Anatomy of the Traverse Pedal Drive

The Traverse is Cajo's own pedal drive — 10:1 gearbox, instant reverse, indexer-locked prop, and an industrial-stamped aluminum head and lower unit. Here's what each part does.

The Traverse is the pedal drive Cajo designed in-house. It bolts into every Cajo hull — Terra 116, Outpost 100, Outpost 128, and the Highlander AirTrek line. This article walks through what each piece does, why we built it the way we did, and where the maintenance touchpoints live.

The big picture

The Traverse is a forward-and-reverse rotary pedal drive. You spin the cranks like a bicycle, a 10:1 gearbox converts that crank speed into prop speed, and the prop pushes you. Pedal forward, you go forward. Reverse the crank direction, you go reverse — no levers, no shift handle, no clutch. The prop swap is instant.

Compared to a kick-up fin drive (Hobie MD 180, Pelican, Vibe, Lightning), the Traverse trades some shallow-water grace for a faster cruise, real reverse, and easier in-hull integration.

Part by part

The head (drive unit on top of the hull)

The head is industrial stamped aluminum — not a cast plastic shell. The stamped construction is the difference between a drive that feels solid under load and one that flexes at the pedal mount. The pedal arms thread into the head, the crank assembly lives inside it, and the indexer mechanism sits at the bottom.

The crank arms and pedals

Two arms, one on each side, with platform pedals on the ends. The arms thread into the head — if they ever feel like they're cross-threading on install, stop. Don't force it. A cross-thread will damage the head and the arm, and it's a covered swap (file the claims form).

The lower unit

Below the hull line. Aluminum cast lower with a sealed gearbox inside. The lower unit holds the prop shaft, the bevel gears that turn 90° from horizontal crank rotation to vertical-axis prop drive, and the seals that keep water out of the gearbox.

The 10:1 gearbox

For every one full revolution of the cranks, the prop spins 10 times. That gearing is what lets you cruise at a real pedal cadence without spinning your legs off — it's why long trolls and open-water crossings feel like work you can sustain, not a sprint.

The prop

Stamped-blade propeller on the prop shaft. Replacement props are available by invoice (until fall 2026, when they move to public store) — create an account on caminojourney.com and support sends you an invoice ($29.99 + shipping). The prop sits vertical when locked. If your prop sits at 45° when locked, that's an indexer-alignment defect — see the troubleshooting article and file a claim.

The indexer

The indexer is the mechanism that locks the prop vertically when the drive is parked. When you finish pedaling and pull the drive out of the water (or stop pedaling for transit), the indexer holds the prop in the vertical position — which keeps it from rotating freely, getting tangled in line, or smacking the hull on chop.

If yours doesn't lock vertical and instead holds at an angle, that's a manufacturing alignment issue and we'll swap the drive.

The reverse mechanism

There's no separate reverse lever. The reverse is mechanical, instantaneous, and bidirectional — you just spin the cranks backward. The gearbox routes the same drive to the prop in the opposite direction. It's one of the headline reasons people pick the Traverse over a kick-up fin drive: backing off a fish or a snag is one pedal stroke away.

The drive socket (in the hull)

The hull has a molded socket the drive bolts into. Every Cajo ships with the molded version that's in production now. A separate flat / bolt-in cover plate for owners who run the Fin Drive Adapter and want a flush cover when the drive socket isn't in use is on the roadmap for fall 2026 — not in production yet.

Maintenance touchpoints

The Traverse Drive doesn't need much, but the things it needs you should actually do:

Freshwater rinse after every saltwater outing. This is non-negotiable for salt. Rinse the head, the crank arms, the lower unit, the prop, the indexer mechanism. Salt sitting in any sealed mechanism is what kills drives.
Dry storage. Don't store the drive wet. Dry it down and store it indoors when you can.
Periodic prop inspection. Check for nicks, deformation, or fishing line wrap behind the prop. Line wrap is the #1 issue we see in the field.
Periodic seal check. If you ever see milky water inside the gearbox area or the lower unit feels gritty under load, stop using the drive and file a claim.

What it's compatible with

The Traverse Pedal Drive is engineered for Cajo hulls only. It will not bolt into a non-Cajo kayak — the socket geometry, drive plug, and hull thickness specs are Cajo-specific. (We get the question a lot. The answer is no — we built the drive for the boats.)

Pricing

Bundled with any Cajo hull or Highlander: $899.99 (automatic $300 discount)
Standalone: $1,199.99

The bundle math applies whether you buy direct from caminojourney.com or through any authorized dealer — see the $300 Traverse Drive bundle article for the full story.

Warranty

5 years on the Traverse Pedal Drive (defects in materials and workmanship). Known-issue swaps (prop alignment, cross-threaded pedal arm) are full $0 replacements with a return shipping label for the defective drive.