X-Mozilla-Keys:                                                                                 

Make sure it works before you compare it. The planetary drives
 like Tracy's, Ross, Nighthawk, New Horizons and Jim Mantyla's
 all are based on similar gear sets that have proven themselves in
 long term aircraft use. Particularly the Ross with the Ford C6.

I would tend to disagree with that last sentence. I have yet to find someone
who has logged over 200 hours on a Ross drive that was happy with it or who
had not done major work to it to get it to work right. For $3000 it had
better be a "bolt it on and forget about it installation". The Ross unit
appears to have many "little" problems and one big problem. The little
problems are things like leaking seals, and bad workmanship, etc., and the
big thing I hear repeatedly is spalling of the gear set or high gearbox temps
probably due to inadequate splash lubrication.

BTW, I am not running down the Ford C6 gear set just the implementation. I
used to pull hay/grain wagons with a C6. I'm convinced!

Rob Johnson

Well Rob Tracy did get 650 hours out of it or so before he decided
to fix it. None of the others, as far as I know, have gone that long.
I also think some Gyro guys have a lot of hours on the Ross.

I would be the first to admit the Ross is not perfect. In a lot of
cases I like to buy from guys that have made a lot of mistakes
and persevered :-) I am sure Ross is now well aware of the problems.

Paul Lamar
 
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