Very briefly, it's nice once it's on the water. But very heavy. The mechanism to raise and lower the pedal drive is better than the Native Propel system.
Am very interested in upgrading to this pedal kayak. Have watched and read about all the reviews I can and haven't come across much negative comments. Just wanted to see if anybody on the CC forum has any experience.....thanks
Very briefly, it's nice once it's on the water. But very heavy. The mechanism to raise and lower the pedal drive is better than the Native Propel system.
You may want to look at the new Wilderness kayaks that came out this year.
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The PDL is the Cadillac of the pedal drive kayaks, it's also big and heavy. The drive itself was designed with inputs from Minn Kota engineers and is probably the best pedal drive going. The kayak itself has been around for a while and has been modified to work with the pedal drive. The rudder system is much better than the Native system. And the proces of raising and lowering the drive is much easier on the PDL.
I have a Native SP10 and a Jackson Tripper 12. I'm keeping the Tripper for rivers and shallow water fishing. The SP10 is nice because it's fairly light, and being 10' long is easy to transport in a pickup. I've thought about trading them both for a PDL, but with my bad back. I'm not sure I could load the PDL by myself after a day fishing. For me, the PDL would require a trailer and that would limit the places I could launch compared to backing up my pickup and dropping the kayak in the water.
The owner of a local kayak shop has tried them all and a PDL is his personal boat, that says a lot.
Im hoping that Old Town comes out with a smaller version of the PDL. I'd be a buyer for an 11 footer.
Pulled the trigger on the Perception Pilot 12.0 recently
$1900 out the door thru Academy Sports (no shipping)
All pedal drives have their flaws,Slayer or Hobie either one are far from gods in the market
They are many times "better" in some respects,the one both own in spades is OVER PRICED.
https://www.perceptionkayaks.com/