Chad Hill - SS Upper Shaft(Bravo)
 

I am having my Gimbal Ring redone, I bought a SS upper gimbal shaft from Chad Hill off Ebay. Looked Great until we went to put it on, it is about 1/2" to tall, when he went to tighten it down, ran out of threads before the ring was tight. Anyone ever experience this? I should have spent the extra $100 and bought it from Ron Bender, he did the ring and it turned out great. Do we have to machine it, or did he give me the wrong shaft?

Re: Chad Hill - SS Upper Shaft(Bravo)
 

I wouldn't buy anything from Chad Hill again,he sells JUNK. I bought a stainless gimball ring from him that was FAR from ever fitting. I think he has the stuff made in mexico or china. You should post a warning thread after you contact him (he avoided me) if he doesn't give you one that fits,Smitty

Re: Chad Hill - SS Upper Shaft(Bravo)
 

I remember your problems with him, I went out and took a look, it's actually only about an 1/8" taller than the original, but because of that the threads hit the top of the transom assy. before the ring is tight. It must be machined down, which we could have done, but the square portion is also to tall. I try to get a hold of him on monday.

Re: Chad Hill - SS Upper Shaft(Bravo)
 

Same thing with me, Gimbal ring and shaft.
They will get these better as production continues. I used 1 of the newer pins and it worked great. The other one is a blem. They should have the grease passages too. The gimbal ring was tight in the shoe area but I am going to spread it with a porta power. Alot of work goes into casting up stainless parts. These guy's deserve an 'ata boy They have prototypes for the transom housing as well as helmets in stainless, and they also are selling aluminum helmets that are beefed up for around half of a stock one, and have the HP swivel pins. Ron Hill Has been making props for years, and Chad has some good ideas, we have to be patient, I too would like to cast my own parts, it is not as easy as it could seem. BBB

Re: Chad Hill - SS Upper Shaft(Bravo)
 

So he should have no problem swapping it out? what do you consider newer ones? I got this a month ago, This is the HP upper shaft.

Re: Chad Hill - SS Upper Shaft(Bravo)
 

Is this the Ron/Chad Hill we're talking about?
http://www.hillmarine.com/

I've been thinking about those stainless pieces myself, swivel shaft in particular, so I'd like to keep up with what you find.
Where can I find Ron Bender?

Re: Chad Hill - SS Upper Shaft(Bravo)
 

If i had to do a little machineing to make a stainless part fit, that would in my opinion a much better deal than messing around with a steel or aluminum part. I have bought lits of props from Ron Hill and he has been great to deal with and good props. Some needed a bit of polishing but at the price who cares. I would get his parts anyday and make them fit. Better that than one day loosing the bravo off the back at 80 mph and then sinking. Jas

Re: Chad Hill - SS Upper Shaft(Bravo)
 

www.jrmarine.com BBB

Re: Chad Hill - SS Upper Shaft(Bravo)
 

These were on ebay advertised as buy it now for 139.99 or best offer. I put in an offer for $120 and got one but it was 1/8" longer too and had been welded.
As a machinist myself, I noticed that it appears as an earlier piece maybe a trial setup piece from a C.N.C. lathe.
It had welds on it to correct some defects, and the groove at the bottom of the big square was too big setting everything above it off by 1/8" including thread length and overall height as well as the square sections and bearing surface all being higher. I guess I should have bid $139.99 and maybe I would have got one of the better ones !
I have been inside of very many Merc. transom assys.:cool: BBB

Re: Chad Hill - SS Upper Shaft(Bravo)
 

Here is pic of old vs Chad Hill's, mine sounds the same as yours, I paid $139, bit it didint say anything about being a prototype and not fitting. Did you have any problens after you cut it down 1/8" on the lathe, did you take an 1/8" off the bottom square portion?

Re: Chad Hill - SS Upper Shaft(Bravo)
 

picb

Re: Chad Hill - SS Upper Shaft(Bravo)
 

I have (2) emails and (2) vmails into Chad Hill with no response, I would strongly suggest that if anyone else does a gimbal repair either buy the SS upper shaft from Ron Bender or plan on doing some machine work to get Chad Hills parts to fit.

Re: Chad Hill - SS Upper Shaft(Bravo)
 

Yea, Chad and his dad are both selling on ebay. His dad used to sell props on ebay. I had one of his props and you could see that the rake changed between the blades. I traded it away for a Spinelli (!!!). Sucker. Anyways, if you have been in boating for a while you would know that both Chad and Ron have a reputation for misleading people. I don't think they ever ripped people off, they just have a different way of marketing themselves and their product. Back when they were building props they arguing that one company was better than another. It was all over the bulletin boards and their websites. It was a great falicy because it turned out they were talking about them selves! It was the same company.

Hill Marine
 

Thank you for the good and bad remarks. I am Chad Hill of Hill Marine. My main job is teaching 7th grade pre algebra. On the down times, I race boats, build propellers and drive parts and for the last 18 months remodeling my house. But, excuses are like you know what!!! If anyone on this page has a problem with one of our early drive parts send it to me and I will replace it at no charge. I do admit some of our early products had clearance issues.

Last: our swivel shafts now have the extra hole for the grease.

You can email me direct at [email protected]

I bought one of your stainless gimbal rings,the top u-bolt and top swivel pin,left you good feedback on may05/2006 on acct prop19 and left good feedback june 03/06 on acctn c7714 because I had not yet discovered the gimbal ring really was so far from fitting it needed to be re-machined and welded up. The main problem was where the drive slid in and out (where the wear pads would touch) it was about .150 too big and looked very unevenly ground,everthing else on it was dimensional wrong a small amount but could have been re-bored,aside from the overall top to bottom measurement being 1/8 inch off too. The other parts fit with some slight work. I sold the gimbal ring at a loss off 250$ (plus what I spent on s/h getting it from you) with full disclosure that it needed welding and re-machining to fit. I E-mailed your E-bay account numerous times with no response,I figured you obviously knew these parts were blems or pretty much not useable without major re-work due to the lack of response I got. If you have truly gotten the gimbal ring to the point it will fit correctly with no or very little re-working I would still like to buy one for my boat but I would like some kind of a discount to make up for the money I was out of for the 250$ I lost getting rid of the original one that was un-useable. I would be interested in a heavy duty helmet also-IF it will actually fit,Smitty

I am out of the SS bell housings for two more weeks. Email me direct and I will make you a great deal. As for Not Right, the swivel in the picture was from a batch that cost me a quite a bit of money in shipping. Send it back to me and I will send you our new ones with the grease hole in them.

Hill Prop
 

Chad, Please give me your contact info as I would like to speak with you about a prop you made me a few years ago. I need to step up some on sizes and was hoping you could guide me in the right direction.
Thanks

Dan Thomas
[email protected]

What are 5 years later with the parts SS Gimbel Ring ?

The are now a good upgrate ore not ??

Any body have test it in the 5 years ??

I heard at one point Max Marine was buying the stainless gimball rings and straightening them out/re-machining them BUT the price for one that is perfect was like 1500$

I have used Imcos ring, helmet, pins, etc.. they all fit together perfectly right out of the box. No need to screw around machining anything.

Does Imco make a HD gimbal that doesn't need mechanical trim indicators so the regular electric ones and the screw in pins can be used? I don't remember if this was ever addressed but was the reason I wasted my money on the Hill one that wouldn't work (for other reasons-fitment), thanks, Smitty

Smitty,
To the best of my knowledge, no they dont. I dont recall ever seeing an Imco ring that will accept electric trim senders.

I broke ma Gimbel Ring conection to the hydraulik rams.
So i need a new Gimbel Ring.

I have see the stainless Steel gimbel rings in ebay and webside Hill.

I have google and found the old postings from 2006.

But i found nothing wrong postings from 2010, 2011,....