Fouling on Arnesen cylinders

[Frosty]

But Com boats has posted pictures of barnacles on Arneson drives. There they are just above this one.

AND they have been scraped. This is more like I expected to see instead of this ridiculous thread about barnacles dont grow on Arneson.

Granted the hydraulic residue of fluid on the rams may retard growth for a while.

By the way I have met a few people that are convinced that running a surface drive cleans all the barnacles off,-sorry --only those people with surface drives know that this is not the case and movement within the marina is difficult enough and opening throttles results in smoking engines and white water with very little speed.

A sharp scraper and some serious arm work is what is required.

[Rik]

I still believe there is a disconnect.

The thread was never about "do barnacles grow on Arnesons, Yes or No", rather there was a premise founded by Mr. Frosty and masalai that the Arnesons were inferior due to fact that they thought the hydraulic cylinders were prone to marine growth and thus would constantly fail. Unfounded none the less.

I don’t know where all these trailer boats are with Arnesons. The majority of our market are Military Patrol and pleasure yachts. Neither of these two sit on a trailer. These boats are to large to be trailered around by the average “Joe” as they are over the legal length and over width to be put on city streets. Sure, they get an annual haul out for bottom paint and maintenance but majority of the time sitting on a trailer they are not.

Mr. Frosty is also correct that “mold does not gather on a rolling stone” in that marine growth is lessened on a vessel that is in use, rather than one that is sitting idle on a dock for years of uninterrupted use. And as Mr. mydauphin pointed out, anything will go to crap if neglected. The rubber boots on an Arneson provide no sealing or such so of they have a tear it is not an issue. Proper maintenance is anti fouling protection as well. This is no different than a boat with any other propulsion as the cabin cruisers in my local marina with underwater gear have a diver out there scrubbing the bottoms and such on a regular basis so I would expect no less on any other boat in the world.

[seamy]

I would not get dragged in to this again rik,my opinion for what it's worth, and i believe the opinion of any serious powerboater, is that arneson is the cream of surface propulsion, regardless of what grows on them in any given enviroment,Fixed surface drives are a robust and cheap way of getting to know and play with these type of drives, regardless of who manafactured them,whether it be someone playing at DIY,or popular and currently marketed drive types,believe me if i could indeed afford an arneson drive it would be the drive of my choice,For many years i ve messed around with fixed drives and whilst to a degree its a lot of fun,fixed surface drives are exactly that CHEAP and CHEERFUL,enough said.

[mydauphin]

Question for all of You. I saw a guy put large garbage bags over the Arnesons to prevent barnacle growth. He swore by it. What effect would this have on corrosion, make it worse? A friend of mine that has Arnesons are covered in black soot from his diesel engine. His drive is barnecle clean, but could this also have a bad effect of corrosion?

[Rik]

Originally Posted by mydauphin

Question for all of You. I saw a guy put large garbage bags over the Arnesons to prevent barnacle growth. He swore by it. What effect would this have on corrosion, make it worse? A friend of mine that has Arnesons are covered in black soot from his diesel engine. His drive is barnecle clean, but could this also have a bad effect of corrosion?

I like the soot idea. Might just be the secret that the world has been looking for.

The trash bags are probably more for the rubber boots so that the sun does not break them down. They are not UV resistant. Now if someone could Velcro a bag over the drive units to the transom and fill it with fresh water.. hmmmmmm..

There was some company a few years back making a bladder for your slip that did this exact thing. Pull the boat into the slip, tighten the tarp like device up and fill it with fresh water (being heavier than salt water it would displace the salt water in the process) Voilà. No salt water growth.

[seamy]

How about a bag that would cover the entire boat,That way if it was'nt a success you would'n have to look at it,What the eye does'nt see the heart wont grieve about

[Frosty]

A bag on the prop is old hat stuff. I do a made up thing (bin bags not big enough) the missus sews up some big bags and I tie then them round the props and up the drives as far as I can.

Yes they do the job well especially if you are in a calm marina, if it is wavy the props cut their way out.

It will make no difference to corrosion or electrolisis as that is passed by the sea water.

The reason why they work is it starves the bastards of sun light, thats all.

[Rik]

Originally Posted by Frosty

A bag on the prop is old hat stuff. I do a made up thing (bin bags not big enough) the missus sews up some big bags and I tie then them round the props and up the drives as far as I can.

Yes they do the job well especially if you are in a calm marina, if it is wavy the props cut their way out.

It will make no difference to corrosion or electrolisis as that is passed by the sea water.

The reason why they work is it starves the bastards of sun light, thats all.

This is the exact same thing the rubber boot does on the Arneson. They are not meant to be water tight, rather day light proof as weird as that sounds.

[Commuter Boats]

Hello Rik, I thought you might have left this site. I didn't intend to drag you into this again.
"Rik, This thread appears to be have been started by a customer of Arneson Surface Drives that has felt you and masalai have attempted to damaged the perception and reputation of the Arneson Surface Drives. A point that I agree with but I do not feel have been successful in achieving. Please don’t make me and others want to avoid this site due to your misconceptions and fallacious statements."
What can I add?
And now the question of corrosion has come up, We have not experienced any galvanic corrosion issues with the exception( on one project) of the aluminum backup plate provided for the inside of the transom. A good cleanup, prime and paint is controlling that. We do regular maintenance with zinc's at 12-18 months intervals.
Two of installations that I've done have been bronze drives on aluminum boats. On both of these boats I provided a barrier of 1/8" of fiberglass ( chopped strand mat and vinyl ester resin) and neither of those have had any corrosion issues.
All of the four Arneson projects that I've been involved with and two others that are in town are kept in a slip and I too am lost as to where that idea comes from that, Arneson boats should be trailered.