Something else to watch out for.....

Geoffs

Geoffs

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on DPH drives.

First half decent weekend of weather, for a while, so decided on a little run to Weymouth.

After waiting for fog to clear, set off. Somewhere off Lulworth lost all trim hydraulics.

Got back to Poole today, lifted boat, and found one of the flexible hoses feeding trim rams had been chaffing in transom shield, inevitable result.

New 4 inch long hydraulic hose £130 each!!!!!!!!!! Plus 5hrs fitting!!!!! So a big bill.

So all you DPH fans, look out for trim hoses chaffing.

Fairly sure rams are ok, they a dearer than bloomin' steering rams!!!!!
 
Hi Geoffs,

I've just had a call from a mutual mate who has read your post and he suggests you ask your mechanic to search for a recall on the hoses as he recalls his hoses being changed FOC.

Good luck.

Pete

Pete
 
Hydraulic hoses are not rocket science. Many, non marine applications use stainless steel reinforcement and end couplings. VP themselves have used flexible hydraulic hoses for many years. Some will fail of course, but bulging and "plasticky" hoses sound worrying.The ones on my DPS drive are 8 years old now, touch wood they show no signs of impending failure. Did VP engineer down the DPH drives to take a risk to save money? Serious question, as I am considering a boat with a DPH drive !

Graham
 
GrahamHR said:
Hydraulic hoses are not rocket science. Many, non marine applications use stainless steel reinforcement and end couplings. VP themselves have used flexible hydraulic hoses for many years. Some will fail of course, but bulging and "plasticky" hoses sound worrying.The ones on my DPS drive are 8 years old now, touch wood they show no signs of impending failure. Did VP engineer down the DPH drives to take a risk to save money? Serious question, as I am considering a boat with a DPH drive !

Graham
Click to expand...

To my , not very expert eyes, they look sound enough, it's just that mine has been rubbing up against transom shield and worn through. Something I will keep an eye on, easy for me as I'm dry berthed.

My experience with DPH drive is generally quite good. Mine is 5 years old and nearly 800hrs on clock, but being dry berthed, has an easy (ish) life.
 
The industrial hydraulic hoses I have come across have had an outer sheath (PVC ?), a braided wire layer then the actual hose. Presumably the sheath had worn away, was there no braided metal layer ? - if there was, that presumably would have also worn away the paint on the outdrive where it was touching.

Graham
 
No braided wire that I can see, can feel the hole going straight through rubbery looking material, and can't see any paint worn away. Maybe they are not so good, and possibly the reason for the recall mentioned by DAKA.
 
Well it's all turned out to be quite a saga - what do you expect in the marine world.

When the engineers tried to remove the leg, a a bolt used to clamp a pipe to the trim ram sheared. Attempts to remove it failed (heat and drilling out).

Got a call this morning saying 'we've got to fit a new ram (£530), but can't remove the pin holding the ram at the transom end, so engine has to come out'

Whoa, whoa!!!

Had to jump in car and drive 90 miles to Poole to see first hand what was going on.

Anyway, cutting a long story short, a work around has been found, no new ram and no engine out. Involved replacing knackered clamp with tie wraps. Will have to keep an eye on this.

It seems dry berthing is not as drive friendly as I thought. Constant in and out of the water and drying causes threads and pins to corrode due to air exposure, as much as constant immersion in water.

So the message is, if you have a VP drive, whatever you do, under no circumstances, get it wet!
 
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