Spare drive

I'm going to buy a spare drive for my Revo 16 so I don't have fishing downtime when my 180 drive fails, which it seems they always do. So, of all the models of drives that Hobie has made, which is the most rock solid reliable?  I don't need a 180 drive, just looking for something that can take the abuse of beach launching and 3-4 days every week on the water without failure.   Suggestions?

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Mirage Drive Classic, the one with blue fins. The base one you can buy from Hobie. Also known as the GT drive. It is the non kick up non reversible one that Hobie used in its kayaks until 2016 when the md180 with square arms came out. Then I think in 2017 the md180 with arc arms came out, then the md180 kick up in 2020 (all off the top of my head so I may be a little off)

At any rate I’ve put lots of miles on the mirage drive classic with no issues. The md180 on the other hand has needed a lot of replacement parts and fixing.

https://westcoastsailing.net/blog/hobie-miragedrive-guide-2020-kayak-models/

+1 on the GT drive. The bearings were a solid upgrade from the V2 drive and seems far more reliable than the drives that have come since. Only issue right now and it may correct itself when the supply chain gets its shit together, is that spare parts may be limited. I needed a new sprocket drive and everyone was on backorder with no delivery date - finally found one in stock someplace but it was a search. It's still the one I would buy.

Cheers,
Brad

Here's a spare for sale on CL $250

https://sfbay.craigslist.org/nby/bpo/d/mill-valley-hobie-mirage-drive/7471155482.html

+1 on the GT drive. The bearings were a solid upgrade from the V2 drive and seems far more reliable than the drives that have come since. Only issue right now and it may correct itself when the supply chain gets its shit together, is that spare parts may be limited. I needed a new sprocket drive and everyone was on backorder with no delivery date - finally found one in stock someplace but it was a search. It's still the one I would buy.

Cheers,
Brad

Totally agree that GT is the way to go. If you can get an older V2, it is pretty easy to upgrade to GT.

Just curious about the difficulty finding sprockets, as they seem to have them at West Coast sailing, which is the first place I'd look for Hobie parts:

https://westcoastsailing.net/mirage-drive-gt-sprocket-update-kit/?gclid=Cj0KCQjwjN-SBhCkARIsACsrBz6n7m1FNh-FBzreYEWQKfyo1QuxS4VpIFTMxg09JTT3up0VmQtmjwMaAiR0EALw_wcB