Hobie MirageDrive PSA+Question
 

Sooooo before going out yesterday, I checked the tension on my MD180 like I always do, and noticed all of my cables were a bit loose. I tightened them all down to where I'd been recommended by Andy and noticed that they almost all ran close to the bottom of their respective bolts. I guess the cables are showing a bit of stretch, or perhaps that's just where they originally were.....

Anyway, On the water yesterday, 3 miles from shore, my drive popped loose. One of the locknuts on a chain cable just walked right off and into the ocean.

Your PSA: Get an extra cable or two with lock nuts, some extra cardi-pins for your fins, find a small wrench that fits it, and put them in a ziplock bag that lives with a kit that always goes out with you. That would have been one hell of a paddle in an outback against wind and current.

My question: This one's been on my mind quit a bit lately. My outback is going on 3 years old, and it seems like a pretty common milestone is the breaking of a cable in the middle from flexing back and forth. Is there a telltale sign (perhaps such as all of your cables getting loose at once) where you know that break is on the way? Has anyone on here ever gone so far as to just proactively replace their cables, or at least keep a full set on hand?

Yes, I keep an old set of cables in a ziplock with the appropriate wrench. I have never had the misfortune of needing to use it on the water. The wrench is all rusty now -- failed to give it a protective coat of grease prior to zipping in the bag. One of the signs of wear is stretched wires as you described(the nuts have little thread to tighten down on). Another is irregular diameter of wires. Sometimes the outer coating wears off, sometimes the diameter changes because the wire breaks inside of the outer coating as in the photo.

Good recommendation, thanks. 2 weeks ago, the nut for my rudder came loose and fell off and I lost all steering 2 miles off. Fished the rest of the day using the paddle to steer. Could've been worse! Was able to pull in a few small bass inshore still!

inspect
 

where the cable is crimped onto the bolt or screw. sometimes individual strands of cable / wire will start to let go or break at this location, which means its time to replace. it might be more prevalent or evident due to abnormal amounts of rust at this location. this is probably a fairly common type of failure. I have not taken apart a 360 drive, so i'm not sure if the cables are the same or not as on previous years such as the V2 drives. you can find those nylon lock nuts at home depot or local hardware store. replace that nut every time you disassemble the drive. personally I have taken both routes. carrying spare parts, or completely overhauling the wearable parts of drive. drives are ridiculously expensive nowadays, and I would imagine parts are also. small price to pay weighed against safety. imagine paddling a loaded PA from around the corner at LJ. I know guys that were using the drive excessively on a daily basis and they would carry a second drive as opposed to carrying a bag of parts. these are guys that have seen every type of failure imaginable. if you are using the drive frequently, I would not hesitate to do a complete overhaul every couple of seasons.

Thanks for the replies. I was able to put my hands on a new set of cables for pretty cheap, so I'm gonna go ahead and overhaul the whole thing.

BTW has anyone seen/tried this? Seems like a genius idea... I always keep a zip tie or two in my kayak, but didn't even think about this. . . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ju2FCgYpUIA

I have a spare set of cables for emergency repair (Thanks TJones) but I just realized I don’t have the locknuts. I better get some in case.

Nice idea, Thanks!