Mirage Drive Mayhem

[slayersmith]

Great post Stevoooo. Fixed the same problem a while back.

[oneyedeer]

nice post

[driftwood]

Like a bike, The mirage drive requires maintenance after so many miles.
I also take my mirage drive completely apart. Remove sand, lube, and inspect.

The hardest part is figuring how to install the chains back on. the rest is easy! I
Carry just about every moving part in my kayak. Including Chains and cable.

Don't wait till somthing goes wrong Maintain your drive fellas! Good post.

[da22y]

Originally Posted by driftwood

Like a bike, The mirage drive requires maintenance after so many miles.
I also take my mirage drive completely apart. Remove sand, lube, and inspect.

Very true, but I think few people do it.
Don't wait until it fail on the water.
Hobie minus mirage drive = B class kayak. (or even less)

[-scallywag-]

I dig the cbass scales!
but its probably not the best idea to use grease on the shafts because with the sand it will become a lapping compound and bore out those nice tight hubs of yours, use "dry lubes"....it also helps to pull out your drives before you land on the beach.

If your hard on you drives and dont want to deal with all the BS just sell your old ones, and buy a new set every season, that way u get all the new upgrades/parts, and your old ones will still be in very good condition and sell quickly for 300+. At any rate freshly tuned fins r nice!

[lamb]

Killer post Steve!

I am running out of excuses to put my fat arse on one of those

[sharjak]

I need to do a rebuild soon but now I'm not as intimidated. Thanks for sharing. What was the cost of parts??

[steveooo]

Originally Posted by -scallywag-

I dig the cbass scales!
but its probably not the best idea to use grease on the shafts because with the sand it will become a lapping compound and bore out those nice tight hubs of yours, use "dry lubes"....it also helps to pull out your drives before you land on the beach.

If your hard on you drives and dont want to deal with all the BS just sell your old ones, and buy a new set every season, that way u get all the new upgrades/parts, and your old ones will still be in very good condition and sell quickly for 300+. At any rate freshly tuned fins r nice!

Yeah, its probably worth mentioning the grease was my idea, not Hobie approved. I don't know what Hobie recommends or uses. There was a small amount of residual grease left over on the drum shaft from when I originally got the drive new. It looked to be some type grease, as opposed to silicone lube or dry lube. I just found a tube in the garage and figured I'd give it a shot. Although the remnant grease on the shaft could be from landing on the oily nasty beaches I'll try this way for a while, and if it looks to be getting gummed up I'll experiment a little more with some other stuff.

The idea to keep an extra set of cables on the yak is good too, just in case an OTW repair is needed.

I also like the upgrade every year plan as well. Kinda like a good cell phone policy. I might start a "new every two" mirage drive program

[kayakhunter]

Sweet thread. I will be doing this soon.