had the 1648 war eagle w/ pd out bustin 1 in ice the other morning and when we got back to the ramp noticed dents on both sides towards the front of the boat about 2 foot long just banged in. ive had this boat in a lot thicker ice than this without a scratch, with an outboard. didnt know if the motor had anything to do with it on this boat or not. we did have 2 guys in the front, and there was when we were in thick ice. just trying to get some insight to what is going on here

i'd try sliding some weight back.

Not saying I know anything about it
But what the hell do you know about running in ice

I don't lol but seem like it would help ..

i didn't mean every body , like even through out the weight, just not all the weight on the nose takin all the pressure.

last year we had a good freeze at the duck hole which is rare down here, so my ice experience is very limited, but i did learn alittle somthing last year. i noticed that the lane we busted open going to the area we hunt had started to refreeze just outside the boat lane causing the sides of the ice to get twice as thick as the undisturbed ice from the water splashing up and refreezing. i bumped the edge of refrozen ice with the side of the boat while i was making a turn and thought i tore a hole in the hull. as long as i kept the front of the boat up and hit it straight on i could break thru without hurting the boat.
maybe it was just the way you were hitting the ice?

The keys that I have found are to not break ice with the front of boat, unless it is skim ice, otherwise position your load so the nose runs up on the ice and you are breaking ice with bottom of boat. Also when you are turning make long sweeping turns otherwise you might actually tear a hole in the side. If you run the boat up on the ice just walk everyone to the back until it breaks through. We bust ice every year and at times it gets interesting. I will say the Mudboat design does not break ice nearly as well as the MV hulls. the mm hull wants to ride up and over the ice so up have to go much slower.

up here in the north east we have to break ice alot we have found with the flat bottom boats you need to get the weight back torwards the rear of the boat ride the boat up on the ice past the rake, then step forward and then repeat this over again, also depends on the thickness of the ice ,its a long process and its sounds like hell we were busting 2" ice, this week it took 1 hour just to get to the hole then ran the boat in circles to push out any ice in that area when we were done it was well worth it

First post.......Ya-hooooooo

Hey guys, Im a new b on the block, so take it easy on me!

Question, how hard is ice on your prop.? I busted through about 1/2 mile until I put the boat on a 6' deep ice jam. SO, not fun getting out in 8 degree weather at 5 am.

I did manage to get out in about a 1/2 hour and then ran circles around those outboard losers! Sorry, Im ALL about these motors and boats!

Your dents are from having to much weight in the front, you want to try and keep the rake of the boat above the ice. The dents are from banging the sides into the hard edges of the broken trail, it is hard on a .100 hull to be bounched side to side in the ice.

PW

We run alot of Ice up here and one thing is for certin. Ice will constantly build pressure over time and you will release that pressure as you are driving through it. If you have too much weight up front the ice could crush your bow by squeezing the sides.

Last year we ran into a hole busting 2-3" of ice and when we came out 4 hours later you could not even see our track. The two ice flows that we made by cutting it in half had pushed completely together. The water dropped about 4" the night before. Thats alot of pressure squeezing on a hull.