Raymarine X-5 Wheelpilot Drive

[steve stark]

OK, I'm confused....
I'm sitting here unwrapping my boat show deals and planning installations. I open the brand new Raymarine X-5 and, lo and behold, the drive has a belt inside. Based on archived threads, I thought that the X-5 was supposed to continue the evolution of the S1 drive which was supposed to be beltless. I have been hasseling with my old ST4000+ for years and was looking forward to a much cleaner 'direct/geared drive'. What gives?

Did Raymarine give up on the 'beltless' drive because of reliability problems?

Inquiring minds want to know.

-Steve

[CaptainDan99]

I don't think Raymarine ever made a "beltless" wheelpilot. They used the MkII wheel with both the S1 & X5 computer & it has an internal belt.

[Spyder]

I have one of the first X-5's with the new motor housing (aluminum) and it too has an internal belt...which works flawlessly. I remember old ones with external belts that were no where near as good. I single hand a 23' catboat with 450 sq ft in one sail, and it's made otherwise tough situations (reefing, raising, and dropping sail) a breeze.

[Faster]

They both have belts, the newer one has a lot more metal components and seems a much more robust unit. When we finally trashed our 4000 series wheel drive half the plastic idler pulleys were broken and the two halves would fall apart if you looked at it twice.

Much happier with the newer 'grey' drive.

[steve stark]

Thanks to all for the feedback. My drive also had several of the wheels break off. I have fabricated new, machine-screw-mounted bushings for them, but I suspect that my calibrated eyeball mounting has created just enough mis-alignment to cause the thing to not be terribly robust. Installing the X-5 this weekend and looking forward to it!