V-drive removal- rebuild

Any tips for removing a walter v-drive from my Centurion Avalanche? Anyone ever changed the gears themselves? I am going to change out the gears to the new ratio, from 1:1 to 1:146 This should help with what weight I am running. Walter says it's not a hard project. Model number is RV-26D. Any help would be great!

Thanks

Duffy

If gear reduction is what you are after, I would keep trying lower pitch props before doing major surgery unless there is another reason to pull the tranny.

I have the lowest pitch prop out, it's a custom acme 911. My boat has 1:1 ratio so I would like to change it to what most boats have now. 1:1.46

What is your shaft diameter? I thought that drive reduction ran 1&1/4" and 1:1 ran 1". Are you worried the extra torque of reduction will twist the shaft?

It's the exact same v-drive and shaft. You only change 1 gear in the v-drive. Centurion and a lot of boats come with the 1:1.46 ratio now. Basically from what I read, boat manu had to change the ratio because of how much weight people run etc..

Well before you go ripping out your tranny..What are you looking to accomplish?

What type of motor? You're going to loose alot of top end going to that ratio.

How much weight are you running?

Duffy,

I was talking to Bill Weeks about my boat (Sanger V230) and what prop to run. He mentioned that with the size of my boat and the amount of ballast I"m running, he said that changing the 1:1 gearing to a 1.46:1 would dramatically change the hole shot and performance of the boat.

I saw that you changed your V-Drive to a 1:46 from a 1:1, how do you like it?

I'm really curious to see if this is worth doing.

Thanks,

-Tom

Thanks for entertaining my old thread resurrection! Did you just replace the gears yourself? Just got the rebuild kit from Walter directly? What prop did you end up with?

No I got an entire new v-drive from centurion for less then 1k. I just swapped the whole thing. I believe I went to the 1579 prop after. I now have a Tige and rock a 5 blade prop which I love!!

Moral of the story....just get a different boat with what you want and be done with it.

Can't tell you how many times I have spent a lot of time fixing/modifying something only to sell it shortly after and get what really wanted.

I loved the avalanche! I just didn't like how low it sat while sacked out. I didn't feel comfortable with it.

you sayin you don't like the Gangsta lean?

Originally Posted by duffymahoney

I loved the avalanche! I just didn't like how low it sat while sacked out. I didn't feel comfortable with it.

Yeah I saw your picture of the boat fully loaded. My god it looked like it was sinking. That's why the new boats have another foot of freeboard! I'm saving that picture on my iPhone to show my buds here on Deep Lake. Friggin awesome image of what some folks will do to make a monster wake!

Bet that Tige is a monster! Pics???

My lake get 3-5' swells that come out of no where. They scare me and sinking it before summer and having everyone freeze to death scares me

yeah that kind of listing should be reserved for glass days when you're the only one out

we don't get swells but I have been out on weekends with at least 150 boats on the lake and all kinds of chop, and have never even came close to sinking it in the last 8 years of listing like this but yes you better be on top of things. If I only went when it was glass, I would not get much riding time LOL

Just curious, did you happen to notice a change in fuel economy?

When I swapped from gas to diesel, I actually went the other way to make use of the lower rpm and higher torque rating. Switched from 1:1.46 with 14x18 to 1:1 with 14.5x12. Huge improvement in acceleration and speed holding for me. Fuel use went from 5gph to about 3.75.

Too bad I didn't see this earlier. I got the 1.46 drive laying in the garage.

By the way, for anyone else interested, gear sets/ gaskets are $500 from Walter. Easy to change. They offer a 1.2x:1. That with a large diameter low pitch prop is a good match for gas engines and wakeboard speeds.