Does anybody know anything about V-Drives?
 

Not so much on wake boats and such but with cruisers. What I've heard is that no one likes working on them since some areas are hard to access. Also docking with rudders sort of scares me a bit since I've never driven a rudder boat. Most of the boats I'm looking at (34ish) are stern drives and one that I like is a V-Drive. Don't know if I should chuck it or not since I'm so unfamiliar with them.

Twin or single?

If twin its not bad docking because the motors are so far apart. I single is like our old ski boats, reverse no matter what only goes one way.

I owned several V-drive boats.

Coming from a performance boat, they actually have MORE room in the engine compartment then alot of go-fast boats. The engines are in the compartment "backwards" but not right up against the stern so access isn't bad. V-drives are probably easier to dock then stern drives. When pivoting a boat with the shifters, the pendulum point is more towards the center of the boat and much easier to pivot on. The bad.......I had a 33 Searay with V-drives and another boat in the marina was exactly the same with stern drives......his cruise speed and top end were about 15% higher than mine. He did have to haul is every winter while mine could stay in for 2 years without issue.

Twin 496s

Buddy had a 32' Carver with small blocks and V-drives and had no issues transitioning from a single engine I/O cruiser. He was slipped in a marina on the IL river and had no big issues with maneuverability around the docks. I think the only issue he ever had with the V-drive was a shaft seal (stuffing box?) that was leaking a bit and had to be replaced. When I was first looking to move my boating to LOTO I was actually looking at 340 Sea Ray's with 496's and V-drives. Since the boat was going to be wet slipped I wanted V-drives as opposed to an I/O boat.

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My buddy has a 36 Silverton up north with v-drives in it that I've done some work on, and other than working on the stuffing boxes under the motors it is not any harder to work on than his 42 Silverton he has drown here in Florida that has conventional drives. Both are identical 350 horse BB Crusader's.

As far as docking the helm is pretty much left centered and all the maneuvering is done with the motors, takes a little getting to know the boat as they all have different characteristics. My buddy can impressively thread the needle in any conditions with his 42 flybridge he has owned
for 35 years but the 36 Sport he bought 2 years ago he struggled for the first year.

And neither of the 2 are fun to work on.

Cool, seems like "walking" a boat to the dock parallel would be a bit of a challenge at first, but that's what going out in the evening when the fuel dock is close and practicing is all about.

Houseboat has V-drives, docking is easier with a rudder boat as you can "walk" the boat. Maintenance is much easier than a twin big block boat, doesn't get any worse than that. Tons of space in between motors. I was concerned about the rudders as well cause we anchor on beaches a lot and obviously didn't want to run the rudders into the sand, but I found that, at least on the houseboat, the bow was at or nearly as deep as the rudders and props while floating. My biggest complaint is you have to pull boat out of water to service the running gear.

For cruisers I like Tiara, Stamas, and Intrepid

Older Silvertons are a well built brick chithouse with quality oversized running gear and tend to have practical interior floorplans .I don't know about the newer ones.

Been looking at Formula PCs, with the V-Drive you cant trim them, is that going to be slower, burn more gas? Didn't think of that one.

This

Is

A great

Article

Sorry to spam your thread, but I didn't have 10 posts, and wanted to share this article for you.

https://www.boatingmag.com/boats/to-v-or-not-to-v/

I was looking at a Regal 322 a while back. Had 454's and V-drives. Bilge was waay tighter than my 29 Fountain with 2 BBCs. Starters were on top so I suppose that's a plus, but anything down low would have been a nightmare.The same boats I saw online with outdrives seemed to have much more room in the bilge. Guess it varies from boat to boat.

I was pleasantly surprised with it's docking manners. I was able to back it into a narrow slip with ~15 MPH side wind with no issues at all and I had never driven a V-drive cruiser before. From what I gathered, stern drive is faster with same power. Maint is less with V-drive and if it's wet slipped in salt water, the V-drive is definitely the way to go. The boat I looked at needed a rudder cable. Asked around but no one knew if that meant removing an eng or 2. Boat had other issues too so I passed.

V-drives are absolutely slower so therefore burn more gas.......maintenance will be easier though. Speeds are probably 5-7 mph off between the 2 (guessing based on my old cruisers from the 1990s/2000s.)

We work on inboards and v drives everyday. Don’t buy a stern drive boat that will live in a slip. Way too much maintenance that needs haulout. Someone mentioned earlier in the thread 340 sea rays with 496’s. Pretty much my favorite all around weekend boat, fast, good size cabin, good engine room access, great cockpit layout, easy to get a slip for. All around tough to beat.

Unless you're talking about one of the newer model cruisers with the Volvo IPS "pods" - which are essentially forward facing duo-prop outdrives, but mounted on the bottom instead of at the transom - I would much prefer a v-drive to a stern drive I/O style cruiser..to the point I personally wouldn't buy a mid to large cruiser with outdrives. To be clear, I'm talking about a cruiser with enough beam that it's not trailerable.

Most of the reasons have already been listed here, and there's lots of info available, but I don't know of a manufacturer still making a dedicated cruiser that's equipped with outdrives so what's that tell you?

RE steering and dock manners: once you get the hang of it, controlling the boat with the sticks - instead of the wheel - will be 2nd nature and much easier than docking a single engine anything in my opinion.

My oldest son was teaching a boater new to twins and had about the simplest description I've ever heard.

- Never come into a mooring any faster than you're willing to hit the wall or dock
- Rudder or drives centered, and think bicycle handlebars...starboard is achieved by forward gear on the port screw or drive and reverse on the starboard....exactly as if you were steering a bicycle pushing the left side forward and pulling the right side backward. Vice versa for port turn.
- Reverse stick is always the first action because it's the one that slows you down and usually needs more time because props don't bite as well in reverse.

You'll fine tune it, and add some throttle when dealing with wind or current, but rudder and shafts are simple once you get the hang of it....especially if you've ever driven a skid steer loader or bulldozer.

cheers

d

V drives handle better around the docks.

you really have to compare alI 3 types... Stern, v drive, true inboard

Mechanics that say they hate v drives are likely inboard guys. inboard means easier maintenance at the expense of interior space. V drives get the interior space of the stern drive with the great dock handling and keep in water reliability of inboards.... at the expense of being compact in the engine room. Stern drives are more efficient at the expense of reliability