Sterndrive Service Expence

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Jim@sea

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As I expect my next boat to be a diesel stern-drive I read with some alarm that In this months Powerboat & Rib magazine they have a guide to buying Second Hand Boats which says ""That a full service on a stern-drive will be around £500 a year"". Is it really that expensive ?.
The boat I have just sold had a shaft drive which needed no maintenance whatsoever during the 6 years I had it.
What is so complicated about Stern Drive.
I am quite good at repairs. (I had a garage for 20 years) Can you service them yourself.
(looking for a 22 - 26 ft diesel cruiser preferably on a trailer, age 1999 - 2004)
 
PCUK said:
Complete rubbish! Easy to service, especially if you have general engineering skills. Get a service manual and you'll see that most years it is no more than an oil change.
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In my experience, every other year is just an oil change and anodes; but on the interevening years it's leg off and bellows as well. And every now and then you'll have some big expense (in my case I've variously had shaft seals, steering rams, steering hoses, pitted props, trim rams, gear selectors).

Volvo main agents quote about £500 for a standard d6 leg service, plus vat. So I wouldn't say that your article was wildly inaccurate.

Cheers
Jimmy
 
omega2 said:
Been there got the T shirt, would not entertain another one. Stick to your old fashioned shafts mate do yourself a favour.
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Listen to these wise words. I once went astray and had a boat with a Leg (Merc BII) it alone cost me more lost season time than all the other issues I have suffered put together - never again for me either. I am sure they can be fine, but my experience is not good once they get a few years old.
 
There's probably quite a of lot of 'it depends...' in these answers. My most successful outdrive ownership experience was with a 25ft Regal speedboat which had a 350mag on a b3 outdrive. The key here was that I kept it out of the water on a hydrohoist. The T37 I had with kad44's on outdrives was ok, but my d6-350s on dph's have had a fairly high cost of ownership thus far, although when taken in the context of the overall value of the boat, it's kinda in line with what you'd expect.

Cheers
Jimmy
 
Jim@sea said:
As I expect my next boat to be a diesel stern-drive I read with some alarm that In this months Powerboat & Rib magazine they have a guide to buying Second Hand Boats which says ""That a full service on a stern-drive will be around £500 a year"". Is it really that expensive ?.
The boat I have just sold had a shaft drive which needed no maintenance whatsoever during the 6 years I had it.
What is so complicated about Stern Drive.
I am quite good at repairs. (I had a garage for 20 years) Can you service them yourself.
(looking for a 22 - 26 ft diesel cruiser preferably on a trailer, age 1999 - 2004)
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As JTB says, wildly inaccurate.
Far far far more in France ;)
Actually, I had one explode;the whole thing went though the casing. That wasnt #500.
#5000 maybe. Someone else rather generously picked up the bill.
So, all quite fine and reasonable unless they go wrong. But hell-they have been making them since the 60s I think, so
HTML: 
 they cant be that bad.
#500 a year might not be that wrong over a long period, but 250-350 an on going average I reckon.
 
older out drives can be a lot of trouble. If you really like the particular boat it would probably worth fitting or having the existing leg totally rebuilt to get the best from it. I believe you can buy new/copy legs too. I had a boat with an out drive once. I now have a boat with shafts.
If you are doing mostly slow/river/lake stuff find a shaft drive boat you like instead. The fuel difference is seldom worth the hassle.
 
My last boat had drives, not that expensive to live with if you're a competent DIYer, the real PITA is discarded fishing line, in my last season with the boat, twice had picked up fishing line between the duo props and cut into the shaft oil seals and at £63 for the two seals + oil + liftout/in, you tend to have a sense of humour failure.
 
one of the reasons I went for Alpha 1 Gen 2 drive on the current boat and the other two before that.. simple construction when compaired to BII and III drives, not had a problem with them yet and thus far, well within reach of my DIY capabilities.
 
oGaryo said:
one of the reasons I went for Alpha 1 Gen 2 drive on the current boat and the other two before that.. simple construction when compaired to BII and III drives, not had a problem with them yet and thus far, well within reach of my DIY capabilities.
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not when the gears/shafts come out through the side of the casing.
 
My decision-making to look for single shaft shaft drive was made on £££s. If you can afford the extra £££s that alternative dives will be then you can choose between either types.
All the best in finding your next boat
David.
 
Bear in mind that Volvo and Mercruiser are not the same and have different maintenance schedules and running costs. Anyone who tells you that all outdrives from all manufacturers of all ages are the same and all cost x per year to maintain quite simply are talking out of their exhausts:

This thread talks about the differences between Volvo and Mercruiser:

http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?t=244104

Oldgit will be along shortly to tell you that on his 100 year old boat he had some problems with his vintage Volvo outdrives and therefore if you buy a boat with outdrives it will sink, you will die and your house will explode.
 
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lovezoo said:
therefore if you buy a boat with outdrives it will sink, you will die and your house will explode.
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and please do factor in that if you should be foolish enough to buy a boat with twin sterndrives, the above will happen to you twice, usually immediately after rebuilding the house after your first death
 
Oldgit will be along shortly to tell you that on his 100 year old boat he had some problems with his vintage Volvo outdrives and therefore if you buy a boat with outdrives it will sink, you will die and your house will explode.[/QUOTE]



O Bugger.. there was me just about to nip off to work early and then this open goal appeared.

Outdrives are Fine,,,if you are the first owner of some sort of soap dish and your boating involves a nip out across the bay at umpteen knots stopping in a cloud of spray ...and ......then turning round and doing exactly the same thing back to the mooring.
Exciting eh...........
Possibly even producing some sort of change on the hours meter.
Just look at the complexity on the things...a work of art no less.
The problems come with age,The first owner from new does not have to do much probably because he will not keeping the boat long, heading off upmarket fairly quickly to something bigger and with better go faster stripes and he cares little for what pushes the boat along.The next owner is on a tighter budget,so the first service gets done properly by Volvo with few problems but the cost will be noted.Next service due but boat sold,so next subsequent bloke gets the delayed service done but a bit late.After that the service schedule really starts to slip
and vital rubberware/seals do not get changed when they should.
Just a quick look at who is pro and anti legs should give you information to make a decision
on wether outdrives are for you.Most of the antis will be well experienced by virtue of the number of boats they have owned over the years and they also tend to clock up a serious number of hours each year and their boats do not get left forsaken in the marina when nasty rain or horrid wind dares to sully the weekend.
See,now I'm late and its all your fault Loozoo.:)
 
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"and vital rubberware/seals do not get changed when they should."

What is the service interval on the "vital rubberware/seals"?

1 year?
2 years?
3 years?
4 years?
5 years?

BTW what is this "nasty rain or horrid wind" of which you speak? ;)
 
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Sterndrives - the manufacturers pension plan.

If maintained according to specs no issues should occur. Since this is quite costly people tend to skip and then..

Technically the sterndrive has to transmit the engine power from a stationairy engine via flexible joints to a trim-, tilt- and turnable unit - ie. the lower part of an outboard.

It involves universal joints, bellows and more and all these parts are serviceable.

A shaft does none of this - it just spins.
An outboard has the same properties as it turns, but since the engine and driveline is integrated, service only regards gears and impeller.

The integrated gear/clutch/shaft/waterpump design consists of many parts that does not require service but may fail and will cost a lot to replace.

Biggest risk is water ingression. Parts meant for running in oil suffers severely from water :eek:

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If water get inside the bellows it will harm drive shaft, joints and may pass on to the gimbal - and further into the engine flywheel etc.
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A lot of boats are offered with i/o drives only, so your choise might be limited if you walk from all these.

Note also that, with very few exceptions, sterndrives are sold for leisure boats only whereas shafts are used for all purposes, even the largest.
 
Actually, there are more and more boats offered with sterndrives these days, as boat builders push the space boundaries in 40-45 footers, with more engine torque. If outdrives were so bad, manufacturers would not do this, because of warranty pressures and residual values.

VP has had a serious issue recently with the steering rams sealing, and I think this has been the cause of most peoples dissatisfaction with VP outdrives recently. And from an engineering perspective, their design is just plain wrong. They cannot have conducted an FMECA (failure mode review) of the system before launch.

Outdrives have higher maintenance costs than shafts, but it is not true that sharfts are maintenance free. There have been many posts on this forum on vibration and alignment issues. An older boat requires more maintenance than a newer one, be it sail, motor, outdrive, shaft.
 
rafiki_ said:
but it is not true that sharfts are maintenance free.
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A lot of the people who will tell you that a shaft drive needs practically no maintenance, seem to forget they also have a gearbox, which can and does go wrong. So when a gearbox goes wrong on a shaft drive boat, its just a gearbox problem, but when a gearbox goes wrong on an outdrive boat, its used as proof that outdrives are unreliable.

Also on my Alpha 1 Gen II outdrive I can check the gearbox oil level by looking at the remote gear lube monitor in the engine compartment. How do you shaft drive types check your gear box oil level?

Finally, if my outdrive goes wrong I can buy an entire new one (which includes a gearbox) for more or less the same cost of a new gearbox for a shaft drive boat.
 
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