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remove pedals on hobies to go thru shallow water?
http://www.hobie.com/au/en/forums/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=63086		 Page 1 of 1
Author:  arikay2000 [ Tue Jul 03, 2018 12:34 am ]
Post subject:  remove pedals on hobies to go thru shallow water?
i want to be able to either remove them if need be...

is that possible? I love the idea of pedals but i am on rivers frequently that are very shallow and over rocks frequently.

don't want to damage the system
Author:  Tom Kirkman [ Tue Jul 03, 2018 7:17 am ]
Post subject:  Re: remove pedals on hobies to go thru shallow water?
You can push one pedal all the way forward and feather the fins against the hull. In fact, you can short stroke the pedals and propel the Kayak in water that is less than a foot deep. But... if you expect to rub the hull bottom on the bottom, rocks, etc., then I'd pull it. Particularly if large rocks and boulders are involved.
Author:  dyeagy [ Tue Jul 03, 2018 8:28 am ]
Post subject:  Re: remove pedals on hobies to go thru shallow water?
Removing the pedals is easy BUT you need to be in deep enough water to fully extend them, otherwise they won't pull out. On a few occasions, I've found myself wishing I had pulled them after it wasn't possible.

Feathering them, as Tom suggests, works in almost every case and you can get really shallow when they are pulled tight against the hull.
Author:  Pescatoral Pursuit [ Tue Jul 03, 2018 2:03 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: remove pedals on hobies to go thru shallow water?
when in doubt, pull them out.

Short hops over shallows is okay. continuous or intermittent shallows,managing them becomes more of a hassle than its worth, ntm damage potential and getting sand in the drives which will cause them to have to be completely dismantled to get out.
Author:  fusioneng [ Tue Jul 03, 2018 4:01 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: remove pedals on hobies to go thru shallow water?
We never remove the pedal drives at all, we just put the bungy on one pedal and let the fins fold up against the hull. You know you can pedal the mirage drive with the bungy on right...
Learn how to shallow pedal well, ( it takes practice). Once you get good at it you can go almost as fast shallow peddling. If I have a long distance to shallow pedal, move one pedal to position 7, and leave the other on position 4.
When we beach we just leave the drives in. Sure the drums get banged up, but they are incredibly durable and easily repaired.
We are often in very shallow water. However when in heavy weeds we do pull the drives and paddle.
Sure once in a while your going to bend a fin shaft, but not often, besides they are easily straightened. The fins and shafts are consumable items, we replace ours every couple years. If the fins are wavy, they are shot, you need new fins.
Just tryin to point out the mirage drives are way more durable than you might think.
Hope this helps
FE
Author:  WAVERIDER [ Tue Jul 03, 2018 6:04 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: remove pedals on hobies to go thru shallow water?
If you do want to get out the paddle to get across extensive flats say, best to pull the drive as it makes a difficult kayak to paddle even harder. The bungie trick is the best default for a lot of shallows so they default to up rather than down if you are not paying attention
Author:  fusioneng [ Tue Jul 03, 2018 7:08 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: remove pedals on hobies to go thru shallow water?
Another pointer if your in shallows a lot.
The rudders on most of the Hobies with the twist and stow rudder system, ( ie... revo,outback,oasis,etc), what we did with all of our kayaks is replace the rudder with the larger sailing rudder, (available from Hobie, not expensiive) and installed on all of our kayaks. We then sawed off the bottom 4-5 inches of the large rudder. The sawed off rudder actually works better than the stock rudder, ( we even used the cut off rudders for kayak sailing).
With the sawed off rudder you can navigate water down to around 8 inches without needing to raise the rudder. Once you master shallow peddling, you can pedal thru that 8” water.
Oh by the way, especially the shorter hobies, don’t paddle worth a hoot, (tracking) with the rudder up, ( lets just say you will be using the whole river, lol). The longer kayaks like the TI kayak, and probably the revo 16, track and glide great, (because of their length mostly).
On our older boats we were able to shove a rag under the steering handle to lock the rudder straight when paddling, it helps, (not sure about the newer boats steering handle though).
Actually every kayak we ever bought we bought the sailing kit with the kayak, we kept the kayak sail furled on the side of the boat, ( where the paddle normally goes), just in case we found wind.
Actually I don’t recall ever launching a hobie without a sail strapped to the side of the boat, (not even once).
The reason I’m mentioning that is we had all the sail rigging ropes always on every boat. When having problems tracking when paddling, we tossed that sail control rope out the back of the boat and drug it behind the boat, ( about 10-15 ft long 1/4” rope), it helped tracking when paddling.
Just tryin to help with suggestions, that’s all
FE

Edit: BTW re-reading your original post, all of us are describing all these fancy tricks and cool techniques), but nobody addressed your original question.
The answer is the mirage drives are held down with two levers, ( called click and go), it takes only one to two seconds to remove or insert the mirage drive, when inserting, it automatically aligns and clicks in place, (easy peazy).
Author:  staktup [ Mon Jul 16, 2018 8:46 am ]
Post subject:  Re: remove pedals on hobies to go thru shallow water?
WAVERIDER wrote:
If you do want to get out the paddle to get across extensive flats say, best to pull the drive as it makes a difficult kayak to paddle even harder. The bungie trick is the best default for a lot of shallows so they default to up rather than down if you are not paying attention



I glued short rubber or pvc type surfboard fins to help the tracking during paddling on my Revo 13 and my son’s 11. So long as the wind isn’t over 12mph, they actually help. I posted pictures on this forum a few years ago...
Author:  pmmpete [ Wed Jul 18, 2018 8:18 am ]
Post subject:  Re: remove pedals on hobies to go thru shallow water?
If you spend most of your time kayaking on shallow, rocky rivers, a pedal kayak is a poor choice, because you are likely to damage the pedal drive. A paddle kayak would be more appropriate. I don't use my Revolution on rivers unless the water is reliably more than more than about three feet deep. And I always pull out my drive when coming into shore. As a result of these practices, I've never damaged a Mirage Drive.

I also always pull up my rudder when coming into to shore. However, one time I was fishing near a rocky lake shore, and my rudder clipped a rock which stuck up near the surface and broke a rudder line. This disabled my rudder for the day, and then I had to replace the rudder line, which was a hassle. Fortunately I didn't damage the twist and stow rudder system. So the risk of damaging your rudder is another reason why a pedal drive kayak is a bad choice for shallow rocky rivers.

I'm a whitewater kayaker, and I own a 13' Ocean Kayak Trident which doesn't have a rudder, in addition to my 13' Revolution. I do 98 percent of my fishing from my Revolution, which I love. But when I want to fish on a shallow river, I use the Trident.
Author:  fusioneng [ Thu Jul 19, 2018 2:40 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: remove pedals on hobies to go thru shallow water?
That’s the direct opposite of what we do, I hate paddle yaks, more because I have a bad back and can’t paddle much at all. We use our hobies for everything including class two rapids. Never had any problems in ten yrs.
Just our opinion that’s all
FE
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