Gearboxes: Hurth vs. ZF

demonboy

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We have a Hurth gearbox which is 20 years old and has been the bane of our lives since purchasing the boat. So many people have opened it and attempted to repair it that our current mechanic says it is best for spares.

We trust our mechanic wholeheartedly. He has put in his spare Hurth gearbox whilst looking at our current one. Now he has come back to us with an offer to buy his gearbox off him. It's an identical model but has only been installed for 2 years (it was a spare gearbox on another boat), barely used and functions perfectly. However he wants €1500 for it, which if my memory serves me correctly, is how much a replacement ZF is. Plus of course a ZF will come with a warranty.

The mechanic explained that ZF are not great gearboxes. In his experience he is doing lots of repairs on ZFs and indicated that they 'just don't make them like they used to'. Funnily enough I sent our Hurth to ZF in Istanbul and it came back with a certificate telling me it functioned perfectly...which it didn't!

Help! Who do I believe? What should I do? Should I take the risk on the Hurth? Are there alternatives and most importantly does anyone have experience of replacing their Hurth with a ZF? We have a week or two to try out the gearbox but that doesn't mean it won't fall apart in a year. Bear in mind we are off down the Red Sea to India this September.

Thanks all.
 

NornaBiron

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We also have a Hurth gear box, model 450W, which gives us a few headaches! We've managed to identify the problem and have a Danish contact who works with ZF and Hurth. What are the problems that you are having and what model box is it? We may be able to advise. We can pass the details of our contact if you PM us.
 

Latestarter1

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Somebody is lifting your leg here.

ZF purchased Hurth around 1989 and gradually integrated these with Italian MPM gearboxes all under a single ZF brand.

Therefore Hurth HBW 40 became a ZF 4M HBW thought to HBW 250 which became ZF 25M. The Hurth boxes have always been feaseable but impractical to repair, however ZF made some real effort to improve the Hurth base design. From my experience later ZF versions of the little Hurth HBW's are more not less reliable.

You are correct in thinking that your mechanic wants about the same price for an old Hurth (depandant on model) as a new ZF version of the same gearbox. I would suggest he is perhaps a Turkish rob dog and not being an honest broker!
 
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