Kiwiprop Problem ?

[Nemos]

Does anyone have any experience with Kiwiprops?

When we hauled our boat a few months ago we were surprised to find multiple cracks in the one of the parts on the drive shaft. When we contacted the company, we were again surprised that this was a known problem and they had not notified customers…

When the replacement didn’t arrive as promised, I got pretty upset with them (vacation cancelled) and now they won’t help unless I apologize…

Has anyone who owns one of these found that one or more of the blades are a bit stiff?

We lubricated it just a few months ago, but we now find that all three of the blades have differing tensions with respect to rotation/feathering. One blade rotates with minimal, almost no effort, one takes a significant effort to rotate, and one is in the middle. No sign of fouling..

Is this O.K.? It seems that they should all have the same effort for turning – but what do I know?

We are in the middle of a 2 day haul out in Mexico, so time is short.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Once we finish our trip – this thing is coming off our boat!

[bgallinger]

I have been running a Kiwi prop on my 34 foot Hunter for 3 years and no problems at all. I'm surprised you are having difficulties!

[Nemos]

Just our luck. - I am starting to learn that I have to be prepared at each haulout to do a complete kiwi build…

Kiwi is saying that all we have to do is knock out the pins that hold each blade, clean and lubricate each post, and reinstall the blades…

Has anyone done this? Can you re-use the pins? Anything that can go wrong?

The last time we lubricated this thing, the yard did not have the needle injector it requires…so I better go find one of those…in Mexico.

Ah – the joys of sailing

[bigpuff]

done over 2000 hrs now,not aproblem,just a squirt of grease(with the needle end that was supplied with the prop)I will nock out the pins this time around,im sure they can be used again.Iv herd they are very helpfull and take take ther product very sereously,thers more ups then downs,u could be on a freeway!!!!!!

[Jeannius]

Installed two of the things on my cat. One cracked the hub (plasticky part, can't remember what it is made of) KiwiProp sent two new ones so not so bad.
Set off around the world. By half way round (9 months, not more than 1000 hours motoring) vibration was bad when sailing and motoring so hauled out and they were both a right mess... blades moving up and down the shaft, edges gouged by adjustment screw on hub and other parts of hub. Took them off, sent them to KiwiProp, and fitted old 3 blade fixed Volvos.

Response from KiwiProp was that I had impact damage on both of them ( one had had a light line around it but nothing I was aware of on the other) so this wasn't covered by warranty. They would however supply new and improved hubs with new blades for $600 each! I declined and told them I'd stick with my fixed blade Volvos.

[clemon]

I've had a small kiwiprop on a Searunner 34 tri with a 20Hp motor, for about a year now. The unit was easy to install, and works very well so far.

The prop runs smoothly. I haven't noticed any loss of efficiency in motoring, although I don't motor enough to notice any subtle differences. The "abrupt or distinct" engagement of the blades going into reverse, noted for the design, is not an issue at all, and the boat backs up well. The improvement in sailing speed with the prop feathered is very noticeable. I'd never go back the fixed three blade prop I previously had.

With the newer seal types used, the annual maintenance work doesn't look too difficult. I'll find out in about 2 months when I haul out again.