Anyone ever have there fae tear off?

[robricketts]

Hello as the topic says I had an issue with my FAE. It was on the boat end of last year and I have put 5 hours on this year. Last time out I was running the boat fast. 40 mph for a good time as the water was smooth and we were late. When I put the boat on the lift I noticed the FAE had bent up and torn off where it was screwed to the boat. Also broke the plastic cap / attachment point or stability bar.

I have sent it to a machine shop to have a new color made which will allow a full 360 degree attachment to the boat in addition to adding a 5th and 6th hole for further attachment. My fabricator is going to make metal caps for the support rod to make the entire system stronger.

To clarify I hit nothing and did measure the FAE after install to make sure nothing hit it and that the support was tight.

Further upgrade I was going to increase to a #14 screw to ensure it has bite now that the factory holes have been stretched.

My question is this an issue others have had. I have the stock flapper back on and may leave it if this is an issue.

Thanks


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[UNSTUCK]

While I have never owned FAE, I can say that from a lot of the pictures I've seen, the fabrication of these units leaves a bit to be desired. Hard to say at this point if the broken support caused the unit to rip out of the transom, but that would be my guess. I don't hear people going 40 mph in these types of boats very often. Maybe you found the limit. That would be a ton of load against it.

[robricketts]

While I have never owned FAE, I can say that from a lot of the pictures I've seen, the fabrication of these units leaves a bit to be desired. Hard to say at this point if the broken support caused the unit to rip out of the transom, but that would be my guess. I don't hear people going 40 mph in these types of boats very often. Maybe you found the limit. That would be a ton of load against it.

Agreed and on occasion I run it wide open 35 plus. Maybe best to leave this off.


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[chpthril]

Can you post pics of what separated from the boat? Im not following and thats likely because FAE has evolved their mounting and attachment methods as the boats have changed. I have seen the hose slip off the exhaust outlet adapters and there has been a resolution for that for years. I have not seen those adapters rip from the transom. That would be an installation issue, not an FAE flaw. Same with the new method of mounting to the TAPS hinge.

[Cek1]

Yep. Lost mine on my Z1 last year. Lost Bracket and all. No damage to the boat just all gone. One of the plates that pinch the FAE to the exhaust hole was still there but pretty bent up. No idea what happened. Just put my flapper back on to finish the season.

[TeamAllen]

Have you tried contacting Larry at Fresh Air Exhaust? I would think he would be interested to hear about your issue and work to resolve it.
What boat do you have? It's not listed in your profile.
This will be my 10th season using mine. It has lost most of the black paint but has been rock solid otherwise.

[Cek1]

Yep. Lost mine on my Z1 last year. Lost Bracket and all. No damage to the boat just all gone. One of the plates that pinch the FAE to the exhaust hole was still there but pretty bent up. No idea what happened. Just put my flapper back on to finish the season.

I back my boat into beaches and board from the swim step. I was thinking maybe the FAE was stuck in the sand and as we kept climbing in and out maybe we pulled it looses and then finally lost it out on the lake. No damage to the holes tho.

[Dandy]

Can you post pics of what separated from the boat? Im not following and thats likely because FAE has evolved their mounting and attachment methods as the boats have changed. I have seen the hose slip off the exhaust outlet adapters and there has been a resolution for that for years. I have not seen those adapters rip from the transom. That would be an installation issue, not an FAE flaw. Same with the new method of mounting to the TAPS hinge.

Mike - I am going to make A LOT of assumptions here and hopefully it doesn't make me out to be an A$$ for A$$uming. The only reason I believe I have an understanding about what the OP is mentioning is that I recently installed a new FAE with the trim tab mounts. I had don't alot of research and looked at alot of install pictures.

Below is a picture of of FAEs website. If you look at the mounting brackets, there is SST bar with black connectors on each end. I am not positive, but believe these are plastic and not cast. I believe these are the plastic parts that broke. If these broke, then the FAE is free and with enough force, it must have pulled the exhaust flanges out of the back of the boat (mounted where the original flappers are). If this is the case, he is lucky that water didn't push back into the motor.
24V-05-a.jpg

Below are install pics from my FAE. If you notice, they are no longer using those connections. They are sending a SST Square tube that holes are drilled through and then one side is bolted to the trim tab mount and the other to the FAE. For our installation, one of the holes in each trim tab mount are through bolted through the hull. I also used 5200 on the 2nd connection (screw) and then 5200'd the through bolt and gooped up the back of the trim tab mount with 5200 as well. But again, our support bar is a SST Tube, so there are no additional connections that could separate.
IMG_2486 - Copy (Large).jpg
IMG_2492 (Large).jpg

[BCRider]

I've had mine disconnect because the pipe pulled out of the rubber sleeve and was only held on by the platform mounts. I've since moved to exhaust clamps that can go much tighter and haven't had an issue. I believe it was some aggressive turns and sliding out the rear that possibly put too much side ways torque on it. I do check the whole assembly often as I notice some of hardware loosens up a bit.

[Jetdriver]

I've installed three of these, 2 22ve and one 20v utilizing both the trim tab mounts and the swim deck mounts and haven't had any problem with any of them. The swim deck mounts have plastic end caps from the stainless tubes that attach to another stainless tube that's attached to the deck. They are definitely a weak link but with normal use the load applied on them wouldn't be that much. You've got to use a wrench on the hose clamps, (used to attach the pipe to rubber boot and boot to exhaust flange) a screwdriver isn't enough to properly torque them down.
I have the swim deck mounts (plastic top parts) on my boat and have had it over 40 many times without any problem.

[UNSTUCK]

The mounting brackets that bolt to the trim tab seem like a bad design. There is so much leverage against them I can't believe they hold up. I like that the brackets are hidden, but I think I would much rather run the more vertical mounts that attach to the swim deck.
I bet is someone pushed/pulled on their FAE they could move it up and down just as much with those horizontal mounts in place or removed.

[Dandy]

Unstuck. I would tend to disagree with the comment about the trim tab mount being a bad idea. With the set up like we have, there is no way for the FAE to pull off of the boat or out of the rubber boots unless the trim tab mount rips off and seeing as one is a thru hull bolt, I don't see that happening. The only movement would be as mentioned, slight upward. I guess the most solid solution would be a combination of the trim tab mount (eliminating front/back movement) combined with a swim platform connection (eliminating up/down movement). I can tell you that by pushing down on my FAE, the entire boat and trailer move up and down, same with pushing/pulling on it, the boat and trailer move front to back.

After thinking about this, maybe I will play around this off season (assuming the FAE stays on ) with connecting another bracket using the bolt on the FAE up to my swim platform - in theory removing all movement.

[robricketts]

Guys the boat is a 2016 rz2. The FAE worked great and helps with fumes and noise. I was pleased with it. As part of the install there are measurements that come with the instructions to ensure no interference with taps system. I did ensure measurements were within spec and further rested by moving taps up and down to see if it cleared. All tests were successful.

I don't have a photo of the exhaust as it is with fabrication guy to have a new ring (two half circles) made as one is on the bottom and honestly they didn't cover 360 of the circle. My version will be stronger and allow six attachment screws.

As mentioned I believe the plastic portion of the support arm failed which then allowed the force of the water on the fae result in the year off.

I will contact fae. Not mad just wanted to learn from others. I will post instal pics for comments.


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[UNSTUCK]

I was never concerned about the forward/backward movement. Only up and down. We really have no idea what kind of force is pushing against the FAE so it's hard to say what is strong enough. But that force will tend to try to make the FAE pivot upwards. Those new mounts will only help fight that a little bit. No doubt there have been some failures in presumably normal operation so I have to question the design. Having a bit of a background in building 100+mph offroad suspensions, I tend to lean towards "overbuilt" and not just "should work".

[chpthril]

I understand what plastic pieces broke, but its a chicken before the egg thing. Did they fail first or second. My thoughts is, second. Something else broke first.

Definitely contact FAE. Regardless of design failure, material failure or installation failure, they can learn from it and work to prevent it for future units.