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russ

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I know boating is very expensive but my last major outdrive service wasn't as costly as this one or did I just get a good deal last time?
Going to Chertsey tomorrow to pay and look at break down of bill but cost as told over the phone is £905.
Maybe the thought of getting a bigger boat with two engines is not going to be a reality.:(

Anyway, work done as follows;

UJ bellow change of which I supplied the bellow,seal kit & adhesive.
Shift cable & exhaust bellows, they supplied and fitted.
New shift cable they supplied and fitted.(I know this part of the bill is £259)
New Alloy anodes for drive and tabs of which i already had removed some of the old ones.(£150)
Fit new impeller supplied by me.
Change drive oil, supplied by me.(is this part usually classed as a service, if so a rip off just to change a bit of oil?)
 
I know totally agree but I cant see many with shaft no longer than 10 metres, with two engines, 2 separate birth cabins and not more than 13-14yrs old in my price bracket.
Ideas?
 
russ said:
I know totally agree but I cant see many with shaft no longer than 10 metres, with two engines, 2 separate birth cabins and not more than 13-14yrs old in my price bracket.
Ideas?
Click to expand...

The age range will be a limiter more than the price whatever that is.
Most recent boats in last ten years do tend to have outdrives although I agree marex could be exception albeit normally one engine.
If you opened up your criteria to older boats there are a lot more to choose from as they built them better back in the days.
 
prof pat pending said:
No idea what your price range is, but look at Marex
Click to expand...

Bit limited on the Marex front. I can only find one for sale in the UK.

In a PM from Volvopaul on a previous thread he quoted the price to service a Volvo drive would work out less than my current Bravo3 bill. So for my price range and choice of boat style/size S34 or F33, unfortunately it will be outdrives. My price range would be around £70k.
 
Outdrive boats should always be cheaper like for like that shaft drive.This is a reflection of the extra material costs and frequency of servicing required in keeping them going.
Legs are particularly sensitive to any delay in repairing faults,a noisy shaft P bracket bearing will slowly get noiser indicating a problem and can be put off until your next lift,where as a £5.00 failed oil seal,will not be found until it is far to late and it has ruined many other bits in the process.
It was not just the costs that eventually put me off but also the time delay in getting stuff fixed and returning boat to water every single time the blimming boat came out.
The big defence of drives is that they are more economical,well thats fine but keep all that fuel money you have saved.When you are standing on the hard and the mender is telling you it will cost £XXXXX and he cannot fix it for week,just look up and watch me slowly chugging past in my inefficiant olde boat. :) OG.
 
Last edited:
russ said:
I know boating is very expensive but my last major outdrive service wasn't as costly as this one or did I just get a good deal last time?
Going to Chertsey tomorrow to pay and look at break down of bill but cost as told over the phone is £905.
Maybe the thought of getting a bigger boat with two engines is not going to be a reality.:(

Anyway, work done as follows;

UJ bellow change of which I supplied the bellow,seal kit & adhesive.
Shift cable & exhaust bellows, they supplied and fitted.
New shift cable they supplied and fitted.(I know this part of the bill is £259)
New Alloy anodes for drive and tabs of which i already had removed some of the old ones.(£150)
Fit new impeller supplied by me.
Change drive oil, supplied by me.(is this part usually classed as a service, if so a rip off just to change a bit of oil?)
Click to expand...

That does sound excessive, about £350 a drive sounds about right. I normally do both my DP290's myself and all the parts and oil comes to about £200 for two drives.
 
There are loads of Shaft drive boats with the specs you wanted!

Ours was under £35K, and has Twin shafts, 7 berths etc! You could buy TWO at your budget! :p
 
I had a UJdone last year plus a new trim sender and service and it was around £400 including all the parts, anodes I change myself.
 
Sulley said:
I had a UJdone last year plus a new trim sender and service and it was around £400 including all the parts, anodes I change myself.
Click to expand...

Paid the bill today and had £92 taken off for parts I supplied.
I will be doing the anodes next time, especially as I had already removed the trim tab and ram arm anodes. Cost of ali kit and trim anodes £168.16 + £37.50 fitting.Total £205.66:mad:

Was a bit worried when I started her up for first time after the service as there was a rubbing noise from the transom area. Disappeared once warmed and moved to the mooring pontoon.
I will see if its still there when I start her from cold again. What could have been done incorrectly to cause this?

Where did get the work done Sulley?
 
Sounds a bit steep to me.

We did our Volvo DPE drive ourselves in Feb of this year and it was about £300 for all of the parts using genuine bellows and seal kits, including the gear linkage seal. Our ali anodes were £18 each for the trim tabs and £40 for the drive.
 
CX54WEK said:
Sounds a bit steep to me.

We did our Volvo DPE drive ourselves in Feb of this year and it was about £300 for all of the parts using genuine bellows and seal kits, including the gear linkage seal. Our ali anodes were £18 each for the trim tabs and £40 for the drive.
Click to expand...

I guess its too late now as I have already paid for the work.
They seemed a very experienced and professional company and I am a believer that you get what you pay for but in this case I don't think the price was justified.
The quote for the anodes was £105 but I assumed this was for all of them. They then quoted £21 each for the trim tabs which ended up being £33.26 each but as I had already arranged for the boat to be relaunched I had to have them fitted.
Needless to say I wont be using them again and I will be replacing the anodes myself next time. Not so confident in doing the bellow work though.
 
CX54WEK said:
Sounds a bit steep to me.

We did our Volvo DPE drive ourselves in Feb of this year and it was about £300 for all of the parts using genuine bellows and seal kits, including the gear linkage seal. Our ali anodes were £18 each for the trim tabs and £40 for the drive.
Click to expand...

Sorry to leap in, but what was that £300 for the parts for a pair of drives? Or £300 per drive? (I hope it's the former ...)

Boz
 
The first year.Its case of plucking up the courage/enthusiasm to have a go usually to save money,everybody says its all fairly basic simple stuff.Innit!
The second year you do the job this changes as to if you really want to struggle with the bluddy thing again next year.
The third year you finally realise what a pain in the bottom the job is and seriously consider getting somebody(anybody) to do it.
The fourth year you are browsing the boat ads religiously removing anything with outdrives from the "possibles" list.
 
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