Shaft packing poll

No more packing for me. I installed dripless on my shafts.
 
Dripless here also, the selection should be added to the poll

RWS
 
GFO, GFO, only GFO.

on a straight shaft boat with good access to the stuffing box, i will take a conventional stuffing box with GFO over dripless. on a Vee drive, it's a different story and Dripless are worth the risk.

problem with dripless (PSS, etc...) is that when (not if) they fail, at best you have to haul out, at worst you have a big leak on your hands...
 
GFO and bilge dry ever since. Agree with Pascal, I don't want the risk involved with dripless seals.
 
Changed to GFO this spring.
No more wet bilge.
Great and not that expensive vs dripless.
Abouttime
 
quote:
Originally posted by PascalG

GFO, GFO, only GFO.

on a straight shaft boat with good access to the stuffing box, i will take a conventional stuffing box with GFO over dripless. on a Vee drive, it's a different story and Dripless are worth the risk.

problem with dripless (PSS, etc...) is that when (not if) they fail, at best you have to haul out, at worst you have a big leak on your hands...

Click to expand...


Never heard anyone with a failure using the PSS system. They use face seals that continually polish each other. I know the Navy and Coast Guard use them along with several other boat builders as standard equipment.
 
Keep reading Craig. There was a high end Sport fisherman, brand new, that went down last year during delivery and captain and mate died. Cause was complete failure of dripless shaft seal. I've read about quite a few problems right here on Boatered.
 
how about failures of properly installed and maintained dripless systems? they need to be inspected periodically too.
 
dripless are more complex, for instance they all require cooling water, whether PSS or Sureseal; that means extra hose, fittings, clamps, etc...

i had PSS on my previous boat, tehy worked fine although dripped a few times for no apparent reason. I remember at least one case here on BE where one of them failed letting a lot of water in the boat (forgot who it was...)

With the Strong Sureseals,the seal needs to be replaced once in a while and they come with a couple of spare seals on the shaft. One issue is that with time and heat, the spare seal age and may not fully seal the shaft. when that happens, you have to haul out and pull the shaft...

as i said, worth it on a Vee drive, but on straight shafts, i'll keep my GFP!
 
Agree with Pascal. I have dripless on Saint Max but would prefer GFO. However, getting into the bilge in a 330 Dancer is a VLPITA to begin with.
 
Dripless on my boat and I've been very happy with them for the last eight years and counting
 
all I can report is that the people with drip less are always talking about something going on with them. The packing type guys never seem to mention their seals.
In any event I am not going to change the seals, just repack them, and wonder what people like and why.
 
I have the Strong seals on my boat and just replaced the seals last year. 20 years and 800 hours of use. I agree that I would rather have GFO if there is a major failure but after 20 years on the original set I'm pretty confident in them.
 
What is GFO? Gross Foreign Object? Goose Food Only? Gooey Freaking Oil? Go F Obama?
 
No packing works on a boat with alignment issues. That's a big plus for dripless, albeit one that allow ignorance of a real issue.
 
Bruce, Why do I like GFO? It is virtually dripless and very low maintenance. I re-packed with it about 3 years ago. I adjust the packing glands after a few hours in the water after spring launch and then, other than looking at them and checking for too much heat periodically, I don't have to do anything.
 
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