www.iFourWinns.com

I am considering purchase of a used 2006 Vista 318 with Ocean Drives 5.7. I'm concerned about the bellows issues with that drive as per discussions on BoaterEd. While the Volvo bellows recall has been handled for the boat that I am considering, the new bellows does not always solve the problem and sometimes the bellows leaks on the Ocean Drive even with the replacement bellows. Water leakage can be slow, but in a salt environment the outdrive can be quickly ruined. Does anyone have experience with this problem? How would I check for this problem (without paying to have the outdrive dropped) as a perspective boat purchaser? Thanks

I have no idea if they have fixed it or not, but a guy on The Hull Truth has an Albermarle fishing boat with a Volvo OSXi and he's had to replace the bellows each season even after it was fixed with the revision change volvo made. He's not a happy camper, not sure that I would be either considering the Bellows can sink a boat!

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Brett DiMichele

The only way to check, is to have drives removed and inspected! Whats a few hundred bucks vs. price of boat to know what your getting!
If your going to trailer boat, and only have in water once in a while,????? I would still want to know if the gimbal and ujoints are fine.

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2000 248 5.7L DP
'92, '94 SXI 750, '08 STX 15F, '12 Ultra LX 300
Videos

If you're going with a boat that size, and are in salt water honestly I'd go with a straight inboard system, less in the water to cause trouble, even if a sterndrive does give more speed and economy you will make up for it in increased maintenance. Outdrives are fine in fresh water regions and areas that don't have a lot of marine fouling issues, but in salt water they are high maintenance no matter if they are Merc Volvo or OMC. Been there done (and still doing!) that.

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88 Four Winns 200 Horizon
4.3 OMC Cobra-4bbl
2002 Walker Bay 10/2012 Suzuki 2.5
2008 Walker Bay 8

1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4.0/Selectrac
2007 Jeep Grand Cherokee 5.7 Hemi/Quadradrive II

I appreciate the replies. The $80K price is so good I may have to put up with the Ocean Drive problems. We boat in the brackish water of the Potomac River.