45 Yacht with Shafts or PODS??


C

CaptSteve

New member
Hi All,

I love the 45 yacht design, but am leaning away from purchasing one due to the issues and costs associated with the PODS.

I have recently noticed that in 06' and 07', they were also made with shafts.

I would like to know, if any owners of this model have shafts and how it boat performs in open water with them?

Thnx,
Steve
 
I didn’t know the 45 had an option for shafts. It would seem a pretty big change in engineering would be needed, to make the changeover to/from pods. Very interested to hear comments from others who can answer the question.

I’ve had my 45, with pods for 4 years and wouldn’t go back to shafts. I love the reliability (thus far) and ease of use with joystick.
 
I have a 2007 with V-drives and shafts. what this means is that the engines are reversed. Front of the engine faces the Stern so the transmission and drive are in the front portion of the engine room. The boat is powered by a Volvo D9 575 hp engine.
Love the boat and performance. Need a skinny mechanic if you have to venture on the outside of the port engine. My mechanic does it regularly and just replaces the outside turbo charger . I lot less cost in maintenance and if I hit a log as I did and bent a prop I was back in service in 4 days. I have a friend who had to fix a Cummins Pod it was 4 months. OUCH
 
As someone who's put a little over 2000 hours on first-gen pods, I can't say enough good things about them, and I don't think I'll ever go back. I think most of the bad rap is because they are relatively new, and nobody ever goes out of their way to post "I love my pods, and here's why". :cool:


First-gen pods do have their issues, but they're pretty well known and easy enough to address or keep an eye on. If you're looking at that year range, make sure the lower gear unit rings have been upgraded as they tended to corrode and allow water intrusion. I've also upgraded my oil cooling, and few other minor items.


The reality is that it's new technology, and you have to learn how to take care of them properly. I like to constantly look at my dip stick in the pod, when's the last time you did that on your v-drive tranny? By looking at the dip stick, it's pretty easy to see when water has started to intrude, time to get a mechanic involved, and in all likelihood you need new shaft seals, and that doesn't usually happen unless you've had a strike. Not the end of the world, similar to shaft packing on any old-school v-drive/straight shaft, but requires a haul-out. Also, I would make certain you get oil samples done every year, again a good practice no matter what your engine package.


Also in the earlier drives, you had to haul to get your pod oil drained, this has since been remedied with the newer models. IMO, also not a big deal because I haul every year anyways, and I'd probably do that even if I had a 30' center console.


I have had both pods replaced, this is the giant fear of everyone out there. Both were caused by strikes though, and honestly the first strike was handled by a less than capable mechanic, otherwise I think I could have avoided a full replacement. Oh, and strikes should be covered by insurance, so the expense is minimized.


I used to boat on a very debris laden bit of water, and I have a spare set of props because of that. I probably swapped out my props 6 times in my worst year, and in those cases, you fix the props, maybe replace the shaft seals, and worst case scenario you bend the shaft and have to replace that. Hit something bad enough on your v-drive/shaft and you might have to replace the props/seals/shafts. More often than not, it was usually just the props being dinged.


Probably the single worst thing IMO are the QL trim tabs that come stock on earlier generation pods. These things break on a regular basis due to poor design and debris strikes. I yanked mine off earlier this year and swapped in ZipWake. Best upgrade ever. If you got a relatively new pod, you'd get the Humphree interceptors which are much better, but I don't believe you'll see any Formula's with those yet.


All of the scary stuff out of the way, the handling is of course insane. Anyone can do it. We dock at one restaurant where there's always slip space because everyone else is afraid of the 5-6k cross current. And we make it look easy! We also burn less fuel than we did with our 40PC with Yanmar 440HP v-drives, and cruise a knot or 2 faster in a boat that weighs twice as much. Oh, and the exhaust is 3' under water! No more soot marks on the hull, and it's so much quieter. The running angles are pretty good, I'm in the 5-6 degree range, and the ability to get up on plane is awesome.

The only other downside is that non-pod owners accuse you of cheating. :cool: Personally, I'm a huge supporter, and my next boat will definitely have them.


Happy shopping!
Todd
 
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Twarble,

If you don't mind sharing. Can you give an idea of the costs for some of the repairs you mentioned like shaft seals, QL repairs, oil changes and the tab for a new pod? I'm in the beginning phases of researching a boat with pods and I have to admit they scare me. I see a lot of them mentioning recently replaced pods, most of them don't even have 1000 hrs on them. I can't imagine buying a boat then having to replace a pod.

I have had my Yanmars for 8 years and have never had to repair them. It's just not in the budget to start making repairs on a regular basis.

Nate
 
Sure thing Nate,
shaft seals
Requires an oil change for that pod. ~$860


QL repairs
depends on what's wrong, but the most common failure is the tab itself. there are 2 sizes
450mm ~$265
300mm ~$243
Assume 1 hour labor per blade
The control head is about $190, and I can?t find the cost of the J-box. I've probably only replaced the control head once, and the j-box 2 times. I will say that it's important to recalibrate the tabs whenever it's messed with, super easy, but some forget. If you've seen my other posts, I changed to ZipWake this past season and wish I had done that after my first failure.


Pod oil changes
For the pods, this includes: Change the oil, oil filters and o-rings. Remove props and clean shafts. Re-install props. Torque all to Volvo spec. Spray anti-corrosion on drives.
~$981


new pod
A full pod replacement is ~$32k


Prop speed - this is something else unique to the pods, so thought I would add it here
~$1350 for the pair


For what it's worth, I had Yanmar 440hp v-drives and I threw a rod in one. :rolleyes: I just think YMMV with any power plant. I don't have the patience to count the number of times I've had to do most of the abnormalities above, but the trim tabs were by far the worst. Maybe 2 shafts to go with the pod replacements, so major strikes. Shaft seals were maybe 4-5 times?? Total guess there.


All in all, I'd do it all again. I will say that the first-gen pods have a reputation of being more fragile then the newer ones. I don't mean IPS 15, or IPS 2, I mean newer IPS 1s. not sure how you can check for that, probably a good question for your mechanic, but something I'd look for if I was shopping for an older vessel.


best of luck!
Todd
 
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Thanks for the info, I appreciate real answers with no drama. It seems everyone wants to bash everything online and it makes it difficult to get an idea of real world expectations.
 
Thanks for the feed back everyone!

Since I do all my own service and looking for a boat with as little maintenance as possible, I've decided that a 45 with PODS are out.


Gkastendike, I sent you a PM with some specific questions about your boat. Would like to hear from you soon, since I'm going to look at an 07' with v-Drives in the near future. Thnx
 
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