LasDrop vs Tides Shaft Seal?

[dkall]

We've narrowed it down to the lasdrop vs the tides marine shaft seal. Wonder what the real world users have to say.

The tides is more expensive. I love the tides slides for the mainsail track. Not that they're really related but the company has a solid product there and I lean to supporting that. I say a couple of the lasdrops at a salvage yard and I often use those observations to tell me what's not working.

Thanks,
Fair Winds

[markpj23]

I have a Lasdrop Gen II unit that's about 2 years old. I did have one episode of it leaking under load, but I think I have other shafting / alignment issues that account for that. I'll know soon enough as the shaft is coming out this weekend.

The Gen II seems to be well made and my email to customer support was answered by a phone call from one of their people within 3 hrours. Great customer service from my experience thus far.

I spoke with a local yard owner about repairing / replacing my current Lasdrop. He really spoke highly of the Tides Strong Seal and all but said that's the only type he would install. His clientelle is primarily the power boat crowd. If you want to speak with him send me a PM and I'll give you his #.

Looking at the Strong Seal info...I like the idea of having a spare lip seal mounted on the shaft. My only question / concern is that they require a pressurized water supply line. So if I lose my raw water impeller do I also then lose the shaft seal? That would not be good.... Not sure that's the case but was one of the questions I had about those units. They are about 2 -3 times more expensive than the Lasdrop units from my brief research from last fall.

I'm sure you'll also hear from the stuffing box / flax packing crowd here too. It's good to have choices eh?

[dkall]

When I spoke with the Tides people at the show you only needed a pressure line if by motoring you would "suck" the water out of the bearing. They told me how to check and indicated that if you're going under say 10 or 12 knots he never thought that would be a problem. On the other hand, he had changed the prop in his boat and found the that new prop was more efficient and would suck the water out so he had to plumb it in.

Basically lasdrop indicated the same thing w/o telling me how to check and see if I needed it.

Fair Winds