Folks, can we leave Don off the thread going forward I think his “thanks for the comments” reply was him politely tapping out.

Thanks,
-p

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s/v Deep Playa | Pearson 424 #152 | http://www.DeepPlaya.com

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Post generated from Pearson424 Forum using Mail2Forum

Dear Mr. Carter,

I respectfully disagree with your analogy about a V-Drive being similar to a “rear end”. Our V-Drives contain precision ground helical gears which are much precise and therefore costly to manufacture; precision grinding is the same technology used to make aircraft gears. The rear end is not equipped with water cooling or with a bi-directional self-reversing oil pump. Most importantly, the stress on a marine gear drive is drastically higher than that of any automotive or truck application; a marine application is similar to driving “up hill” all the time and consequently why the average life of an inboard gas engine is somewhere between 800 and 1,000 hours.

Our company didn’t “abandon the RV-20” as the RV-26 is nearly a drop-in-replacement (it is a drop-in-replacement in 99% of applications). One of the improvements in the RV-26 over the RV-20 is higher torque capacity. In order to engineer additional torque capacity some of the physical dimensions of the V-Drive had to change a very small amount. Additionally, in order to accomodate the existing #36 Tubular Shaft we made custom #27S Splined Connecting Shafts to interface between the newer RV-26 and your old #36 Tubular Shaft.

Your standard of “infinite life” is terrific, but most would agree that 99.99% of items in this world are not built for “infinite life” as in most cases this requirement would make them unaffordable. Computers only last a few years and when outside the warranty you can’t even speak with a customer service rep at a software company without paying a fee. Even Microsoft will not even support Windows 98se (with millions of customers still using it) and I’m sure in the near future they will abandon XP users. When your Palm Pilot or Ipod battery fails, you throw it out because the batteries are not replaceable. This week a good friend of mine had to replace his 15 yr old Subzero refrigerator with a new one which cost $9,000. You might be willing to pay the extra cost for “infinite life”, but the vast majority of boatbuilders and boat buyers will not.

I don’t know if you are the original owner of your Pearson; if not there is the strong possibility that the original owner did not follow our recommendation of cleaning out the waterjacket annually (or even every few years) to extend the life of the waterjacket well beyond 30 years. We have had numerous 35 and 40 year old V-Drives here for repair and freshening up and because their water jackets had been properly maintained each year they had many years of life left in them. Finally, in comparison with other marine propulsion systems in general, we are very proud of the longevity and reliability of Walter V-Drives.

Sincerely,

Don Chatrnuck
THE WALTER MACHINE COMPANY, INC.
– Established 1927 –
84 – 98 Cambridge Ave
Jersey City, NJ 07307
USA
(201) 656-5654 – Main
(201) 656-0318 – Facsimile
E-Mail –

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From: “Rich Carter” <>
Sent: Thursday, March 26, 2009 8:09 PM
To: ,
Subject: RE: Re: V-Drive

Bob
I respectfully disagree. My replacement was $2600; not $1200, and I didn’t replace the jack-shaft. That would have put the price of the replacement at over $3k for what is essentially a drive shaft and automotive rear-end. When’s the last time you paid over 3k for a rear-end? (well, maybe I’m oversimplifying what they make here. Rear ends don’t need cooling, but the analogy is otherwise valid)

While I understand that they make a zillion rear-ends and Walter makes only a few thousand V-drives, that’s no reason to let them off the hook. I have a vintage car in my garage that is older than many of our 424’s and there is absolutely nothing wrong with the entire drive-train; nor anything else for that matter. I did discuss having the rear-end serviced with a local shop just yesterday in fact. I tend to maintain my stuff which might be why it lasts. You can’t maintain something that self-destructs. If Walter just addressed our concern about corrosion, it would probably last forever with minimal maintenance. I for one would have been willing to pay more for a more robust design. The water injection elbow on a diesel engine is an example of what I’m talking about. I paid $750 extra for a bronze injection elbow on my engine. It should never need replacement.
As I mentioned before, the price of the replacement was parts only. No labor was included. I had to fabricate custom mounts to fit it. If you paid yard rates for that kind of work your bill would probably approach the cost of the unit. I have the patience and tools to take on such a project, but many of us are looking at what might be a $6k yard bill to replace something that shouldn’t need replacement. This is all because Walter abandoned the RV-20 and didn’t design a drop-in replacement. They could have made a drop in set of brackets, but didn’t give a thought to their existing customer base. I assume that you haven’t sprung for your replacement yet. Consider my thoughts when you do.

In some ways, Westerbeke did the same thing with the W-60. This is a great engine if you own one that still runs. You can’t get parts for it however. That’s why my new engine is a Yanmar. I expect to get parts for it 25 years from now, though I may need a walker to get on and off the boat.

I realize that a fresh-water cooling system for the V-drive would be a non-trivial engineering task. I’m still thinking it over. I think an electric water pump and heat exchanger would work and would probably cost less than $250 to retrofit.

BTW: I don’t have my Walter RV-26 specs handy, but when I researched this a couple of years ago, the RV-26 wasn’t oversized for a 75hp diesel engine. I think the RV-26 would handle the torque of something like 100 hp diesel or so. With cooling, it runs warm at cruising speed.

Regards
Rich