Md 180 drive, 2019, spine issues

There are a lot of threads on here (hobie forum) about this issue, so im not going to start a new one, l will just add my thoughts here.

I bought a brand new hobie PA14 a year ago, followed recommended service and maintenance of the drive and kayak, some time ago a noisy drive brought my attention to a loose chain, l thought this strange as l had never needed to tighten any cables since new, the drive along with all my gear is washed and lubricated apon returning after every trip, l removed my drive and proceeded to tighten the 2 adjusting nuts for the chain to find they had very little grip for nylon nuts, next trip in to town saw new nuts.

Winter is when l pull all my serviceable gear down, clean, re grease, replace parts and so on, my last job on the list, the hobie drive, l was shocked! Coming from an engineering background, well l don't really want to say what my thoughts were, but l cant understand why hobie has not gone back to the drawing board on the 180 drive? It obviously has major design faults which im not here to point out.

I would like to know what hobie is and is going to do about this issue with the 180 drive, do you intend covering it under warranty for life? As if a replacement drive fails before it normal warranty period you should replace it as a faulty drive.

Im not faulting hobie as i love my PA14 but this issue must be resolved with reasonable satisfaction before people start loosing faith in your products.

It seems that tight chains have been a bigger problem with the 180. It crushes the roller bearings. Also have to caution on the type of lubrication used. This drive has a variety of plastics and some lubricants can damage plastic parts. We suggest only the Hobie Lube as it is mineral oil-based and safe.

We certainly will replace spines under warranty.

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

So what is the new deflection recommended by hobie for the chains? What periods should the drive be dismantled and bearing parts be inspected for wear and re-luberication what are the specifications of the recommended
grease? Im in Australia and I'm not really interested in paying a premium price for a hobie product that most likely an of the shelf product here, also given l have just purchased a 500 gram tub of grease that was recommended by my local hobie dealer.

What I'm worried about is come the end of the warranty period for my craft if l have had the drive or part thereof replace after just one year, what will happen in another 12 months 2, 3, 5, years? Is hobie prepared to replace any offending parts after this amount of time?

I understand that this issue may not have shown itself while in rd or testing stages however now it has become apparent l require clarification on how hobie intends to proceed, l saw one person was given the option to sell the 180 drive back and buy the older drive to replace it, is this going to be an option to everyone? Could this possibly be the only way to fix the issue? Hell l hope not but if l can't trust the 180 drive to last l sure don't want it.

For Australia service or replacement questions... consult your dealer or the regional distributor.

The is no defined service interval at this time. This would likely have to be use hours based as users vary greatly in the use of the drives.

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

I just want to say it has been 6 months since I traded in my 180 drives for GT drives. I have never looked back, super stoked about how the older drives hold up, not a single issue, tons of miles on them.

My spline has been replaced under warranty tyvm, I've decided to stick with the 180 drive for the time being, and look at how to prevent this from happening again, im using the recommended washing and lubrication methods as read on this forum, so im hoping this will fix any further issues.

Thanks for all the help, peatop.

Sounds good, good luck!

After reading this thread I checked my 180 drive. I noticed the chain tension is different on each chain rather than the same. How tight should they be?

I also coated my drive units (I have two boats) with WD40 Gel Lubricant after flushing them with fresh water.

All I know is I tried 4 different 180 drives. I left the originals at factory tension, which was pretty tight, and then tried loosening the 3rd and 4th sets slightly on the 3rd and slightly more on the 4th set. In all cases all 4 units ended up with sand getting in the bearing races and tearing them up, with me doing fresh water rinses and lubricating as instructed by Hobie, and never ever not even once beached with the drives in. Apparently the water I fish is too silty for the 180 drives. Have had no trouble at all with 2 new GT drives. In terms of cable tension, typically every style of drive has even tension on the 2 front cables when pinching, and even but slightly less tension on the 2 rear cables when pinched.

The cable tension you describe is about the same as what I found on my drives. Thank you for the response.

Wish I knew this was an option. Would a GT drive work in my 2017 Outback? My MD180 spine has failed me twice now. I rarely use reverse and would gladly go without it in exchange for a reliable drive.

Absolutely will.

Can't have plastic bearings that are harder then the spline materials. They need to either add a race or reverse the sacrificial parts so the bearing go not the spline. As it is now any grease is bad. One grain of sand stuck in it will wipe it out. Keep in mind any sand on deck is flushing through the drive at some point.

Will be on 180 drive number 3 shorty. Number one lasted 1 season. Number 2 the warrantied replacement also 1 season and sounds like a kids swing squeaking back and forth already.

Its time to get it right.

While I was doing a deep cleaning, I noticed the same excessive wear problem on my 2021 mirage drive, same bearing race wear issue. I've only had it ~3 months, but have 100+ hours of fresh and salt water fishing. I always rinse my gear after salt water trips, and had not added any grease or lube until I broke it down for maintenance this weekend.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/r5ng4grqxspk4yp/IMG_9793.JPG?dl=0