Gearbox goes bang

Steve_B · 02 August 2011, 14:19

Further to my earlier post on Verado engines.

We were not so lucky this time. A year ago, the gearbox kept us going for 5 days until the new one arrived. This time it lasted from 1145 Sunday when the first sound of trouble was detected, to 1130 today!

I have never heard a gearbox fail before, but let me tell you its loud. So loud, that those right at the front of the boat even at 25 kts heard it! Fortunately with a twin set up and towards the end of our journey, we were able to safely return boat and passengers back to Poole. After a quick once over, we were able to start the "dead" engine and confirm that the power head was fine.

Just waiting on UPS and Barrus to deliver replacement, fingers crossed

HUMBER P4VWL · 02 August 2011, 14:59

Sorry to hear that. Do you get any length of warranty with commercial use? How many hours required to kill the gearbox.. Each time?

Steve_B · 02 August 2011, 15:23

Quick update

Ordered 1100 Monday, sent from States and with Barrus now! Should be in Poole by 1200 tomorrow.
Whilst I rather it had not gone at all, thats pretty good customer service

Jizm · 02 August 2011, 17:25

Sorry to hear about the gearbox steve. Will you be able to run by the end of the week?

Steve_B · 02 August 2011, 17:48

Running our 1330, 1515 & 1700 tomorrow! So definately Friday

PeterM · 02 August 2011, 19:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by 250kts

Running our 1330, 1515 & 1700 tomorrow! So definately Friday

Good news after bad news .... especially good news for Friday - Red Arrows on the 5pm ..I'm looking forward to it

The best seats in the house without question !

(I did think the marks in the housing where the internals tried to be externals were impressive in a bad but good way)

Jizm · 03 August 2011, 07:06

Quote:

Originally Posted by 250kts

Running our 1330, 1515 & 1700 tomorrow! So definately Friday

Excellent.

Steve_B · 03 August 2011, 20:50

New unit arrived in Poole at 1200, back in water at 1300.

A big thank you to Luke at Yellow Penguin

Steve_B · 28 July 2012, 21:04

We have grumbles from same gearbox today!

363 days after the last one. If it is a problem, this will be our forth gearbox in 3 years. All on the same engine and all after just over 11 months.
If it were something we were doing, surely the other gearbox would suffer too ....

I wish Barrus would sort out their counter-rotating Verado units

Jizm · 28 July 2012, 21:28

Sorry to hear that Steve. How many hours has the latest gearbox done?

martini · 28 July 2012, 21:30

All (most) CR gearboxes are the same Steve, next time it goes pop buy a right hander. Speak to some experts but I think you'll find the boat will drive just fine with 2x RH boxes

There's a Quinquiri passenger rib with twin etecs over here that went thru several LH boxes before sticking a RH on and never looked back.

PeterM · 28 July 2012, 22:09

Quote:

Originally Posted by 250kts

We have grumbles from same gearbox today!

363 days after the last one. If it is a problem, this will be our forth gearbox in 3 years. All on the same engine and all after just over 11 months.
If it were something we were doing, surely the other gearbox would suffer too ....

I wish Barrus would sort out their counter-rotating Verado units

Hmmm, I did wonder yesterday ...., but put it down to not being used to the boat sound. I'm amazed Ricks not picked it up already....

Oscarguitar · 29 July 2012, 07:09

Can you switch to the new bigger HD cases. (might have done already) They seem to be fairly bullet proof but an expensive move. Maybe Barrus would consider helping you out. I heard on VOG that Merc are doing some good deals to swap the older ones out but you can't always take that sort of thing in face value.

Hope you get sorted quickly.

Turbodiesel · 31 July 2012, 21:30

What Gearbox oil are you using?

diver 1 · 31 July 2012, 22:37

Second Martini's comment regarding 2 x RH rotation. I had a much smaller scale boat - 6m chinook with twin 40's both RH rotation, never any problem at all, handled fine.

SPR · 31 July 2012, 23:13

I believe the RNLI run all the boats with same Engine

jyasaki · 01 August 2012, 05:18

Quote:

Originally Posted by Turbodiesel

What Gearbox oil are you using?

Is there a reason for this question, or are you just making conversation?

jky

m chappelow · 01 August 2012, 05:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by SPR

I believe the RNLI run all the boats with same Engine

Cuts down on cost and amount of different spares needed to be carried on station or at divisional base making engine swapping /interchangeable simpler ,, also saves having to keep another set of spare props on the boat ( left & right handers).or confusion perhaps with a prop change at sea in difficult conditions .

Pikey Dave · 01 August 2012, 09:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by jyasaki

Is there a reason for this question, or are you just making conversation?

jky

Seems a pretty fair question. I can see where he's going with it

Tim M · 01 August 2012, 09:24

I do a lot of work for one of the RIB charter companies on the Thames. They operate 5 RIBs all with twin engines (mainly 200 HO etecs). Gearboxes going is a monthly occurrence (latest one was this week); there's so much rubbish in the river, all it takes is running into a tree or pallet that you didn't see (quite hard in the murky water on a choppy day). That combined with an average of probably about 6 hours a day running means you are putting a lot more wear on the boxes than a normal leisure user would.

Might be worth doing a weekly check on the condition of the oil which would highlight any problems early on.

PS. I know of another charter operator in the Solent who had a box go on his 6 month old 300 Verado last year.

PPS. They have now changed to running just standard gearboxes (no counter rotating models) to make life easier; only have to have one type of spare. It makes very little difference to performance.