I am very familiar with straight drives, but not v drives. Riviera is using them in their sport motor yachts and would love some feedback. I know it's more gears than straight drives, but are they as reliable?
No mater what the brand, When you transfer torque in an opposite direction, horsepower is lost and heat is generated. Old PV drives did this twice in their tall skinny V drive. And, there is a whine. Keeping the heat down and a more robust oil change schedule than straight drives help offer long life. When there is an underwater collision, the V case offers more leverage and twisting to the the engine. Sometimes resulting in a lil more damage the the V case and motor/drive mounts. I have stories. I know of no current bad V drives. Some are harder to service than others. Sadly, Out of sight - Out of mind. Clutches are probably the least properly maintained item on most boats. Survey them well including a few oil labs. Tolerate zero oil leaks during your surveys also.
Thanks for the reply, you brought up some points I wouldn't have thought about. It appears they are using this design as a way to save room instead of using pods. I would rather deal with the negatives of the v drive system than pods.
check for good access (for regular maintenance and emergencies) to the shaft seals - they may be almost inaccessible below the engine
I always wished more manufactures would offer V-drives rather than pods (and I am an IPS owner with a very positive experience). Are there any Riviera's where V-drives are offered as an alternative to IPS? It looks like they only offer v-drives on models that do not offer IPS (primarily due to size).
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