The maneuverability of the boat is what sells it, especially in close quarters, he says. Ignore it and you can forget about that edge in fuel efficiency over inboards. Eager to fish with them, I was along with Ed Szilagyi, then Volvos boatbuilder installation liaison and company captain, on that same Tiara demo. Oh boy, the lids. Our best guess is it will take a significant chunk of the market. And once the numbers are crunched, are pods worth it? Over the years, Ive found online forums to be some of the most ready places for first-hand accounts of engine-related problems. Long term cost of ownership based on 5- 10+ years of use, cruising long distances at economical wine & cheese hull speeds, ease of service (or just getting service or support) any time/any place. In that case, its not the pod; its our joystick-maneuvering system that does this, and we offer a joystick in a traditional shaft boat. Note that blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience on our websites and the services we are able to offer. There are a lot of traditionalists in that market.. Whether you have pods or conventional props, if your anodes have short life spans, have a pro check for stray current, problems with the marinas shore power, etc. You might not think of Cat as a pod company, but since ZF offered its pods to the market, hes helped several manufacturers build ZF or Zeus pod with Caterpillar engines. 2875 Jupiter Park Drive Suite 1700, Jupiter, FL 33458, All the Benefits of a Garmin Yacht System, 5 Romantic Destinations for the perfect Valentines Day, A Buyers Guide to the Intellian v240MT Satellite Antenna, Extended Warranty for Your Marine Leisure Products, Follow These Best Practices for Safe Boating, Essential Navigation Equipment and Tech for Your New Yacht, Keep Your Yacht Secure with a State-of-the-Art Security System, 3 Pieces of Tech Every Yacht Owner Should Invest In. Vessel Systems Considerations for Marine Repower, ZF Marine Propulsion Systems Miramar, LLC. The ZEUS ArcPods have hit the 2022 market. Inboards require sacrificial-anode replacement, prop adjustment, cutless bearing repair, shaft alignment, and a method of controlling marine growth. Im all about new technology. Change the fluids annually, or every 250 hours of operation. With quad outboards, Id get about 0.7 miles per gallon. Most pod boats burn roughly the same per mile through a wide range of cruising speeds; conventional shaft boats typically have a narrow sweet spot. The other issue was when the owner sold the boat they did a oil sample and found water and both lower units had to be resealed and a main shaft had to be changed. Much more service options down there. I can do that on 200 gallons. To use this website and make a purchase on this website: www.zeusarsenal.com, you both acknowledge and agree to follow our Terms of Use. (Its not a bad idea to do the sameminus the sealsfor inboards.). We fully respect if you want to refuse cookies but to avoid asking you again and again kindly allow us to store a cookie for that. Thats a hard question to answer, due to the past 15 months, Meissner says, referring to the economic recession. However, most sport-fishers rarely operate at wide-open throttle. Fashioned out of high quality aluminum, the Zeus ArcPods are designed to hold up to 0.3 grams of dry herb and work perfectly with the Zeus Xtruder which directly connects to, fills up, and automatically ejects the pod once the optimal amount of dry herb has been loaded. As one broker told me, Its like automatic transmissions. Volvo doesn't offer the option of in-water service. Pods from all manufacturers have proven reliable and trouble-free, when maintained correctly. Full details on shipping can be found here. Great contribution Blue Magnolia..that rings true and honest. That smooths out some of the minor gear asperities and grinding marks, improving the life of the gears. After break-in, pods are serviced every 250 hours or 12 months, whichever occurs first. If you dont like the look of outboards, hide em, like Pursuit does in its SC 365i Sport Coupe, with twin outboards concealed by a transom hatch. Only thing is, outboards burn gas, and more of it than diesels of similar power. (Depending on the pod, there might be internal anodes, too. Zeus ArcPods Lid pack filled with 50 paper lids for the Zeus ArcPods (sold separately). how to say hello we are blackpink in korean; hawaii energy issues. But now thats all gone away. Robin Buckley captains a SeeVee 39 with IPS 600s, named Kimbuktu. Its also important to monitor for seawater dripping onto drives. Units that under our Hassle-Free Warranty program are covered directly by TVAPE and do not require you to deal directly with the manufacturer. Yes, pods have sheared off upon striking something immovable (as theyre designed to do), leaving the hull intact and the owner with a five-figure repair bill. are zeus pods still being manufactured how did lesley sharp lose weight julho 1, 2022. jack the ripper documentary bbc . In sum, with todays technology, the best combination might be a shaft boat, bow and stern thrusters, and the Cummins power plant with electronic joy stick controls. The owner of the boat spent almost 40k on the drives themselves and they were just under 8 years old. Ariel Pared is the president of SeeVee, which has built about 20 Volvo Penta IPS-drive boats. Once you go to 3 or 4 engines or pods, I'd rather have shafts as the fuel efficiency with triples is only 10% better and not worth the maintenance cost and in a 4 engine/pod installation they tend to burn the same amount of fuel AND much more maintenance of 4. They said it was so easy a child could do it, and sure enough, it wasnt long before a lad barely out of kindergarten deftly maneuvered a 40-footer into a slip all by himself. In effect, a sport-fisher fresh out of the factory may make 45 knots on pods, but by the time it is provisioned and ready to fish, its going to lose some speed. Zeus propeller shafts use a double-lip seal. Simply pop in a pod and enjoy your herbs. For people who have been boating for 30 years, the quiet, smooth operation and the clean exhaust are really going to surprise them., But Collins thinks the pods advantages are even less quantifiable. Pods are the ne plus ultra of propulsion, but it costs a little extra to keep them spinning. Outboards are, in my opinion, the most interesting. But, the lids. When you put a pod system in, you try to do more with less.. Dont compare them to stern drives. There arent many external mechanicals, no rubber bellows or other components to fail, he added. Instead, Zeus pods came with traditional aft-facing props and the traditional exhaust-through-hub design. Click to enable/disable Google Analytics tracking. Down sides were in the San Francisco Bay Area there is only one person that can work on them. I love these things, they are super convenient to load, insert, and clean. ZFs pod-drive includes a jackshafted transmission, which can mate to any diesel engine the owner prefers. If one engine vibrates in gear and the other doesnt, its probably caused by fouled or damaged props. The ZS-3000 is Snell M2005 certified in the small shell size (XS to M). With it, fingertip operation of any vessel became possible. Nor did I want to. Okay, the motors cost about $80,000 and $90,000, respectively. I was surprised by how light and long lasting these were. Thats not me talkingits Bob Petzold, who has as much experience as almost anybody selling, servicing, and repairing pod drives. But pod-drive engines use counter-rotating props. There is definitely more maintenance with pods, said John Siebert. Also demanding periodic attention are hydraulic steering, transmission, and lower-unit oils. If you seem to be going through zincs quickly, call an electrician, Fessenden warned. For the first few years pods appeared mostly on company demo boats tested by magazine writers, and received lots of press coverage, most of it extolling their handling advantages. The new props dont ventilate, and their position alignment with the keel gave them a decided advantage by leveling the keel on the hole shot. In the past decade, high-tech pod drives have changed the face of powerboating, and for the better. To start with, Zeus and IPS boats have to be hauled after their first 25 engine-hours. Is there some X Factor or Factors that negates the pods proven advantages? But how much more, and how complex is pod maintenance? Controlling wind, waves and current. Although there are claims of 30 percent efficiency gains in cruise and top-end speed as well as fuel savings, the results vary from boat to boat when compared to straight shaft and prop configurations. Sabre Yachts, for example, first offered pods in 2008 as an option over straight shafts in the 42-foot express cruiser. I have personally ruled out any boat with PODS, IPS or ZEUS, for those 2 main reasons. Better fuel efficiency? Take the props off, grease the shafts, and check the seals, Fessenden said. Stephen Smith is the southwest sales representative for Caterpillar. Nonetheless, pods are not going away and I hope more marine techs will learn them. Not a lot of guys know pods yet. Capt. At the 2005 Miami Boat Show Volvo Penta introduced its Inboard Performance System (IPS) and changed forever not only the way we run our boats but the way we think about running them. Siebert removes all loose paint from the drive, sanding down to shiny metal with 100-grit sandpaper, and then applies primer and two thin coats of Trilux 33 or Pettit Vivid copper thiocyanate anti-fouling paint. Estimating the yearly cost isnt easy either, since yard rates vary and some pods need more upkeep than others. Because these cookies are strictly necessary to deliver the website, refusing them will have impact how our site functions. So how big is the pod market? Here at TVAPE we offer free shipping on every order above $100.00 inside Canada and USA. These come with various engine configurations but commonly, with QSB 425s which can be either shaft-drive or Zeus pods. Before, maneuvering required forethought, logic, coordination, and strategizing; after, it became mere intuition: Look where you want to go and point the joystick that way. In standard shaft and prop boats, props lose their bite in close-quarters maneuvering, Smith says. Although pod housings are built of corrosion-resistant bronze rather than the aluminum alloy used for stern drives, its still critical to maintain the anodes. Featuring a patented design that provides the simplest solution for vaping on the go with your Zeus 3rd generation vaporizer. Because they operate independently, pod-drives can be controlled via joystick for superb maneuverability. If your zincs are gone, your warranty might be gone too, Siebert said, so all his clients boats with pods are cleaned and checked monthly by a diver. Maybe.) While there has not been a flood of acceptance in the sport-fishing market for pod-drives, the cruising market has seen a larger number of owners making the transition away from conventional shaft-and-wheel boats. Then with the joystick, it directs the transmissions to pivot or swivel. One benefit of pod drives is joystick maneuverability. If they dont increase the odds of hooking up, who cares? These are often second- or third-told tales with a questionable provenance and few verifiable facts. Featuring a patented design that provides the simplest solution for vaping on the go with your Zeus 3rd generation vaporizer. Like most everything, making the decision to go conventional or pod is a personal choice. The 390 with Volvo 600 IPS drives was absolutely one of the most fun and outrageous-performing boats I have ever driven. Thats the biggest attraction and why [pods] gained acceptance among a lot of enthusiasts, who wanted a certain size of vessel and want to move from a 28 to a 34 to 40 but were not comfortable with maneuvering inboard boats. Thanks to all.just the practical advice I was looking for. The IPS-drives fit well in our boats, and our owners love their maneuverability, Pared says, and he has customers who can back up his word. If you arent happy with the local dealer, you can call the concierge and get a tech in Tennessee. Blades, pitch etc Read some of the posting by Tom Bartolomei about what he has been doing with his Sabre to tune the prop sets on his pods. ZF also built far larger pods that could handle far more horsepower. Volvo Pentas IPS drive features patented forward-facing props, which lets them bite into clean water. His experience tells him a similar grounding with conventional shafts would have been much worse, perhaps even damaging rudder or strut supports badly enough to flood the boat. I had seen massive tugboats using a similar pod-drive system for their tight-quarters work, pushing huge container ships into the wharf. Savings on a long haul might disappear when slowing to navigate a tricky channel or speeding up to avoid a storm. Volvo uses SAE 75w140 oil for both the transmission and lower unit. These cookies are strictly necessary to provide you with services available through our website and to use some of its features. Siebert puts annual maintenance for pods roughly $2,000 above what straight shafts cost, not including extra haul-out fees for boats that exceed 250 engine-hours per year. are zeus pods still being manufactured. The pod-drive boats were clearly more maneuverable and accelerated more quickly than strut, shaft and -prop-drive inboards. Due to security reasons we are not able to show or modify cookies from other domains. Those anodes shouldnt dissolve like zincs do, but both systems should be checked annually. Pods also increase fuel economy and decrease vibration. Volvo has one zinc hidden, but accessible, on the drive itself. Controlled at low speeds by a joystick rather than wheel, shifts, and throttles, pods take most of the angst, the apprehension, and, sometimes, the sheer terror out of close-quarters maneuvering.