Towing your boat behind houseboat with dripless shaft seal

[Fman]

If you are towing your boat behind a houseboat at cruising speeds, your prop is spinning, is there water being introduced into the dripless shaft seal and transmission? Or will the seal burn up because of lack of cooling? I know some water will be forced into the scupper, but is enough to make it to the dripless shaft seal, especially with the impeller not moving.

Any thoughts? I tow our boat behind the houseboat, and ironically last year my dripless shaft seal failed at 230 hours.... prematurely. Could this have been the reason why?

Any feedback appreciated... will be going to Shasta this year and we usually do this, dont want to cause any damage to my boat.

[cadunkle]

Most manufacturers of these seals do not recommend running them dry. I would make sure your shaft cannot turn while being towed.

[sybrmike]

The manual for the PSS says you only need the water injection for "high speed" hulls - something like over 11 or 14 knots. Towing with a houseboat, I doubt you're much over that & the prop is sure to have a slow rotation. Personally, I don't think you'd need to lock the prop down. However, you could "burp" it by pushing the bellows back to remove any air pocket & would probably stay flooded on the backside under planing speed.

[jet]

Very good question, but I think at that low of a speed you should only get a lil prop spin or none, and be ok.

[Sluggo]

What are you doing on the houseboat? Have someone else drive the houseboat and have fun in your boat. We usually only have two or three volunteers stay on the houseboat and the ski boats go out and have fun. Need to know the general area or direction the hb is going but very rarely tow anything. We have put standup type jetski's on the back decks or small metal fishing boats with trolling motors back there, but a big sexy ski boat with more hp than 10 hb's shouldn't be towed, ever! lol. ok, I guess if you are the only one with a clue on how to pilot a boat, maybe that is a valid excuse.

[Diggs]

I said this over on WW too, but I am with the guys above saying that at that speed I bet there is no prop rotation, but am curious still....

[Supra-louder]

I really would not worry about it. I had a 2007 Supra i sold this last winter and it had 650 hours on it.

I spend about 30+ days a year on my Houseboat (1 week a month) and my boat gets towed a ton coming and going on each trip and i have never had a problem, never even heard of somebody having a problem because of towing.

Make it "supra Louder"

[DAFF]

Put a Sharpee line in the shaft for the prop. Get inside and have someone pull you around. By looking inside the engine cover you should be able to see at what rate the prop is turning the shaft. From there you can make a educated guess on the effects of getting pulled and pre mature dripless shaft seal failure.

My assumption would be little to no wear on the seal. At house boat speeds I cannot see the prop creating that much heat on the seal.

[beast 496]

How fast can a house boat even travel? If you transmission and strut are in perfect condition you will most definatly have prop shaft rotation while towing. I would think you won't be towing at speeds greater than 10 mph though. What kind of shaft seal are you using? I suspect you will be fine at such slow speeds. I am only presuming here but I suspect at optimum resistance your shaft rpm would be around 750 rpm. This would be for a 14 pitch prop. Al

[docdrs]

Why not get a cheap low flow aerator pump and throw it or a line with a sinker overboard and hook it up to your seal water line

[Diggs]

FYI
FMAN updated over on WW:


Here is his post:


Little update for anyone interested....

Just got off the phone with Eric from OJ props, he said there is no problem with towing your boat behind a houseboat. Not necessary to lock driveshaft or remove the prop. Infact, he mentioned when they first developed the seal it had no water at all being introduced into it, it was dry. He said it would still retain some water in the seal, and there is no way to cause damage from towing at houseboat speeds.

If anyone would know, it would be him... they produce and sell the seal.

[sydneyACE]

I think you have a few options. Whether or not your prop is going to spin I can't say for sure, but I would wager that it will.

If you really wanted to play it safe you could tie your prop with a line to prevent spinning.

Another option would be to simply start your boat and let it idle when it's being towed. This will circulate the water without using too much gas.

Like others have said, I don't think it's spinning fast enough to create much heat, but if you wanted to play it safe, you have options.