JohnT2240 wrote:
I guess it was more of after thought when beenfishin broke the shear pin on his rudder . I know Hobie makes quality kayak but everything wears . Now we are talking about maintenance on the rudder what the Mirage Drive , I know if you run into a under water object you could bend or break a fin but what the mechanical parts of the drive ? Is there a lot high wear parts ?
We purchased five Hobie Revolutions in December of 2008. Three were driven by teenage boys. As I'm sure you know, teenage boys can destroy a block of titanium if given enough time.
Since then I've purchased a Pro Angler 14 and an Outback.
To date our repairs include:
Adding Gorilla tape to turbo fins. We regularly tear the fins on shallow oyster beds in the areas we fish. It's gotten to the point that I add Gorilla Tape to new fins before they ever see the water. This issue has never left any of us stranded but has left one or two of us "crippled" for the day.
We've suffered several bent fin masts. No big deal. We simply bend them back by hand or, when possible, with the aid of a "cheater pipe" - a 3'(?) section of "heavy" pipe with a hole big enough to accept the mast.
I sold a Revo recently. A week or two later the guy called to complain that the pedals were "slipping." Turns out, the plastic between two holes on one of the drums (between 5 & 6) broke. I suspect that he did this when he got stuck on a mud flat and tried too hard to force the pedals. To keep my "customer" happy, I switched the Mirage Drive out with one of our other drives and ordered a replacement part (V2 Drum) which only ran me about $19. Then, with no experience, I managed to replace it with no notable difficulty. (I'm now a self-certified Mirage Drive mechanic.
)
The only other notable issue I've had was, in trying to unscrew an original fin mast on a 2009 V2 sprocket, the brass set screw that the mast screws into began to turn. Solution = had to purchase a new sprocket. Again, the cost was only about $20. As I understand things, Hobie has resolved this issue in newer models by using a set screw with a 'D' shape instead of a round set screw.
That's it for our experiences with breaking things on a Mirage Drive. Keep in mind, this includes seven boats, five users and a few thousand hours of use.
Color me "very pleased" with the Mirage drive system.