Mirage Drive on silty rivers

My first post.

My wife and I are planning a 3-5 month, 3000+ mile river trip from Montana to the Gulf of Mexico, down the Missouri/Mississippi, on a 2020 Tandem Island, starting May of 2022. We've used our boat on pristine mountain lakes, but the Missouri is nicknamed the Big Muddy.

I'm looking for thoughts about extended use of the mirage drives in silty water. In an inquiry with Hobie it was suggested using a bearingless drive, which I guess means an older version. We have 2 TI's, so we have a set of 180's and 180's with kick up.

Is there some way to protect from, or minimize drive wear in silty water?

What version(s) of the mirage drive is bearingless?

Is the Hobie bearingless suggestion to minimize replacement cost, as the drive is likely to be "destroyed" and older versions are less expensive? Or is there some reason a bearingless drive would have less wear issue?

Also, I'm interested in ANY thoughts about this trip with a TI.

Thanks. Alan in Montana

Google. This has trip been posted here in the past.

https://www.hobie.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=52020

Kayak Paddling:

https://www.nola.com/news/article_1b2d4 ... 05b51.html

_________________
Matt Miller
Former - Director of Parts and Accessory Sales
Warranty and Technical Support
Hobie Cat USA
(Retired 11/7/2022)

I grew up on the Mississippi, I wouldn’t be the least bit concerned about your mirage drives or either type of bearings.
We had several TI’s and traveled a lot all over the country, and every type of water, never had a lick of problems, but we did always try to rinse them off after most outings, and spayed them down with wd40 once in a while. With our bearing glide drives we did remove clean and repack the bearing once in a while, (mostly because of fine sand on the gulf coast and the keys).
FE

We had a guy pedal down the Mississippi years ago and over time he wore into the sprocket shaft (stainless rod). This was likely before we used bearings, so glass filled nylon rotating back and forth directly on the shaft.

_________________
Matt Miller
Former - Director of Parts and Accessory Sales
Warranty and Technical Support
Hobie Cat USA
(Retired 11/7/2022)