3972. Left messages on ALL voicemail boxes. I have emailed [email protected] several times. No response from ANY.

Yes. I hold it down for several seconds. I did read the instruction booklet. I even upgraded the battery terminals to some marine grade ones from Radio Shack. Did not help.

I will try the fuse. Thank you for the tip. I will let you know if it worked tomorrow. Again, it is just frustrating that I have such a new piece of equipment and I have no support from the company that makes it. I have an Eskimo ice auger that I bought used from a pawn shop 7 years ago. The auger itself is 13 years old and I needed a rebuild kit for the carb. It is one of the few that have the high performance Emak engines on it. I could not find any info on it on the web or numerous small engine repair shops around me, so I called Ardisam(the parent company of Eskimo) and told them what I needed. They told me that they had the kit that I needed. Some guy had ordered it 3 years prior and never picked up, so they said I could have it for free.I even told them that I had purchased it used. I was on my way up to Mille Lacs anyway so I drove through Cumberland WI and picked it up that day in person. I also picked up 2 sets of brand new 10″ blades and a gas cap all for $30. Now that is customer service. Free parts for a 14 year old auger that was bought used. That is a company that stands behind their products.

I used to live on the southeast side of Mille Lacs when I was a kid. My dad loved fishing out of Red Door. I have friends that worked for Portside Resort for years. Portside used to work hard to keep you on the fish if you rented a house from them. I do not know how they are anymore since the original owner sold it. Hunters Point is another good choice on the east side. They are reasonably priced and have good food too! I was up there just last week and they were having issues with ice heaves and pressure cracks opening up on the east side. I do not know much about the resorts or the ice conditions on the west side of the lake. I would definitely inquire about the ice conditions before making too many plans.

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Interested to know how your screen flashes with no power.

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It is weird. When I try to power it on after turning it off, it will not come on. I have tried leaving it off(but still connected to the battery) for two days then try to turn it on, nothing. As soon as I disconnect the battery and hold down the power button(for approx. 5-7 secs), the screen flashes for just a fraction of a second and then goes blank. I then hook the battery back up and press power, bam, it comes right on and works normally. I do not understand why it does this. It really is a pain out on the ice when it is cold out messing around with the battery connections. It does this when the battery is fully charged, partially discharged and it did it with all 3 different software versions (1.1, 2.9, 3.17). It might be an easy fix, but Marcum will not contact me to help resolve this.

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Matt where are you located in Northern Illinois ? And if I was you I’d be on the phone to Red Rock.

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I live in Lena IL. I have called Red Rock. I called them the day after I got it. They said they could get one from Marcum and then send it to me, but it would be faster if I called them myself. That was over 2 weeks ago. I called Red Rock yesterday and told them that I could not get in touch with Marcum. They grabbed a new one off the shelf and are 2 day shipping it to me free. This is not Red Rock’s fault. The box was absolutely still factory sealed. I am happy that Red Rock is taking care of the charger problem, but I still want to talk to someone about the power issue. Just bums me out that I sold my Vexilar too soon. I had that Vex for almost 7 years and never had one single problem with it. I never even had to replace the battery and I used it 3-5 times a week for the first 4 years I had it.

As far as where I live, I am in Northern Illinois. I am over 350 miles away from their business. I was up there for a few days after Christmas doing some fishing but they were closed until Jan 3rd. I had a Vexilar FL12 with a charger that I owned with me on that trip, but I sold that unit to a guy out on the ice up at Big Sandy. I was able to use a friend’s Marcum charger for the rest of the trip, but now I am back in IL with no way to charge my battery. It is sitting here with 11.8V left in the battery. I do not want to run the battery completely dead with no way to charge it.

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Version 1.1. How long did that sit on the shelf. May want to talk with whoever redrockstore.com is as well. I am just guy who enjoys the site and puts out a few posts here and there but why is that everytime somebody has a problem with their equipment they open an account and complain about the product on the website here. Not picking on you leadboots72. Just noticing alot more of this lately.

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The reason I opened an account here is because Marcum does a lot of sponsoring on this site. I thought maybe a rep would read this and I could get in touch with them that way. I have tried calling all times of the day. When they open, before lunch, lunch, after lunch and an hour before close. I have left at LEAST 7 different voicemails describing my problems. They have always been polite in nature, no swearing or yelling, and still no reply at all. I really like the unit when it is working, but I spent $638 on this brand new unit. I do not think I should have to spend 40 bucks more on a charger. I am also leery of the power issue. I can work around it, but how long before it stops working all together?