Pro-Drive Electric Clutch

Ahhh!  Another unexpected expense that had to be spent sooner instead of later.

We liked and always planned on installing John Spurling's Pro-Drive Electric Clutch setup but we really didn't have the money at this time to purchase and install it.  We planned on trailering our ship with the blades installed from the very beginning but late in the game we learned of a problem doing it. 

Seems that when the ship is bouncing, jiggling, and vibrating down the highway while you're towing it the sprag clutch unit will rachet on the shaft and cause it to really bind up the drive system. Not only does it reek havic on the drive system but also the rotor hub. It can and I'm told most often that it does cause the hub to break. This is a no no for sure so our only avenue if we were going to pull this off safely was to install John's or someone else's Clutch now instead of later.

Doing research on the different units available out there we decided on Spurling's Pro Drive setup.

It has key features other ones didn't, not to mention it is installed on more ships than anyone else's and if it's going to have a problem it will be found out far sooner than problems with the competitors units.

John is the kinda fellow that will take the time, effort and spend the money on engineering we're not confident the others will. That in itself says a lot for a product.

What the electric clutch does is completely free the engine from the drive train.

This enables the engine to start without the load of the drive system on it saving wear and tear on the starter and at the same time enables the engine to start easier. This is something we think RotorWay should have had long ago and we really can't understand why they don't. In trailering it allows the drive system to freewheel meaning not have any pressure (binding) on it from the sprag clutch. It also allows us to rotate the blades in the opposite direction for loading and unloading in the trailer. When we bring the ship into and out of the trailer we have to have the blades at about the 11/5 o'clock position to clear the blade support hangers in the ceiling. Once it's in position we rotate the blades into the 12/6 o'clock position for and aft and secure it to the trailer.

There's alot of controversy going around about the electric clutch causing problems affecting the clutch swing arm.  There are all kinds of opinions going around and the only substantial information thus far to come of any of it is that the swing arms from RotorWay are made in a manner that allows them to easily fatigue. When they are welded together at the RotorWay factory

they weld it together in random steps that allows the welds and parts of the metal cool at different rates.

At the end of that process it is considered finished and put on the parts shelf ready for shipping.

They omit a process that could make a substantial difference on the swing arm called Normalizing.

Thats a heat treating process that when (from what I gather) the complete arm is brought up to a certain temperature and then allowed to cool at a controlled rate.  There's also what they call an M-R factor to be considered which is a measurement for the hardness of the metal being used.

 
John Spurling at Pro-Drive has addressed this problem
and come up the best swing arm possible meaning it is manufactured as good as it can be.

It's made from the correct metal, welded in the best format possible and at the end of that process its normalized under the proper conditions.

 
Only time will tell if it's a fix for sure but what we do know is John has made every effort possible
so were putting our faith in him and his product.

 
There's alot more to this seemly simple item and the best one can do is take a serious look at everyones products with an open mind and take YOUR best shot!.

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