Anyone with Zeus Pods?

Dissapointed said:
I have experienced the same exact issues


I have experienced the same problems and unfortunately have no choice but to file a law suit. No one wants to accept responsibility.
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If that is the case I suspect your attorney would advise not posting about it in a public forum. Good luck,

MM
 
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MonacoMike said:
If that is the case I suspect your attorney would advise not posting about it in a public forum. Good luck,

MM
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Yes. Forums like these can materially effect resale value and any legal actions you may contemplate. Pods have been around for years and do work well. They are proven technology on ships. IPS does work well on Tiaras and I seriously looked at the 3500 with pods. In the end, went with straight inboards, out of concern with ongoing higher cost of maIntaining the pods. Sometimes old fashioned technology is easier live with in the long run.
 
Had my pod drives now for about 8 months. I will never go back. They are amazing, and my enjoyment of boating is much higher. I used to watch conditions for coming and going before setting off, but not now. I can dock and maneuver with ease in any condition. I now have absolutely no concerns around any dock situation. I can hold the boat for as long as my wife takes or needs tying up. To me, it isn't an issue of learning to operate better, it is an issue of it being so easy, that boating is more enjoyable. Instead of spinning the wheel, in and out of gear, grabbing thrusters, it's just one joystick that gives immediate response. To me, worth every penny of cost and additional maintenance. Having them will force me to haul out regularly, but that's a good thing to keep my boat running well.
 
Carver370 said:
I will refrain from posting the brand of the boat but I myself and a close friend / customer of mine have had complete nightmares with his Zeus boat.

-Both pods replaced.
-Both transmissions replaced at different intervals - NOT rebuildable.
-Both steering actuators replaced - two times each since the pod replacement - also NOT rebuildable.
-Both new pods have been rebuilt now as well since the replacement.
-Both "rings" replaced now 4 times.

Everything has been related to two different fluids mixing in the wrong locations. This is on a boat that has had way above average care and preventative maintenance its entire life. We take her on her own hull from Florida to Michigan and back each season, there has only been one trip we were able to continue the entire way without incident. NEVER have touched bottom with this boat either. Every single time, Cummins assumes zero responsibility, ZF assumes nothing, and Mercury will "gladly" pay for the parts after the word lawsuit starts being thrown around for some time. They have never paid for any of the labor associated with this.

Can you image having one of these with three Zues drives like an L590 has? No thank you.
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Carver370 said:
I will refrain from posting the brand of the boat but I myself and a close friend / customer of mine have had complete nightmares with his Zeus boat.

-Both pods replaced.y
-Both transmissions replaced at different intervals - NOT rebuildable.
-Both steering actuators replaced - two times each since the pod replacement - also NOT rebuildable.
-Both new pods have been rebuilt now as well since the replacement.
-Both "rings" replaced now 4 times.

Everything has been related to two different fluids mixing in the wrong locations. This is on a boat that has had way above average care and preventative maintenance its entire life. We take her on her own hull from Florida to Michigan and back each season, there has only been one trip we were able to continue the entire way without incident. NEVER have touched bottom with this boat either. Every single time, Cummins assumes zero responsibility, ZF assumes nothing, and Mercury will "gladly" pay for the parts after the word lawsuit starts being thrown around for some time. They have never paid for any of the labor associated with this.

Can you image having one of these with three Zues drives like an L590 has? No thank you.
Click to expand...
 
Carver370 said:
I will refrain from posting the brand of the boat but I myself and a close friend / customer of mine have had complete nightmares with his Zeus boat.

-Both pods replaced.
-Both transmissions replaced at different intervals - NOT rebuildable.
-Both steering actuators replaced - two times each since the pod replacement - also NOT rebuildable.
-Both new pods have been rebuilt now as well since the replacement.
-Both "rings" replaced now 4 times.

Everything has been related to two different fluids mixing in the wrong locations. This is on a boat that has had way above average care and preventative maintenance its entire life. We take her on her own hull from Florida to Michigan and back each season, there has only been one trip we were able to continue the entire way without incident. NEVER have touched bottom with this boat either. Every single time, Cummins assumes zero responsibility, ZF assumes nothing, and Mercury will "gladly" pay for the parts after the word lawsuit starts being thrown around for some time. They have never paid for any of the labor associated with this.

Can you image having one of these with three Zues drives like an L590 has? No thank you.
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My situation is identical to yours. Two failed transmissions, 3 steering actuators, pre mature exhaust failures and a lot of aggravation.
 
Dissapointed said:
My situation is identical to yours. Two failed transmissions, 3 steering actuators, pre mature exhaust failures and a lot of aggravation.
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It is really disheartening to read this thread. As we head into 2019 over 100 boat manufacturers are using Volvo IPS drives on their boats with the Volvo engine package. Exactly zero (at least from my research) are using Zeus. I have never worked on a Zeus drive so I struggle to understand why seals, fluids and the internals are so unreliable.

I got the sense that Zeus was rushed into production when Volvo introduced IPS but it's failure rate is extraordinary. I am surprised there hasn't been a class action lawsuit filed on this. The Zeus option if I recall added $125k to $150k to the cost of the boat which should be more than enough to get the class action attorneys chasing it.

Unfortunately, that really won't solve anything because short of replacing the propulsion with Volvo systems.....there is no alternative than to continue repairing/replacing the drives.
 
So many nice Searay's with that Sh## hanging underneath. Sad.
 
The real pain will come to the owners of these engineering marvels when they decide to sell. I truly feel for them. We are in the market for a 2007 to 2009 Sundancer and I was just thinking about this today. I probably would not buy a boat with pods even if it was discounted $100,000.
 
DieselDogg said:
The real pain will come to the owners of these engineering marvels when they decide to sell. I truly feel for them. We are in the market for a 2007 to 2009 Sundancer and I was just thinking about this today. I probably would not buy a boat with pods even if it was discounted $100,000.
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This is the very reason we ended up with our 2008 48 sundancer.. Almost all of the 09 and newer are PODS.
 
Zach312 said:
This is the very reason we ended up with our 2008 48 sundancer.. Almost all of the 09 and newer are PODS.
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100% V Drive all the way. Always reliable and way less to maintain. Zeus scares me and I wouldn’t purchase a resale with this package.
 
I agree with Rocket. I also did my research prior to purchasing our 48 and I am so glad that I did not purchase a pod boat.
 
My thought is can the hull be reworked and straight shaft or V drives dropped in? I know it would be a huge undertaking, but it might be a way to make the silk purse out of the sow's ear....
 
SeadawgVB said:
My thought is can the hull be reworked and straight shaft or V drives dropped in? I know it would be a huge undertaking, but it might be a way to make the silk purse out of the sow's ear....
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Fortunately, the good news is some of those boats did come with straight shafts or V drives which from an engineering perspective makes it possible with a known set of parts/engineering. Even then, you would be looking at a $100k retrofit assuming you could reuse the engines.

If a model only came in pods......that is seriously problematic.

It is an interesting business idea to refit Zeus pod boats but my guess is that Brunswick would be looking at 1,000 boats x $100k means $100 million which they are unlikely to part with easily. Still, they have dormant facilities which could handle the retrofit. In the end....it will come down to them spending the money on getting the pod to work (most likely) or replacing them.
 
PlayDate said:
[SNIP]....

It is an interesting business idea to refit Zeus pod boats but my guess is that Brunswick would be looking at 1,000 boats x $100k means $100 million which they are unlikely to part with easily. Still, they have dormant facilities which could handle the retrofit. In the end....it will come down to them spending the money on getting the pod to work (most likely) or replacing them.
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I think there is about zero percent chance of Brunswick doing the retrofit. I was thinking more like some young enterprising _________ (fill in the blank) might be able to flip some larger Sundancers that people won't buy because of first gen Zeus Pods hanging down below.
 
In my industry we had a "revolutionary" product like the volvo pods introduced by a single manufacturer. We used product from a different manufacturer who "copied" the product (like zues). The issue was the copy had to work hard to get around all the patents, and in doing so made the copy (i.e. zues) have poor performance and horrendous reliability. Fast forward a few years, the patents expire and lo and behold a retrofit kit comes out and fixes EVERY bad part of the copied machine!

I suspect some of the issues with the Zues implementation of POD drives is patent avoidance, its possible they will have a re-engineered version in the future.




I also have spoken to a couple service people for Volvo, they also say they see issues but they see them more on poorly maintained boats. With one we had an interesting discussion that made sense. His feeling was PODs have allowed new boaters to have more confidence to purchase larger boats, many having not had time to experience the amount of maintenance a boat takes. They don't keep up with maintenance well, some just because they had no idea how much all those systems in a boat need maintenance, and if your not a DIY the expense is very large. In his experience boats/IPS drives that were maintained well either at or before required intervals from day one had far fewer or no issues compared to those that were pushed beyond limits in terms of maintenance timing.
 
You may be right but Mercury Marine is the largest producer of outboard motors and stern drives in the world....you would think intellectual property to make it spin around would not be a big deal. But to your point.....I don't know if they outsourced the build of these things to ZF or someone else.
 
I'll keep my straight inboards and v-drives.
You all can keep the pods.
 
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