Corey (left) and Casey (right), from the Triton Marine crew, head down and tails up, taking the drive lines apart on Wind Horse. After 5700 hours we want to have a detailed look at the various elements to see how they are wearing.
The ball races from the starboard engine’s cv-axle. Although we are inexperienced in evaluating these, this does not look like a lot of wear. Keep in mind that if those 5700 hours were on a truck, we would be talking about 300,000 or more miles (460,000km),
The port drive line is showing a touch more wear.
We will have the prop shafts out tomorrow, the thrust bearings removed, and a look at shaft and cutlass bearing wear.
The folks in the yard are a bit surprised at the lack of wear given the hours. There are a series of reasons for this:
- Conservatively specified drive line components.
- Proper alignment.
- Low power transmission relative to load carrying capabiltiy.
In the end, this all comes back to how efficient or not is the vessel in question. When you are as easily driven as we are then the loads are a fraction of what might otherwise be the case. More efficiency means a smaller engine gets the job done with less of a footprint. The extra space then available can be used for things like oversized cv axles and thrust bearings.
Posted by Steve Dashew (November 16, 2011)
November 17th, 2011 at 5:56 pm
Love these reports Steve.
It’s verification of great design.
What have been mechanical problems in those 5700 hours?
where there any?
Well done and keep them coming.
November 17th, 2011 at 11:13 pm
Hi Scott:
Off hand, the mechanical issues have been minimal. Early on we had an injection pump problem, a chain foul damaged the windlass chain pipe, we’ve had a couple of injection elbow replacements on the Northern Lights genset. There are probably one or two others, but can’t think of them at the moment.
November 18th, 2011 at 10:12 am
Info: I’ve got 7245 hrs. and 320,000 miles on my Ram pickup. Still going strong. I’ve changed the oil three times. The last time was 220,000 miles ago. I have a Gulf Coast Bypass Filter and sample the oil every 15 to 20 thousand miles when I change the filter. I have to add 6 Qts. with the filter change. Seems like bypass filters would be perfect for your boats. Maybe sending the samples from remote places might be a problem but the results are emailed.
November 18th, 2011 at 7:50 pm
Hi Bob:
We used one of these on Sundeer in the 1980s and gave it up because of the difficulty changing the filer> How hard is this these days?
November 19th, 2011 at 12:36 pm
I buy the filters from GCFilters instead of using a roll of Bounty towels. It has a sock around it and is very easy to remove and replace. They are not as cheap but a lot less messier. Then I put it in a XL Ziplock bag. The bag will hold a couple filters until I can dispose of them. I can send a picture of the filter if you want.
November 19th, 2011 at 6:10 pm
Thanks Bob:
A photo would be great.