What Is Real World Life Span Of Drive Bellows?
 

My 2005 Donzi has the original bellows. It's a fresh water boat always stored indoors with the drive down. I know what the books say. What do actual boaters say?

What does the book say?

Pretty sure they say that I should have replaced it twice already! lol

I thought every 4-5 years,,I do mine every 4 years

As soon as you drive 7+ hours to a destination. That`s when they go.. Never when you`re close to home.

:traurig001:

Just before they split and fill the bilge.:poopoo:

So how often does everyone replace them on a freshwater boat stored indoors? How fast does water get into the bilge if it does tear?

we can sink your boat with a ripped bellows especially with a bilge pump that can NOT keep up and or another are is slower leak with a shift cable bellows.

storing the drive down all the time out of the water helps a lot as well. It puts the bellows back in there natural state

Volvo Penta believe it or not suggests to change bellow every 2 to 4 years max. Merc if you pull the drive off is the best way to check for a compromised U joint bellows pushing internally and inbetween the ribs outward. Sometime your darn finger will go right thru or even make a small tear bigger. . if it feels shoft . mushy or has hard spots in any way - I would change it regardless.

Also grease from the gimbal bearing laying in the ribs of the bellows internally is not good for the bellows period - its attacks the composition structure of the rubbers that the bellows is made of - over time sitting. I like the greaseless gimbal bearing for this added reason plus other reason for using them.

IMO I would Never let any bellows go over 10 years -- your asking for trouble waiting to happen. A tear that can happen - the water ruins other stuff on top of --- ie: gimbal bearing - u joints - input shaft seal in the upper from corrosion that forms afterwards that seeps in that area. the rough spots of corrosion sands papers the outer edges of the seal and then gear oil leaks into the bellows down the road after the fact. Sometime this corrosions leads to pitting on the input shaft surface in which will never seal properly even when resealed - you then have to replace input yoke. Also the input shaft corrosion can form black corrosion on the surfaces, then again the that would need changing.. Just some extra info why I would change bellows before a tear leak would ever take place.

I do pull the drive every year to check gimbal bearing, u-joints and bellows and then put in fresh oil. Bellows always looks perfect. I thought that not much water gets into the boat if the bellows tears. I'm leaning towards running this season with it. Who else changes them regularly even though they look fine?

Changed mine for the first time last season. It's a 2001 fresh water, all but 1 season (20hrs) anyway. Drive pulled, serviced and bellows checked every year and stored outside under canopy with drive down.

Ayuh,.... I changed my last bellows at 8 years old,....
No holes in it, but it was bloated, 'n way over due,...
Mine's a sweetwater barge, docked from May to October each year,...

Merc says 'bout every 5 years,...

Just had mine done last year and I'm thinking it was close to 10 years but that was pushing it. Fresh water also but i keep it docked during the summer.

most people only consider replacing the bellows when the gimbal craps out due to water intrusion. Marina generally give a quick inspection on the boats at spring launch and fall winterizing (unless customer draws attention to an issue)

merc bellows seem to last longer than Sierra

I just heard from owners of an '04 and '88 boats like mine with original bellows!

Bought my 95 Rinker new in Dec 1995. Changed boots for the first time in August 2016 (21 years). This is a fresh water only boat, trailered and drive stored down always. Boots look good and pulled them for all I was worth and no rips, tears or cracks. Installed with new Merc boots and also did the Merc Bravoits install. Recon I have another 20 before I do it again

It sounds that if the bellows is inspected regularly and the drive is pulled annually that the bellows does not need to be replaced every 5 years or whatever. It seems that if it does leak that water will not come into the boat but the gimbal bearing and u-joints will be exposed to water. This would probably cause damage in salt water faster. I grease my gimbal bearing regularly and my u-joints are sealed so damage would be slow to occur. Even if no tear in the bellows is visible you would catch the problem when the drive was pulled at the end of the year for alignment, bearing and u-joint check. Anyway, that's my take on it after the posts here and being contacted by others. :)

a couple of tablespoons of water that enters into the gimbal bearing will start its way for failure then in due time is growling meaning the gimbal bearing shot. for the guys with these 15 to 21 years old bellows - when pulled off no way they were in their nature set state - I bet they were not. They were not hard ? See as you trim way up and completely down - hard spots or mushy spots can get a small tear - that small tear opens up as you trim up letting water in - as trim down the tear closes itself up but not 100 %. water can stop leaking thou. That small tear becomes bigger over time. When you pull off your drive you need to pull your bell housing up and then check for small tears in the bellows from the inside out. Can not tell you how many times I poked my finger thru them - from the inside - outward.

Anyways this guy use to be up here and for sure he never did annually drive and transom service plus checks. . the key is maintenance so it does not bite you down the road like this. The pics will tell story on a bellows that was never check nor a drive pulled annually or once every 2 years for checks and maintenance..

Anyways some food for thought. And yes a big tear in your bellows can sink your boat especially left in the water . Seen 4 actually that that torn bellows caused the bobber. Good luck -

its kind of like sometimes you get 25 K miles out of set tires on your auto and sometime you can get 60 K miles out of the same brand of tires. When they get old and worn its time to change them regardless no matter of the miles.

http://www.formulaboatsforum.com/VBF...-bellows-tears

if you search long enough you will get the answer you were after,,
my thought is ,a boat should not sink for cost of fuel for one weekend

Just saw this posted on FaceSpace this morning. Apparently the culprit was a rotten bellows.

https://scontent-ort2-1.xx.fbcdn.net...64&oe=59734533

My 1996 changed in 2014 first time.. Still was not leaking. Kills the gimbal bearing quickly and ujoints a few years later..and sinks the boat if not discovered.

My boat does not stay in the water. It stays in a garage. I've been told that very little water actually makes it's way into the boat through a torn bellows. I kind of did get the answer I was after in that a 2004 Donzi Classic like mine still has the original bellows, An '88 still has the original bellows and a '96 was changed at 18 years and was still intact. I will inspect mine closely this spring with the drive in every position and I will replace it soon but I'm not gonna sweat it. Thanks for the replies.

If nothing else, I would do them every 10 years. It's rubber. Rubber dries out and cracks. When the bellows goes, there's the possibility of the boat sinking. It's cheaper to replace the bellows than pay the insurance deductible.
To be perfectly honest, I start to worry about them after 5 years.

You`re fooling yourself..
I had a very small slit in my bellows and the bilge pump was going off every 5 minutes. Of course it was the second day into a ROTO trip, 7 hours away from home.
Luckily I was able to find someone with a lift that I could use for the weekend because there was no way I was keeping it in the water .


http://33outlaw.zenfolio.com/img/s3/...06137811-4.jpg

^^^^^^^^^^^^ You had me at, "small slit"! :drink:

ICDEDPPL is 100% correct. Even a small hole in the bellows will have your bilge pump working overtime. I had a shift cable bellows on my old 17 footer go and it really opened my eyes as to how fast water can enter the boat.

I like you, we should be best friends.

Point taken. I will do a thorough inspection this spring and replace it in the fall when the drive comes off anyway.