Opinions on this motor for mirage drive

[Yak Fish]

At least 3 of us on this thread have had cracked drive wells. I have also stripped teeth and broken a mast on the mirage drive, in addition to torn fins. I've 2 broken mirage drives to 1 cracked hull in about 4 years, so I guess the odds are better to break a mirage drive than crack a hull.

I've also cracked the welds on the hobie heavy duty cart and on the hobie cart with balloon tires, with less than a year of use and non strenuous usage...boat ramps. While I like the products, they could definitely up the quality. The good thing is that hobie stands by the product and I've never had issues getting a replacement. I wish they'd do something about the drive well, like line the outside with sheet metal or some kind of wear surface to cut down on the fretting....that is really all it would take. The problem is there's a pressure point from the front of the mirage drive that presses into the front drive well over and over again. It becomes a fatigue, fretting, stress fracture type of deal. I've lined the tip of my mirage drive in foam rubber to cut down on the pressure point.

I agree with doc. The most severe stress comes from the legs. The legs (especially from 200+ pound guys) can put out a lot more force than the electric motor. Although wells have been known to show cracks, I think they are few and far between compared with failed mirage drives. I heard of a guy bring in failed drives twice to the dealer, and his well was OK. The electric motor exerts pretty much a steady force, and the force is shared by each well mount. Most of the time the yaker is going about 3 mph steady. The mirage drive stress alternates the force on the well mounts from the alternating leg pumps. High cyclic stresses are quite damaging in that minute cracks/voids can develop and propagate. I don't believe the electric motor is more damaging than leg power. Anyway, as I stated above, I would opt for a side or rear mount option anyway.

[tufnik]

I guess you're one of those guys with strong legs, YakFish......lol....... I'm only a 150# weakling....lol.... In the year and a half I've had my Hobie, I experienced only one failure. The idle cable on the drive broke while I was at CBBT. Surprisingly, the pedal still worked fine. Anyway, after talking and reading about Hobies (as well as talking to dealers), the point being is that the drive is more prone to failure than the well. I haven't seen any statistics, but in the totality of mirage drive users, the point seems credible. After all, the drive is more complex with more possible points of failure.

Anyway, I hope Hobie will, through model upgrades, find ways to continue to strengthen the well as well as the drive.

BTW, you may want a PVC cart. I have a homemade PVC cart with wheeleez balloon tires. It carried my Outback and my Trident (with electric motor and batt) for three years, and there has been no cart failure.........yet.

[jffoley]

Dang! I wonder if anyone put that thing on a yak.

Close:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=439ZQaJX6t4

[AbuMasgouf]

here is a non fossil fuel option

Awesome option! One question though... who get's to keep the fish?

[Memory Maker]

I think the force from our legs pushing at a moderate fast rate especially with the turbo st fins puts more pressure on the drive well than the motor.

........ and what about hitting that submerged log/sandbar/ obstruction at 4 mph with a tide or wind pushing you with the leverage of the motor on the shaft ............. I've said many times that the motor in the Miragedrive hole is an accident waiting to happen .......... and when it does ..... you are in BIG trouble because you won't have an engine, will have a hole in the yak ....... and if you bend the shaft, you might not be able to get the engine out of the hole and have to hold it while trying to paddle ............ even if you did, you probably couldn't use the mirage drive if you could make the exchange ......... etc etc etc ........

Accident waiting to happen

[Shady]

I've had my share of breakdowns with the Mirage drive too, sheered the holes in both drums and broke both pedal arms off where the pin goes through to hold it in the drum (all on separate trips). I guess my 6'4" 200lb frame is hard on the mirage drive.