Sterndrive Service Expence

[omega2]

one of the reasons I went for Alpha 1 Gen 2 drive on the current boat and the other two before that.. simple construction when compaired to BII and III drives, not had a problem with them yet and thus far, well within reach of my DIY capabilities.

not when the gears/shafts come out through the side of the casing.

[oGaryo]

not when the gears/shafts come out through the side of the casing.

mine have stayed within the confines of their casing so far... all things considered, it's probably the best place for them

[David of Essex]

My decision-making to look for single shaft shaft drive was made on £££s. If you can afford the extra £££s that alternative dives will be then you can choose between either types.
All the best in finding your next boat
David.

[lovezoo]

Bear in mind that Volvo and Mercruiser are not the same and have different maintenance schedules and running costs. Anyone who tells you that all outdrives from all manufacturers of all ages are the same and all cost x per year to maintain quite simply are talking out of their exhausts:

This thread talks about the differences between Volvo and Mercruiser:

http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?t=244104

Oldgit will be along shortly to tell you that on his 100 year old boat he had some problems with his vintage Volvo outdrives and therefore if you buy a boat with outdrives it will sink, you will die and your house will explode.

[oGaryo]

therefore if you buy a boat with outdrives it will sink, you will die and your house will explode.

and please do factor in that if you should be foolish enough to buy a boat with twin sterndrives, the above will happen to you twice, usually immediately after rebuilding the house after your first death

[oldgit]

Oldgit will be along shortly to tell you that on his 100 year old boat he had some problems with his vintage Volvo outdrives and therefore if you buy a boat with outdrives it will sink, you will die and your house will explode.[/QUOTE]



O Bugger.. there was me just about to nip off to work early and then this open goal appeared.

Outdrives are Fine,,,if you are the first owner of some sort of soap dish and your boating involves a nip out across the bay at umpteen knots stopping in a cloud of spray ...and ......then turning round and doing exactly the same thing back to the mooring.
Exciting eh...........
Possibly even producing some sort of change on the hours meter.
Just look at the complexity on the things...a work of art no less.
The problems come with age,The first owner from new does not have to do much probably because he will not keeping the boat long, heading off upmarket fairly quickly to something bigger and with better go faster stripes and he cares little for what pushes the boat along.The next owner is on a tighter budget,so the first service gets done properly by Volvo with few problems but the cost will be noted.Next service due but boat sold,so next subsequent bloke gets the delayed service done but a bit late.After that the service schedule really starts to slip
and vital rubberware/seals do not get changed when they should.
Just a quick look at who is pro and anti legs should give you information to make a decision
on wether outdrives are for you.Most of the antis will be well experienced by virtue of the number of boats they have owned over the years and they also tend to clock up a serious number of hours each year and their boats do not get left forsaken in the marina when nasty rain or horrid wind dares to sully the weekend.
See,now I'm late and its all your fault Loozoo.

[lovezoo]

"and vital rubberware/seals do not get changed when they should."

What is the service interval on the "vital rubberware/seals"?

1 year?
2 years?
3 years?
4 years?
5 years?

BTW what is this "nasty rain or horrid wind" of which you speak?

[Spi D]

Sterndrives - the manufacturers pension plan.

If maintained according to specs no issues should occur. Since this is quite costly people tend to skip and then..

Technically the sterndrive has to transmit the engine power from a stationairy engine via flexible joints to a trim-, tilt- and turnable unit - ie. the lower part of an outboard.

It involves universal joints, bellows and more and all these parts are serviceable.

A shaft does none of this - it just spins.
An outboard has the same properties as it turns, but since the engine and driveline is integrated, service only regards gears and impeller.

The integrated gear/clutch/shaft/waterpump design consists of many parts that does not require service but may fail and will cost a lot to replace.

Biggest risk is water ingression. Parts meant for running in oil suffers severely from water



If water get inside the bellows it will harm drive shaft, joints and may pass on to the gimbal - and further into the engine flywheel etc.


A lot of boats are offered with i/o drives only, so your choise might be limited if you walk from all these.

Note also that, with very few exceptions, sterndrives are sold for leisure boats only whereas shafts are used for all purposes, even the largest.

[rafiki_]

Actually, there are more and more boats offered with sterndrives these days, as boat builders push the space boundaries in 40-45 footers, with more engine torque. If outdrives were so bad, manufacturers would not do this, because of warranty pressures and residual values.

VP has had a serious issue recently with the steering rams sealing, and I think this has been the cause of most peoples dissatisfaction with VP outdrives recently. And from an engineering perspective, their design is just plain wrong. They cannot have conducted an FMECA (failure mode review) of the system before launch.

Outdrives have higher maintenance costs than shafts, but it is not true that sharfts are maintenance free. There have been many posts on this forum on vibration and alignment issues. An older boat requires more maintenance than a newer one, be it sail, motor, outdrive, shaft.

[lovezoo]

but it is not true that sharfts are maintenance free.

A lot of the people who will tell you that a shaft drive needs practically no maintenance, seem to forget they also have a gearbox, which can and does go wrong. So when a gearbox goes wrong on a shaft drive boat, its just a gearbox problem, but when a gearbox goes wrong on an outdrive boat, its used as proof that outdrives are unreliable.

Also on my Alpha 1 Gen II outdrive I can check the gearbox oil level by looking at the remote gear lube monitor in the engine compartment. How do you shaft drive types check your gear box oil level?

Finally, if my outdrive goes wrong I can buy an entire new one (which includes a gearbox) for more or less the same cost of a new gearbox for a shaft drive boat.