Does anyone know what happened to Irvine?
Their site redirects to Ripmax with no email, no tech support...
Need to contact Irvine, I have new engines with serious problems (Irvine 46 Heli Mk II)
Thanks.

Try to communicate with the people where you bought the engine for warranty service?

Ripmax and Just Engines come up for GB.

The word on the street is that Irvine was bought by OS and production of engines moved to China. Small Qtys of 15s may be made in the UK to special order.

The rumour mill says that only the 39 to 53 models will be produced and the 25 will be dropped. This created a problem in the UK as some racing classes used the 25.

There is a suggestion that the larger models may use OS style innards and carbs.

When I first heard that this might happen I bought a red 1.50 and a second .53, the black and gold one. My friend Dieseldan and I each bought one of the earlier Q .40s and a each bought a .40 Diesel. It's a shame Irvine came to this end.

Irvine engines are still alive and kiking they have been bought out by ripmax and if you go to the ripmax site you will be able to get the parts from and engines and more the last time I needed to contact them I was instructed to go through a dealer as ripmax are a very large company that does not deal with the public directly they have dealers all over the world their website is http://www.ripmax.com also there is plenty of irvine engines and parts that come up on the UK ebay

The name may be alive, but that means little. My Irvine 53 is my favorite 2-stroke, and just a jewel of an engine. It's a shame that I won't be able to get another.

The Ripmax site shows Great Planes Model Distributors as the outlet in the United States.

joy

Of course, GP and Tower don't show Irvine.

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Why anyone would buy a name brand engine company whose name can't even keep the doors open, then ship all of the junk to Japan only to have a company produce them differently than they were originally made, much to the chagrin of the Irvine loyalists, makes no sense to me. Especially if the manufacturer is OS (last alleged new producer), who is probably barely staying open itself, these days.

Hobbico/Great Planes/Tower's concept of shipping the stuff to China and then producing engines identical to or better than the originals makes some sense, even though I'm convinced that competing with yourself (Tower .46 & .75) only eats up profits.

It is a strange world in which we live.


Ed Cregger

Hobbico/Great Planes/Tower's concept of shipping the stuff to China and then producing engines identical to or better than the originals makes some sense, even though I'm convinced that competing with yourself (Tower .46 & .75) only eats up profits


It's simply called greed. They shot themselves in the foot as far as I'm concerned. We used to talk about the UJM, Universal Japanese Motorcycle, now we can talk about the Universal Chinese engine.

Where are the anti-trust lawyers when you really need them?

It's crap like that that's going to drive me to electric.

I don't blame the Hobbico Empire. They've only taken advantage of market opportunities. When it comes to Irvine, I blame Irvine and to a greater extent their former US distributor, Sig. Irvine had a great product--far better than OS in every respect. Sig recognized that, and charged a premium price. I forget what they wanted for a .53, but it was far more than I would pay for a two stroke. Maybe some others would have paid the price, but not enough. This was when the dollar and English pound were trading very close to a 1:1 ratio. I did what a lot of other cheap skates did--ordered from Just Engines in the UK and paid considerably less than I would have paid from Sig or one of their resellers.

I'm unclear who actually owns the rights to Irvine now, whether it's OS or Hobbico. Who ever it is surely is a bean counter rather than a modeler. The Jetstream carb is a thing of beauty, and should be copied to other brands rather than done away with.

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It ticks me off. I never got a chance to own a "real" Irvine. I guess I'll have to buy used and pray that I never need parts. Just like a bunch of other engines that I presently own.

I had my eye on their .20 Diesel, but I waited too long.

Ed Cregger

Ed,
you missed the 20 Irvine by a few years. That and the 40 diesel were of the pre red case series. I, like a few others on the diesel forum have a few of these motors and they are truly sweet runners. On the bay the 20 D NIB consistantly goes for 200 plus when it appears which is really infrequently. Sales of that motor were 'slow' and not as many of them were made as the 40 according to some sources..
I have a few NIB examples of both motors and was lucky the other day and scored 2 /40 diesels in absolutely pristine condition. Used but ever so little.
They are still out there just keep your eyes open when your hitting the flea markets,
Dennis

I picked up an Irvine .20 bushing engine a couple of months ago. I have a Q 72, Q 40 and a .40 Diesel. The Q 40 has a brilliant red head, the Q 72 a gold head.

Ed and the rest of the group , saw this coming, I now have 5 53s red (a black presentation 53 and a red one still NIB) a cpuple of q40s 6 40 diesels, and loaded up on spares
including a couple of jetstream carbs and and an XR15 . I got lucky and got a red 25 from an estate sale NIB here the MK3s 53s and forgot one a 46 came from JE when the $/GBP
exchange was good at the time quite a bit less than OS equivalents Hobbsy and I picked up the last Q40s from Sheldons. the presentation 53 is UK made but wears the rear OS carb. all wear Davis dieselheads except the NIB ones and the XR15 has A.Js diesel head. the 40 diesels have the most flight time and just keep ticking in an asortment of trainers
converted to tail draggers and beefed up with heavy duty dural landing gear and big wheels for flying off rough fiellds sort of bush plane setup martin

I'll only list the NIB examples That I have:
2/25 one each of the 40/46/53 36/36H/39 and 2 36C/L 1/150
The silver series 2/20 1/25 3/20D 1/36H 2/40 1/46 1/72 1/120 1/150 1/15R 3/40D 2/Mills 045D 1/ 1.3 Mills\
Have a few from the 70's series including a few 30's.
Too many motors and not enough time to enjoy them all. Still I'm not selling anything.
Dennis

You're correct Dennis.......one can never have enough engines !

I have 2 x 40 Dykes ring Silver series & 1 x 46 ABC Silver series. Also 3 crash damaged 46 Silver series I pickup up on Ebay for next to nothing. To quote another person on RCUniverse; "I've never seen an engine I didn't like"

Currently I have the .20, an old silver .40 with the crankshaft sticking out through the prop driver and a stud screwed into it, a 25 converted to Diesel, a red .53 converted to Diesel, the presentation model .53 like Martins, a Q 40, a .40 Diesel, a Q 72 and a red 1.50 that I would like to convert to Diesel.

Irvine engines have merged with ripmax all engines and spares are supplied by them, part numbers and codes can be obtained by looking through their website ripmax.com, the Irvine website was working last year but now you get transferred to the ripmax site. I called ripmax and they do not supply the public I was informed by them that the parts I needed would need to be ordered through a dealer, I got the parts I needed from Just Engines and very quickly indeeed a fantastic company to deal with and do nothing but engines and associated parts they are experts and are very helpfull they also sell their own engines the jen range that they developed themselves which are made in china a 37 in a 25 case and a 56 in a 40 case a47 and a 91 have a look at their sight justengines.co.uk if you are looking for a good engine with quality and great power to weight, then you should look at the specs on these engines and they do deal directly with individuals with great service you get what you pay for and if it is slightly more expensive it is worth it.

I looked at the dealers in America and it seems Great Planes is the main distributor there, and again you will have to find a greatplanes dealer which should be no problem in America as most model shops will be dealing with great planes. Ordering your parts for your Irvine this way is the only way for individuals as these companies will not deal with the public.

Comments made about the Ivine situation in the forum by others who seem to think that Irvine may be owned by OS are I think wrong I have read somwhere I think it was on the original Irvine site that Irvine had specific engine types made by OS this may have been because Irvine as a company may not have had the production ability to meet demand or the finances to expand and may have been caught between a rock and a hard place. I think Ripmax saw the oppertunity of taking over another good quality brand and swallowed it expanding its empire further similar to the situation with cox engines and many others much to my disapointment.

I hope the above helps, parts are available just a round about way of getting them and likely more expensive when everyone adds their little bit on, I always think if the small producer costs a little more for a superior product then its our duty to support them because no large company will give the service and support we require like the smaller company that will deal directly with individual and be able to offer expert advice, so much lacking from large companies.

These are my only Irvines. The 40RLS is the one used for a report in the June '96 issue of Aeromodeller magazine (no, I didn't do the report) and I've used it quite a bit. IMO it's an even better engine than the OS 40VF (and ABC as well). The 61R is ringed and brand new (at the moment ).

With ripmax in the game it would be nice to see if they had a means of getting the jetstream carb produced again
with some minor alterations such as maybe a smaller diameter bottom it would fit many OS and its clones , The
standard one is big and fitts the 46 and 53 irvine it would only have to be reduced ( a guess 025 to 035) to fit) . perrys of course are out there also and a high quality carb should have a strong replacement appeal. I can not see it costing more than and OS which is not inexpensive martin

Niko,
No worries, Irvines are available at many hobbystores in UK. Absolutely worth the money and more.

Ed, Irvines do not wear out.
Irvine, MVVS and Rossis are some of the most longlasting twostrokes out there and can take abuse year after year.

I hate to break the news, but Irvines DO wear out. My .36 has around 170 hours of operation, and the rod is getting a bit sloppy............it still runs great with absolute reliability, but the power is slightly down. With all those hours, I am on my second glow plug. I was so distressed by it's poor performance, that I bought 3 more NIB on that auction site.

Ripmax may say that GP is the distributer, but GP does not mention it in their product lineup.

For an average "weekend" flyer it would take a whole life time to put 170hours running time on one single engine