Pedal drive disadvantages?

For those of us looking to switch from paddle to pedal kayaks, are there any disadvantages to pedal drive?

Personal options aside, what are the better brands and warranties?

Are there any ones to avoid?

I've had a SeaGhost for a few years now, and I'm looking to switch to pedal. I'm looking for something extremely stable with a bulletproof drive system.

Is there anything I need to investigate or invest in before I buy?

Thanks!

They are heavy. If you have to paddle, they are like barges.

If your budget allows it, go with the original time tested Hobie brand.
Everyone else is playing catch up, but your top brand names make excellent products while some of the newer econo manufacturers to the scene are producing decent attempts, just not time tested.

If your knees are bad, watch out. I can pedal a bicycle pain free, but the Mirage drive kills my knees.

Moving parts = maintenance and failures. Most common failures include bent fins and broken rudder and steering lines; these are easy fixes
Hit a stump at 5mph with the drive could not only damage the drive, but weaken or crack the hull where the drive sits.

Heavy, pricey

Drives, especially propellers don't do well in thick, shallow vegetation.

I've got an Old Town Topwater PDL. To me there are three disadvantages. One it ain't light. With the drive it weighs around 95 lbs. It paddles just like you'd expect a 34" wide, 10'6", 95lb kayak to paddle. It can be a wet ride. When the drive is up there's a pretty big hole in the floor. Stuff will find it's way into that hole. Ask me how I know this. Finally, is shallow water. I can can get into water about 18" deep before I have to lift the drive and paddle. Even on a body of water like Lady Bird Lake, there are places I have to lift the drive.

I tested a lot of boats before I plunked down two grand. Hobie Compass, several Natives, Feel Free Lure, and Perception Pilot. All of them were good boats, and I don't think you can go wrong with any. I thought the Old Town had the smoothest of the propeller drives. The Old Town pedal drive is designed by Minkota and has a 5 year warranty on the drive. For me came down to the Hobie and the Old Town. What sold me on the PDL vs. the Hobie Mirage drive is instant reverse. If I'm fighting a fish I keep two hands on the rod and I can back up without yanking on any cords, I just start pedaling backwards. It helps a lot in positioning, I glide up to my spot and pedal backwards to stop.

At the $2K price point the Old Town was the best boat for me. If I had $3K to spend I might have gone with the Hobie Outback or $4K the Pro Angler, but it was pushing my Swamp Yankee frugality to spend $2K.

I am kind of in the same boat, no pun intended, but I have been researching and demo-ing as many boats as I can before I eventually make a decision. My biggest hurdles are weight, & cost. I car-top my kayaks and fish by myself more than 75% of the time when kayaking and don't see myself wanting to pull a kayak trailer with my car. I can tell you at the top of my list are the 2020 Hobie Outback (85lbs or so empty weight), & the 2020 Native Slayer Propel 10 (62 lbs or so empty weight) , Hobie is obviously at the top of the game and has been for a long time, time tested & proven, great designs, stability is top notch, arguably the most comfortable chairs, the guardian retractable transducer shield, and with the new kickup fins less worry about damaging your fins/drive with underwater hazards. The Native kayaks are also one of the top manufacturers and have been making big advancements with a newly upgraded drive system, integrated weed guard, bmx style flat pedals, stremlined crank, prop indexer, larger rudder, etc.. One big advantage I see that a lot of people like is the Native and other bicycle style drives have the instant reverse which the Hobie drive does not. And at 23 lbs lighter the Slayer seems like the perfect choice for a car topper. But at only 10' long versus the Outback at 12'-9" I do wonder if it would feel a lot smaller to me (6' tall around 185 lbs, both my kayaks now are in the 12'-6" range) I have two Jackson Kayaks that I love but both of the pedal drives they make that I would be interested in (Coosa FD & Bite FD) are at or over 100 lbs empty weight which is more than I would want to try to solo load after a full day on the water fishing. Cost is a huge factor as well. The Slayer comes in around $2,100.00 before tax, if I bought the outback it would be the camo color which comes in around $3,150.00 before tax. $1,000.00 pre-tax difference is a big deal for me. The biggest advantages I see with wanting a pedal drive kayak? Covering more water, getting to and from places quicker possibly, and maintaining better control in the wind, & hands free fishing. Biggest disadvantages I see are weight, cost, more pieces & moving parts (more stuff that can break or fail), definitely harder to paddle if needed, and possibly being limited to certain types of water, some of the places i fish i wouldn't dream of trying to launch a pedal drive, very shallow stump fields for one, narrow shallow creeks, etc... Maybe I am off base in thinking that.

Let me reiterate, I am not an expert, I do not own a pedal drive, I have demoed some and pedaled some friends yaks over the last couple years. I am simply giving my thoughts on what i am looking for in a pedal drive kayak that I plan on adding to my humble fleet of kayaks hopefully sometime this year when the time is right. If anyone has experience car topping these or any pedal drives, or wants to add or correct anything I said about these boats please feel free to add comment or opinion, the majority of the people on this site have many more years on the water than me and I have received excellent advice in the past on here.Good luck in your search OP and hopefully everyone is ready for another awesome year of kayaking, fishing, & enjoying the outdoors.

I have switched from paddle to peddle. I also currently have both and have had several of each. It depends on what type of fishing you do, what waters you fish, of course budget and transportation abilities among other things.

I've had a Pescador Pilot pedal kayak and I have a Hobie Pro Angler and a 2020 Hobie Outback. The Pescador Pilot is not a good pedal drive kayak. The rudder steering design is horrible and after a short time will become hard to steer and their design on raising and lowering the pedal drive into place is a bad design.

There are 2 types of pedal drives- the Hobie or flipper style and the propeller style. The propeller style will give you instant reverse but will give you fits if you fish in any weeded areas or areas with grass. With Hobies you don't have the weed problem. Another advantage with Hobie's is you can also just flip the drive up against the bottom of the hull when you go into shallow areas. The downside with Hobie's is there is no instant reverse. There are Hobies that do have the 180 drive and honestly it's not a bid deal to reach down and pull a cord to go in reverse. Kayak fishing is all about give and take. Once you get used to using the Hobie reverse it's second nature.

As far as bullet proof these things are just like vehicles, all of them can have issues at times. As far as solid either the Hobie drive or the Old Town propeller drive. Native has a quality drive as well. I personally would not look beyond these.

One thing to keep in mind is weight. If you are not willing or don't want to go the trailer route plan on getting BoonDox groovy landing gear. Yes the landing gear is expensive but it will save your back and is night and day easier to load and unload your kayak. I have a trailer and still have BoonDox on my Hobies. I can't recommend this enough. Also keep in mind if you will fish in water less than 12" you will have to paddle your kayak. Keep that in mind if you are looking at a Predator PDL or a Pro Angler. Heavy wide stable kayaks don't paddle well at all.

Another thing on weight. A lot of manufactures seem to post weight ratings that are really not close. IMO Native Slayer is one of those. I've picked up a couple of Slayers and they're not much less than my 150 lb. Hobie Pro Angler 14.

Narrow down your selection to 2 or 3 then go test them out. Spend at least a couple of hours in each one.

Then buy one and go fish!

Jackson Coosa!

Thank you all for the advice.

I currently cartop my Vibe, and I hate it. I'm purchasing a trailer before getting the new yak. I'm on the fence with keeping the old yak, since storage space is limited.

Are there any places that let you demo, or rent, different yaks for a day?
I've only experienced demo days where you don't get a lot of time with a yak.

Get a Malone trailer with the collapsible tongue, easy to load and unload a kayak and it does not take up much space.

If you walked into Mariner Sails and told them you have narrowed down your kayak list to x,y,z and told them once you decided you were ready to buy I'm almost positive they would arrange for you to demo those kayaks. Most kayak dealers understand you need to test them out first. You just need to assure them you're serious about buying and not just kicking tires.

I have a Slayer Propel and my biggest complaint is the weight. I’m tempted to get a second paddle kayak for ponds or short trips. I have the factory rudder and it wants to pull left if I take my hand off the rudder. Also, I have to grease the drive up after every use and that required buying a special tool called a spanner wrench.

But it’s super stable and it paddles okay over a short distance. One big advantage of the bicycle type of drive is being able to stand and use my hands to make slight adjustments back and forth. I go upwind on a bank, line up so I’m pointed at the bank, and let the wind push me along as I fish standing up. If I get too close or too far from the bank, I just lean over and give the pedals a crank or two.

I’ve fished with folks that had various Hobies with the Mirage Drive. One advantage was when going on long paddles in water deep enough to fully engage the drive. Most people have stronger legs than upper bodies and the Mirage Drive takes advantage of that fact. Trolling lures can be done using the Mirage drive and the rod can be in full hands on control the entire time. I’ve trolled while paddling, but the rod is in the rod holder. It still works that way, but there’s a little gap in time between setting the paddle down and getting the rod in hand. With the Mirage drive, one can sort of hover in place in current and still fish. That’s just not really possible when one had to paddle to stay up with the current.

But the Mirage drive was a liability in the shallow marsh. My once in a while marsh fishing buddy had to always address that issue and often pulled the drive out, then had to find a spot to stash it out of the way and securely. It wasn’t all that easy to satisfy those requirements. More than once he bent a fin striking hard reef. For a fly fisherman like myself, the mirage drive is perfectly suited for grabbing any loose fly line that might be near. There’s always loose fly line so there’s always a headache with anything that has straps and angles in the general range of stripped line. The foot pedals are just in the way and there’s no good work around for that other than getting out to wade.

Pedals are great. Not my cup of tea but they do have a place in the market. From what i have seen in my life of kayak fishing is if you like distance pedals are not the best. They are great shorter distance but there is a very hard line. I would say that those who talk about legs being stronger than upper body, well simply put your paddling wrong. Weight of the pedal yaks is a disadvantage but truthfully who goes fishing without friends normally? I know there are times when we do but the bulk of the time you will have a friend to help you load and unload etc. Personally i want a hobie tandem with a pedal drive. I feel like it would make taking my son out easier. For now i use a paddle and will always have a paddle yak as my first choice but hobie is king of the pedal drive market and as agenst them i have been i still want one. The key is try to find someone who has one. Dont just do a 10 min demo. Get in real world situations and really see if you like it over a whole day of fishing so you can really evaluate if its the right choice or not. Great luck

Sure there are some disadvantages, but the benefits far outweigh those and I've never looked back. Hobie Pro Angler here.

The only serious issue for me is that if I want to fish a shallow creek, think smallmouth fishing for me, I take the paddle boat and leave the pedal boat for lakes and bigger rivers.

Keep your old boat and get a new one.

A comment on trailers, the Malones are a PITA to put together and take mucho, mucho hours to do just that. I had the Malone rep tell me it was a 6 or 8 hour project on the trailer that I was considering. They are all bolted together and I have read of some of them coming apart on the road

For about the same price I bought a welded aluminum trailer by Triton. Won't fall apart and saved me a day of frustration.

Yes, go test paddle first.

and one of these when you have to move it around. https://rdxsports.com/brown-medium-leather-6-padded-exercise-lifting-belt/

A Hobie PA 360 in a 12 or 14 is likely the new "money is no issue" standard at almost a boat price. Super great.

Hmm? I don't want to hurt feelings but I see defects in several pedalers, have a recommendation in the end.

One negative note is Jackson's pedal drive is just sub-par, I think. I had one on my Bluesky 360 and it was a poor performer. Mine was slow and I don't think I have ever seen a video where they performed well in tests against other kayaks.

And, while I love the Old Town small pedal kayak, the one that is 10'6", I think they made a rather major mistake not building the drive up off the floor where it sits on a lip. Once the drive is pulled up, it seems to me it invites water to enter the kayak rather easily. I've seen videos with 2" of water inside these kayaks. Not certain regarding the larger version.

On my Native Propel 10, the drive sits up on top of a lip and water intrusion is no issue. I can't speak to the pedal drive on these Old Towns but, whew!, the one on the their larger kayak is super fast. So, there is that.

Back to the Propel 10. Native has dropped the price quite a bit. Competition. I still regard it as one of the easiest to launch, fish out of kayaks. Mine has the Boonedox Landing Gear and I can load it super fast, be on the water in a flash. At 34" beam width, the 10 is remarkably stable. Mine has never tumped over. My drive has been flawless all these years. One trick on a Native 10 or 13 is to NOT lock down the one drive tab. If you hit something, the drive will just rock up. And, the drive operates exactly the same locked down on the third tab, or not.

And, I can't image why since the 10 certainly isn't built for paddling, but mine paddles extremely well when I get into the weed beds.

Even though it is now a rather old model, dang, what a kayak for the dollar!!!

Oh! Native just updated its pedal drive. It retrofits to its old models, has better pedals, sports a weed guard on the prop and a few other improvements.

Brad

Just as everyone else has said. Weight is gonna be the only disadvantage. But all of the other advantages are well worth it.

I’m fishing out of a Lure 11.5 w/ overdrive.

I have the longer Topwater PDL. I got it in September and I love it, but the above is a very good summary of its disadvantages.

Do you get the same pain with an Old Town PDL style drive?

The Mirage Drive also kills 1 of my knees within an hour of use and hurts for 1-2 weeks after, but I can still jog 5 miles/ride a bike 10 miles pain free.

Other disadvantages besides weight is lack of deck /storage space in many models, followed by poor paddling performance, in places where the pedals can't be used:

https://paddlingspace.com/best-pedal-kayaks/#Hobie%20Mirage%20I11S

The older someone gets, the harder it gets to have and enjoyable kayak experience, even for someone that is in great shape. But I still love being on the water fishing, and still manage 100 times per year on a 10lb float tube, which I like better than my previous noisy bass boat, with all it's complications....

I am with Brad on this. I have a used Native Slayer propel 13 and absolutely love it. While it is heavy, it is worth it because of it's stability. Never felt like I was going to flip in it so far. The Native drives are hard to beat. I crappie fish over brushpiles and around timber and bridges and the instant reverse is a lifesaver. In my opinion, if you are looking for a great peddle yak, the natives are hard to beat for their price and functionality. As for pedaling them, the biggest thing I can't stress enough is to not get in a hurry peddling. If you can feel your legs burn, you are doing it too fast. If you get in the right speed to where you feel no burn, you wont be winded and can go long distances. I typically peddle 3-6 miles a trip and while I am tired, my legs are not. I hope this helps.

Love my slayer propel! Liked my Hobie outbacks, but the boats themselves didn’t convince me to keep them long. Now as to the drives-the fins are easier to navigate shallow water and practically ignore CERTAIN types of grass. You also can stop pedaling and free glide much better. I prefer pedal drive for chasing stripers and for distance ~compared to the kayaks I’ve paddled. I’ve owned over a dozen kayaks, lol, and I never consider keeping one ‘forever’. But I actually have no plans to sell the slayer. For bass and striper it works too well, and you can’t argue with instant reverse! NOW-at the other end of the spectrum, the paddle kayaks I really liked were the OK Prowler and the WS Tarpon that I had. You’re gonna get wet, you can go fast, you don’t have the desire to pack too much stuff like you would in a glorified bass boat like most pedal drives have become. But when you hook into something big, it’s a whole different experience! And they’re simple. I’ve been strongly considering adding a Viking to my plastic navy, for all those reasons! Oh I also like the big front hatches the tarpon and the prowler had. My first reason for buying a kayak was to toss a metal detector in and hit some island beaches I couldn’t otherwise access. Just having a kayak got me back into fishing after about a 10yr hiatus.

Having done this for about ten years now, I’d be perfectly fine with either one, with a slight nod toward simplicity, weight, and ability to have storage right in front of me instead of a set of pedals.