Upgrade to a pedal!!!

[Emerson Barça M]

Hello fellow snaggliners!!!

Im getting ready to upgrade to a pedal drive sit on top kayak.
All recommendations will be consider
I really like the perception pescador pilot 12 any one have use it here!???

I know a few have native slayers and most have hobie.

Still doing research on my own and i will want to go to one of those shows to try one!! If anyone can give me some advice i do surely appreciated!! Thank you all



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[Mark Zilliox]

greetings.
Delaware Paddlesports is where i demoed a bunch of boats last May. The yak your talking about was a little wonky for my use. the price was less but comfort over cost was more important....of course at 59 i finally figured that out ;>).
they have a Demo Day in June....but be the 1st one there as it got crowded after 10 am.
also if they post demo time at 10.....am, they are reay by 9 am. that way you can jump in boats and not wait. bring your own vest. they use a creek off the river, not the ocean or bay to hold event. so wind is not a hurdle. remote State Launch site. near Milton.

hit me up with any more ?'s offline....sgtz113@gmail.com

i am not a yak pro but i love my Slayer 10. DPS.May10.jpg

[Emerson Barça M]

Thank you mark i will near delawarepaddlesports sometime next week ( buss trip) i hope to have to time to stop by and ask a few questions. Im sure they have all three brands available or in display. Thank you

And again all info will be surely apreciated


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[daolai]

How will you transport it will play a bit of a role in your choice too... I am biased but Hobie all the way.. have an outback myself and serves me well on the bay and most waters I typically fish.. good luck and let us know what you get

[smithmal]

I just put in a thread about pedal kayaks, but I thought I'd post on yours as well.

Just got back from Big Demo Day in Farmville, VA which was pretty awesome in terms of getting the opportunity to try many of the new fishing kayaks and speak with the manufacturers.

I too was intrigued about the pedal drives and spent much of the day trying out various models that included this tech.

I think the one that pulled it off the best was Old Country Predator PDL. The boat was very stable and the pedal drive just ate up the water and really moved. Also, the boat was very stable (if you like fishing while standing up). It tracked well and the rudder system was decent.

In terms of pedal systems, I really prefer the pedal drives (bike like drives) over the Hobie Mirage drives for their ease of going backwards on the fly. With the Mirage drive, you need to drop your pole and pull a line on the drive to switch it from forward to reverse. In my experience, you had to really yank on the line to switch from forward to reverse and the system just felt clumsy to me.

Another yak that was really interesting was the new Jackson Coosa FD line. Jackson's pedal drive system is so new, that it is not available to the public right now so I got to ride the prototype. It also uses a bike like pedal drive, but what sets the Jackson pedal drive apart is that the pedal drive will immediately bounce out of the way if it hits an object. The dealer even had me go full speed at a tree log in floating in the water with the pedal drive down to show how well it responded to objects in the water. I'm not sure how often people run into objects and jack up their pedal drives (or motors for that matter), but with the Jackson system, this would no longer be an issue. Their system also allows for the user to easily unclog their propeller if grass or other crap gets wrapped around it. Jackson also has an "E-Drive" battery motor coming out for the same boat. Switching between the pedal drive to the E-Drive is as simple as swapping out the top half of the drive (as they both use the same propeller system). That means that you can easily store the pedal and the motor assembly in the boat at the same time as they are both low weight since you don't include the propeller end.

Personally, I'm leaning toward the Wilderness RADAR line. Not b/c it does pedal drives the best, but b/c it allows the user to switch between paddling, pedaling and motoring if desired. I really like the option of buying a boat that can up "upgraded" to a pedal or motor in the future if desired and they won't have to break the bank to get the yak (i.e. you can buy the yak without a drive at all making if very affordable). I also think the Wilderness boats are very stable (more stable than the Hobie boats that I tried (Outback and PA14).

Other pedals I tried was Native's Slayer 13.5 (which has the smoothest pedal drive of all the boats I demo'd but it tracked like crap; maybe this wouldn't be an issue if you used an aftermarket rudder) and Native's Titan (which was really awesome; fast, stable and turned on a dime; but way too heavy for my needs).

Let me know if you have any other questions.

smithmal

[Emerson Barça M]

Thank you. Daolai and smithmal for all ur usefull information. I have not decided in witch one to get because i want to try on a demo day in delaware. Near where i live ( frt belvoir) the potomac is not a strong break water like some parts of the bay so il leaning towards the perception pilot since is a lil less expensive, al thou i have to try them before i conclude that decision. If anyone is heading out this weekend ill can meet and greet still will use the sit inside i have. Thank you all again


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[smithmal]

BTW, I'd stay away from the Pilot. Perception tried to create a pedal yak that would drastically undercut all other pedal yak manufacturers and from what I've heard, they cut some material and design corners and had a lot of quality issues (this got brought up by someone at Big Demo Day in Farmville, VA).

The propeller for the pedal drive can be easily damaged (which is a big problem since your propeller is most likely going to smack up against a lot of obstacles under the water). The video poster in this video specifically discusses the defect issues with the Pilot 12.

smithmal