Caudwell Marine Axis stern drive

[RotaryRacer]

Has anyone had an opportunity to see and or review the Caudwell Marine Axis Stern Drive system?

http://www.caudwellmarine.com/

It is an interesting concept. However, I find it very hard to believe that boat builders will be on board with this....unless they design and build boats that can only accept this drive system.

A few key points:

- Requires a 45degree transom angle
- Uses Infiniti automotive based gasoline motors or Range Rover diesel motors
- No U-Joints

I am struggling to see any advantages with this system compared to the currently available options. I see mostly disadvantages...similar (but even more significant) to those when boat builders had to decide if they were going to offer boats with both Mercruiser and OMC stringer drive systems.

So, is this just an exercise in R&D that will not lead to any long standing product offering?

Is it the next best thing that will sweep the boating industry the same way stern drives did several decades ago or how pod drives are doing right now?

This quote caught my attention:

"OUR PLEDGE ...
Faith in our product is such that should any
one of our units suffer a breakdown not
of the operators doing, and not repairable
within twenty four hours of breakdown, we
will replace the entire unit with a brand new
one anywhere within 48 hours ? free*"


What are your thoughts?

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: Caudwell Marine Axis stern drive

i would not look for it here too soon, when Brunswick owns 1/2 the market.

 

[tswiczko]

Re: Caudwell Marine Axis stern drive

I'm not sure I'd buy anything that uses magic "power is transmitted through a cross shaft,around which, magically, the trim axis also happens."
I can fix a lot of things but I'm no magician.

 

[45Auto]

Re: Caudwell Marine Axis stern drive

It's a high-end niche market product, like a Ferrari or a Lamborghini. It's $500 "designer label" jeans as compared to $10 Levis at Wal-Mart. You can get a lot of cars or jeans that deliver the same or better performance for a lot less money.

I would guess that the cheapest one is probably in the $30,000 - $40,000 range at best. Not the kind of thing you're going to find in mass market Bayliners, Sea Rays, etc where the whole boat sells for much less than that! Same reason you don't see the Mercruiser Axius or Volvo IPS drives on many boats. Lots of high-tolerance (read as "high-dollar") precision machining and assembly.

At least on a typical Mercruiser or Volvo, if the u-joint bellows leaks and you're halfway competent you'll catch it and replace the bellows and the u-joints for a couple of hundred dollars. The Cauldwell rotates the whole transmission and pivot gear assembly around the 45 degree axis with a big seal around the whole thing. Get a little water inside that or let it run a little low on oil through a leaking seal and you won't be replacing it with a $1000 SEI outdrive - it'll cost you more than a new boat with a traditional outdrive to repair or replace it.

I don't see Mercruiser or Volvo worrying about redesigning their traditional drives to anything similar anytime soon.

"OUR PLEDGE ...
Faith in our product is such that should any
one of our units suffer a breakdown not
of the operators doing, and not repairable
within twenty four hours of breakdown, we
will replace the entire unit with a brand new
one anywhere within 48 hours ? free*"

Don't forget the little star (*) at the end of their pledge. The star says "Terms and Conditions Apply". Can you find those terms and conditions anywhere?

 

[RotaryRacer]

Re: Caudwell Marine Axis stern drive

Yeah, I suppose it is a niche market thing. However, didn't typical I/Os start off as niche market items?....of course they proved to be just as, or more affordable than the outboard alternative.

Pod drives I would say also started as niche market items, but are growing substantially in popularity in the market they serve. They only make sense on large cruisers that would otherwise have inboards so the market is only so big and will never apply to the "consumer" grade mass market boats.

I am still trying to find any benefits that this Caudwell Marine drive presents. Other than "magic" and a different way of accomodating the steering and tilt pivot points it seems to leave a lot of the other "compromises" of an I/O untouched and introduces new ones that would be difficult for any OEM to embrace.

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: Caudwell Marine Axis stern drive

Yeah, I suppose it is a niche market thing. However, didn't typical I/Os start off as niche market items?....of course they proved to be just as, or more affordable than the outboard alternative.

not really, they were developed to provide the higher Hp, of the inboard boats, and the shallow water use of the outboards. higher HP, less Draft.