Wire vs Cable...Noise

[Simon.O.]

I run wires and do not have a flex cable setup so I can not compare.

I do know that most of my wire drives when spun up on the bench or prep for water have a bit of resonance (sp) or mild vibration.
Once they are wet and loaded they are fine, well most are. The small mono stilll makes a bit much noise.

Can someone tell me if a good wire setup is quieter than a cable or the other way round.
Do cable drives make a fair bit of noise if spun up on the bench or out of water ?

I like my wires as they are cheap to make but the sound gets a bit serious sometimes. I may need some better couplers and have choose my wire better.

Any thoughts on this ??

[CornelP]

Wires (especially if through a long tube) will be very noisy... On my cat, most of the wire was free in the water and was super silent. In the monos and Eco, being in a tube for 90% of length, they are very noisy. I tried to wrap some glass and kevlar around the tube for extra support (from vibration), but with marginal results. In the Eco, the wire is straight and still noisy. If you can live with the noise, given the advantages of lower drag, ease of installation, etc...

[AndyKunz]

Wire drives are much quieter if you put a slight bend in your drive line and use a light lubricant. Music wire is made in coils - you have to dig a lot to find a reasonably straight section.

Andy

[Jesse J]

I second that slight part. have one in my cat that has snapped multiple wires, even the .078". good thing I have the inline rudder as my keeper

[detox]

You need to put the drive wire or cable under load to get true results. Maybe you can use small prop in bathtub then compair the two by lestening. I believe the wire will give more RPM because of less resistance (less diameter) in stuffing tube.

[Jeff Wohlt]

Are you using liners or straight brass?

[Simon.O.]

I have used a lot of wires and all run wire on brass with a minimum of contact. Most have a gentle bend and run very well. It is true that they run a lot quieter under load and indeed in the water.
This one in the new 13"cat has a bit more of a bend than any others and has a definate resonance at high rpm unloaded on the bench.
I'll see how it goes when wet.

Choosing wire is not always easy as Jeff points out.
I buy a pkt of 3 wires 1 metre long and sometimes have to cut a piece out of the middle to get a true one.

Light oil is good except on my big cat which seems to be smoother with a thick sticky oil.

Thanks for the input so far. It is fair to say that we all learn more about wires each time there is a good discussion.

[detox]

Are you using liners or straight brass?

I use a teflon liner with .078 wire.

Also check for wobble at end of collet where wire exits. Collet may be off center causing vibration.


...

[Simon.O.]

For the particular setup that caused me to ask the original question I have now sorted the problem, sort of.
The motor (small outrunner) itself has a bit of vibration at less that wot revs.
It took a while to trace the vibration back to the motor after making 2 new couplers
I'll live with the noise for now as it is no louder than 2 of the other hulls that are fairly quiet on the water.

During this exercise most of the fleet were subjected to hard bench testing. Not kind to gear but it needed to be done.