Standard OEM...
I have determined that the wear rings in my two skis need to be replaced. I am having this done by a shop because there are a few other things I need them to check/fix. A few questions:
How long should a OEM wear ring last?
Is Stainless Steal worth the upgrade or do people have more problems with these extremely hard "wear rings"?
I would like to go the SS route if an OEM ring generally lasts less than 100 or so hours. I put many hours on the skis every season and I dont feel like adding "replace wear rings" to my pre-season check list:rofl
I do plan on doing the rest of the replacements myself, if I go with the OEM style)
Thanks, in advance, for the help
Ditch the stainless. It's not worth the cost. I actually couldn't believe they would make one in stainless.
If you understand anything about sandblasting, then you understand how abrasive it is. Your wearing ring is subjected to forces just like sand blasting.
If you took a piece of paint covered metal, put it in a sandblast cabinet and held that nozzle on it, firs.... it would eat away the paint (rather quickly). Then, if you left it there long enough, it would begin to eat through anything that the paint was on. Using a sand blast machine, I have eaten through the wood of a broomstick fairly quick. I have drilled a hole through a piece of 1/4" carbon steel. Stainless? No, it would be a bit more hard to eat through it, but ultimately, it would also fail under a sand blast nozzle.
Now, can you think of a material that is fairly impervious to sand blasting? ..... Rubber. When the grit of a sand blast nozzle hits the rubber, it basically bounces off.
O.K... now apply that principle to your wearing ring. When you ride through the water, your impeller creates the forces of a blast nozzle. Except it's directed through your outlet/steering nozzle. The water has particles in it, a great portion of those particles are silica (sand).
I think, if you put both the stainless and rubber (teflon) wearing rings side by side in a test tank, the wearing ring that was rubber or teflon would outlast the metal one by 10 fold.
Also, the rubber wearing ring is a bit more forgiving. If you picked something up in your jet pump, if while passing through your blades, it wedges between the blades and the ring, there may be just enough give for that debris to exit without any damage to your impeller. Where-as stainless?... That piece would likely cause the blade on the impeller to be damage before the ring would give.
I think others may have a favorable opinion of the stainless ring but for me, it's a waste of money.
How long will your OEM replacement last? Well, it's actually according to your riding habits. If you ride along beaches, taking it up close to the shore line, under power, picking up a lot of sand as you ride? Probably only a few years, maybe 3 or 4. If you only ride around the rivers and lakes, pulling tubes, site seeing. Riding around with friends, taking care not to suck up pepples when coming in, it could last upwards of 10 years.
I changed the wearing ring on my Challenger 3 years ago. It was the original ring. The Challenger is a 1997. So, the owner before me took very good care of the boat. I sucked up a plastic coke bottle and due to the age and wear, the coke bottle was enough to seperate the liner on it.:cheers:
