Mods....if this is the wrong forum, please move.

I am in the process of designing/building a surface drive and I was thinking about a CVT transmission out of an ATV. My brother had a Kawasaki 4x4 with a CVT transmission and it was bullet prof. My thinking is that it would have alot of low end torque and then once it spooled up, it would be able to really spin the prop. I know it would need a longer belt.

Am I headed in the wrong direction or do you think it could work?

Dont have any info for ya but that seems like a really cool idea.

Bobbyjobber did that, maybe he will chime in.

Take a look at the BLOG on this site. It might give you some ideas. http://home.gci.net/~godevilalaska/index2.html
I thought the same as you, but couldn't get it to shift when it was loaded. I was probably doing something wrong, but have gone on to other projects while I think on it. Good luck. You don't need an almost new CVT set, do you?

I have experimented with a 6.5hp, 16 hp and a 24 hp. currently the 6.5 has a busted belt after 2 years, it works great with a Hill 9x7, runs 17.6 mph with 2 people on a 1436. The 24 ran 28 mph with a 2 blade 12x12 gdsd prop. Thats the trick with a cvt drive, is to get the cvt to go to higher gear after planing. So propeller selection is critical. I have tried the 6.5 cvt on a 1542 with a load, and it puished it pretty well. I am no engineer, so my setup is kinda crude, but works. So in conclusion, I have figured that prop pitch and diameter selection are the critical factors, as with any motor gearing.

Are you using the cvt as the primary drive to a jack shaft with secondary gearing or are you trying to use the secondary clutch straight to your output shaft? I do not think you could transmit enough torque through the primary and secondary clutches with out having a reduction at the final drive, similar to a snowmobile or wheeler.

secodary clutch drives my output shaft. I did the research on the CVT ranges of gear reduction and concluded low gear was low enough, just have to have right pithc/diameter prop to get drive to go into high gear. FYI it does work. the jackshaft method was too many moving parts. I just did an educated guess from info on hear of the gear reductions on other brands and just went for it, was trial and error, but I got it to work.