Mirage drive exessive wear

I have a pro angler 12 with a mirage drive (turbofins), i have used it for about 2 1/2 years. So far i have replaced all the chain drives (pulled apart in middle) and the left pedal - broke at bottom bolt. My right pedal just broke - at top bolt. The drums need to be replaced because of excessive play around the drum shaft. I lube and check it about once per month. Does anybody have a suggestion on how to make this equipment last longer - the mirage drive does not seem to be made to take a lot of use. I kayak about 3 times per week, 5 miles upstream and 5 miles back. Replacing parts is getting expensive

Wow! Never heard of that many issues with a Mirage Drive. I still have the Mirage drive from my 2012 PA (used on my 2013 PA every week - 15 hours a week) for 3 years. No issues. My 2015 drive on my 2015 PA14 gets used every week, mostly in the salt dealing with skinny water and oyster bars. Still looks and works great. The only parts I have had to replace were the split rings at the base of the fins. Yes, I have made a small tear or two in the fins and straightened the shafts after hitting something, but both drives still work great!

I read about folks breaking the pedal shafts or breaking off pedals and find it hard to understand how that happens. I rinse and wash my drive after every outing, inspect it for any issues and ensure the cables are at the right tension. I lubricate the drive at least once a month or sooner if it starts to get any squeeks or noises.

Sorry to hear you are having those issues. I hope you figure it out.

_________________
Steve Stubbs
USAF (retired)

SeaDek Fishing Team
Unfair Lures Pro Staff
Ziptailz Ambassador

2015 Pro Angler 14 - Papaya
2018 Compass - Sea Grass

In reality... that is not that odd over the time frame and regular use. If it were a mountain bike, used that often, you would need to maintain, lubricate, replace chains, cogs, tires etc. And bikes are not in water. The type of water can also have an effect. We see more wear in silty water and salt water of course.

Cranks breaking has been resolved in the past few years. We had some process issues with heat treating and alloys at one point. That was corrected by changing the crank profile more batch testing and feedback to the supplier of the part.

Could also be pedaling style differences.

_________________
Matt Miller
Former - Director of Parts and Accessory Sales
Warranty and Technical Support
Hobie Cat USA
(Retired 11/7/2022)

Yes, the pedal break looks like the aluminum was cooled to fast as the break metal has a large crystal looking metal at the break. I would send a picture but the IMG on this forum does not seem to work. I am surprised at the that the drum shaft area wore to the point that the top of the pedal moves sideways over an inch. Is there anything I can do to keep the drum shaft hole from enlarging? This could have place extra force on the pedals. hopefully the new parts i ordered have been improved.

I peddle I think more miles, and have not had as many break downs as you. Probably just dumb luck.
On the cables I think I know whats going on with them and have some ideas to make them last longer.
The way the cables work all the strands need the same equal tension as the cable rolls over the drum and around the bends. This means the individual strands need to slip and slide against each other to equalize the stress. I suspect what happens is water (especially salt water) wicks into the cable and creates surface corrosion on the surface of each strand. Eventually the strands rust against each other and can no longer slip, in other words some slip and some don't, which puts exessive strain on some individual strands.
The only solution I can think of is when the cable is new soak in some kind of water repelling lubricant (maybe WD40) that prevents water intrusion, maybe soak overnight or something (maybe vacuum).
After soaking, then degrease the exposed ends and soak the exposed ends with clear coat spray paint.
The clear coat prevents intrusion like a boot, and sealed in wd40 prevents wicking (because it's hydrophobic). A coat of silicone over the exposed ends (on top of everything else), should also help. Think of it like the guy wires on a bridge if they rust the bridge falls down ( why bridge maint is so important).
Every one of my broken cables were rusty inside.
Hope this helps
FE

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The crank parts will be way better and the drums now have delrin roller bearings (GT - Glide Technology), so they wear less, run smoother and can be easily replaced.

_________________
Matt Miller
Former - Director of Parts and Accessory Sales
Warranty and Technical Support
Hobie Cat USA
(Retired 11/7/2022)

I upgraded my drives to glide tech, with the roller bearings, definately worthwhile.
FE

Check your shafts for wear if replacing drums, spockets etc. Or the uneven wear will soon wear out any replacements.

hopefully as GT bearings wear it will be easier to replace the bearings and main components should last longer??

I also rinse and spray cable ends while i am spraying the bearings after each trip

If I recall correctly for a short time Hobie had a material issue with the pedal arms (around 2013 sometime). Our local Island club had a fun race involving 6 or 8 islands (I think in 2014), three sets of pedal arms broke that day, all 3 boats were the same vintage. I'm an expert in metalurgy and looked at all three failures closely. All were tensile failure (dull grey) indicating inferior metal being used. Hobie quickly addressed the issue and corrected. My TI is vintage 2012 with many many miles of peddling (I always pedal 100% of the time) with no issues. Since corrected I haven't seen many pedal arm failures posted on this forum. At the time I posted a quick fix using a couple drill bits and filling the affected area with epoxy (simple and easy fix to hold everyone over till the corrected pedal arms came out). I'm pretty sure this was a very short period of time and has since been corrected. I suspect all those bad pedal arms (likely hundreds) were all quickly replaced (within warranty period), and are out of the system now.
Of course there's still the big ole fishermans feet guys out there (big guys that reel in big fish with both feet on the pedals), but that's pretty unusual.
Regular maint and lubrication on mirage drives is pretty important if you want them to last (sand is your enemy).
I feel the Mirage drive is a wonderful invention and will last under normal use for many years. It's pretty likely the extreme racer guys go thru a lot of drive parts, and know what to keep an eye on, and what spare parts to carry, and know how to upgrade where neccessary (ie... things like solid pedal arms, etc), but they are the exception not the rule.
Hope this helps.
FE
In my case I have my mirage drives fitted with the Flow 90 (eclipse) fins because the standard fins are no longer effective at speeds over 8mph (provide no useful additional propulsion), my normal cruise speed on my hybrid setup is 8-12 mph). As a result of the additional peddling force required, the cables get a little extra strain, (I go thru a lot of cables lol)I will likely make my own cables up using spectra ((uhdhdpe)15x stronger than steel), but none of that would be considered normal.
I'm a motorhead (former racer), and am used to building nitro fueled engines that only live 30 minutes, If I can get a few hrs from my MD I'm golden (lol).
Again nothing I do is normal, but I have a lot of fun playing around with stuff.