hobie mirage drive durability

So this year has been terrible for my mirage drive. Broken something basically every month of the fishing season. Broke 2 fin masts, idler cable, assembly cable, and one of the pedal distance holes is cracked. End of last year broke both assembly cables.

What gives? I put a lot of miles on my drive and usually fish 2-3 times a week depending on the weather. Revo 13 kayak. Wash after every use in the salt, store laying on its side. Cables are not excessively tight (I think ?). Cruise speed with 0 current is ~4.5mph, trolling d6/16oz anywhere from 1.5-3.5mph.

Anything seem out of the ordinary? I'm pretty hard on my gear but even on back to backs the drive always gets a rinse. I don't think I travel excessively fast. Today trolling d6 @ 3.5mph drive pretty much exploded, I snapped the bike chain part of the assembly. Pushing the drive to hard or bad maintenance or is this just normal?

Really looking for answers from guys who put lots of miles on their drive and are in and out of the salt often. Also ideas on what is gonna break next so I can pre-order it, absolutely hate being kept off the water waiting on drive parts to arrive.

That is an exceptional amount of breakage. Even fin masts. I have broken cables but that's about it. My drive arms are solid aluminum so immune to breakage. You might look around for a spare drive or another drive and use your current one as a spare. Maybe you have a factory lemon.

Man that’s a bummer. I don’t use my drive as much as you but after 4 years, my first part broke earlier this year right at the end of a 20 mile day at Moss. The idler cable. Mirage 180 drive. According to Billy at Wind Toys, it’s the weakest link. Supposedly, salt water creeps into the cables, seeps in under the plastic, and just starts eating away at it. He knows his stuff and I’d give him a call if I were you.

My maintenance is similar to yours, just a rinse from the hose after each use. But I do coat all the metal parts with ReelX at the beginning of each season, and completely tear down the drive, regrease the plastic bearings, and rebuild (I should probably do it at the end of the season too).

I always carry now one idler cable and one chain and a 15mm (?) wrench in my dry bag in case of emergency otw repairs.

Sorry again to hear about the drive issue. So frustrating!

That is not good and concerning at the same time…. I had an idler cable give out and it was replaced.  Like you, I rinse the drive with fresh water after every outing and spray the chain with silicone spray before putting it to bed in its case.  I will say that I don’t push the drive too hard, don’t purposely pedal fast, and I almost baby it.  Knock on wood no real issues thus far.  But it’s plastic and metal parts… hope I don’t have to paddle in during a windy, rough day…. That would suck, or could be  a serious problem….

Thanks for the inputs

I bought the kayak used a few years ago, drive came with. 2 years prior to last year no problems at all. at the end of last year the first to go were the cable bits of the cable assemblys, both broke within a few trips of eachother. Replaced those 2, thought I would get at least 2 years out of them but broke one of them today. Didn't even last 6 months of fishing really, ordered 2 will replace both and carry the second as a backup. To my knowledge the assembly cable is the only break that renders the drive completely useless. not 100% on that though.

Idler cable I saw coming, could see the cable cover slowly peeling back. That broke in between fin masts. The fin masts was strange since the back one went first and I can count on one hand the amount of times I have hit things at speed (1+mph). Both masts never bent and both were sheared off at the base of the sprocket.

So of all my drive failures only 1 (idler cable) was directly visible before happening, and 2 were predictable (second chain assembly and second fin mast).

Think I should get a drive hole plug maybe, since I seem to have to keep paddling back to launch might at least make it a bit easier. Today sucked paddling back.

My current takeaway is that I just pedal too hard or pedal strangely in a way that puts extra stress on the drive. Will see what I can do to fix that but it does suck as it means fishing/trolling less efficiently.

My current takeaway is that I just pedal too hard or pedal strangely in a way that puts extra stress on the drive. Will see what I can do to fix that but it does suck as it means fishing/trolling less efficiently.

A good way to figure out how to pedal efficiently is by watching your speed on your fishfinder's GPS or a handheld GPS as you pedal.  I think that you'll discover that in a Mirage Drive kayak you'll travel fastest with a long slow relaxed pedal stroke, which is easy on your legs and easy on your Mirage Drive.  Hammering the pedals with short fast hard strokes is hard on your legs and will produce less speed. Don't push with both legs at the same time as you pedal, as that creates resistance to your downward pedal stroke.  Lift up your leg lightly as your pedal comes up.

All boats and kayaks with displacement hulls have a maximum hull speed. See, for example, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hull_speed and https://www.paddlinglight.com/articles/tutorial/how-much-faster-is-the-longer-kayak/.  You can move along a perhaps 80 percent of that hull speed without much effort.  Trying to squeeze out the last 20 percent of the hull speed is a lot of additional work.  So chill out and don't try to maximize your speed all the time. If you coast along at a slightly slower speed, you can cover the miles with a lot less effort than if you're trying to break water speed records.

" I put a lot of miles on my drive and usually fish 2-3 times a week depending on the weather."
- sounds like you are "better at life" than me. 

That is an exceptional amount of breakage.

+1

I pedaled a fair number of miles per season on my Hobies since 2013, although the vast majority of it is at a slow trolling speed, like 2mph or so. But I do have a heavy AI, and I use crank arms that are a couple inches longer than stock, and I’m sure both of those things put added stress in the system. I’ve broken a coupler idler cables, and have now replaced the idler cable with bungee cord, which is an upgrade, IMHO.  I’ve only broken one drive cable which, of course, snapped at just about the worst possible time.

One thing you might take a look at is tension on the cables. I believe most people have them way too tight—there should be even more play than Hobie recommends (as per discussion on the Hobie forum). Another possibility could be that you bottom out the pedals. I suspect that that last fraction of an inch before it hits bottom puts way more stress one cables than anywhere else in the stroke (just my opinion as I don’t have anything to back it up).

That is an exceptional amount of breakage.

I suspect that that last fraction of an inch before it hits bottom puts way more stress one cables than anywhere else in the stroke (just my opinion as I don’t have anything to back it up).

Yes, you can observe this empirically. I too have my cables quite loose, but if you rest the drive on the ground with the flippers to each side, essentially the configuration with pedals pushed all the way in, the tension on the cables are markedly increased.

Idk I thoroughly clean my gear with soapy water  and spray corrosion x after every use unless I’m fishing 2 days in a row. I bought a spare set of  arms, maybe I should get a spare set of cables ... everything has held up well when since 2014 when it was built. Wish me luck.
Occasionally I’ll give my revo a break and just use the prowler for closer range crabbing and really inshore fishing.

It seems to me all the new drives are really built not so sturdy.

With all the 360 180 and materials.. too much moving parts.

It seems to me all the new drives are really built not so sturdy.

With all the 360 180 and materials.. too much moving parts.

I agree. IMHO, the GT drive was an upgrade, and everything since then has been a downgrade, at least wrt inherent reliability...

My spine broke on my drive and only had it since august on a 3k hobie outback. I rinse it off, dry it and treat it like a baby after every outing. Luckily the spine about $400 part was under warranty. Took my drive to the dealer because the drive was a little too loose and the bearings were showing a little bit. They made it worse by tightening it too much and then the drive started grinding really loud and the bearings popped out even more. 

Someone has to have a friend who has access to cad tools.

Would be doing a great service to get some parts modeled and machined...or even sand casting some spares.. 

My current takeaway is that I just pedal too hard or pedal strangely in a way that puts extra stress on the drive. Will see what I can do to fix that but it does suck as it means fishing/trolling less efficiently.

A good way to figure out how to pedal efficiently is by watching your speed on your fishfinder's GPS or a handheld GPS as you pedal.  I think that you'll discover that in a Mirage Drive kayak you'll travel fastest with a long slow relaxed pedal stroke, which is easy on your legs and easy on your Mirage Drive.  Hammering the pedals with short fast hard strokes is hard on your legs and will produce less speed. Don't push with both legs at the same time as you pedal, as that creates resistance to your downward pedal stroke.  Lift up your leg lightly as your pedal comes up.

All boats and kayaks with displacement hulls have a maximum hull speed. See, for example, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hull_speed and https://www.paddlinglight.com/articles/tutorial/how-much-faster-is-the-longer-kayak/.  You can move along a perhaps 80 percent of that hull speed without much effort.  Trying to squeeze out the last 20 percent of the hull speed is a lot of additional work.  So chill out and don't try to maximize your speed all the time. If you coast along at a slightly slower speed, you can cover the miles with a lot less effort than if you're trying to break water speed records.

Thanks for this Pete, I have resolved since about two seasons ago that leisurely pedal is much more efficient for me (basically giving up on that 20% when not heading home).  Glad to hear your write up, I concur.

2008 Revo still going strong.
Upgraded to turbo fins immediately.
Over the years I have had 1 cable start to fray so I replaced both. And for some reason I remember replacing a mast but I think that one was on me.
Always rinsed, dried and lubed the drive before storing it in a closet.
I don't slam the pedals to the end of the stroke. That puts excess wear on the cables.