Evaluating a used boat

I have never used a kayak, or a 'mirage drive'
Planning to drive and go take a look at one in the next couple of days, but I've no experience in the mirage drive, or its mechanical workings. Is there any tell tale signs a unit might be on the brink of failure? Or anything in particular I should be looking for on the kayak itself? I have experience in fiberglass repairs, but never dealt with the kayak "Rotomolded Polyethylene" Any known design flaws or issues with any of the hobie craft? I'm planning to go look at a revolution model, 2 years old.

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I couldn't find anything in old threads, but if you know of another thread already explaining this, could you link it?

Nick

Look for cracks or signs of stress in and around the scuppers and drive well. scuffs on the bottom are gonna happen, so no worries there as long as they aren't damn near all the way trough the hulls thickness. As far as the drive, it's a pretty simple piece of mechanics. If you can fix a bicycle you can handle the drive. look for bent rods, check the chain and cables, tears in the fins, so on, and so on. also check the drive locks to make sure they are in good shape. Drop the rudder and swing it side to side, and look at what you can of the fittings and what not inside the hull. Any of these things are repair/replaceable, so if you find something it might give you bargaining room.

What rav said. If i am correct those people live on a lake.  Which is perfect.  If you go see it, check inside to see its dry throughout. Then put it in the water off the dock (it's ridiculously stable). Drop the drive in and pedal around. Give it a few hard pedals and make sure it's not slipping or making any big clicking noises. 

Then pull it out and check the inside of the kayak again to see if there's any water.

Yeah, big thing to watch put for is cracks or patches. Good luck!


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Like rav said, look for bent posts on the drive unit.  If they've been bent, chances are there are hairline fractures on the posts and those will eventually rust through, which leads to the posts snapping and leaving you with only one functional flipper.  If you discover the posts are bent and they didn't tell you, you should ask them to take around 50 bucks off the price because that's about the minimum cost to order replacement posts and sprockets.

Thanks for the replys! Wll def try it out in the water. Hope it is in good shape =] maybe I'll have a kayak this weekend!