switching from XR to HT B-max

[soinc]

the 1:30 HT B-max is a 15/19 merc 1:5 lower gear, the change is from the teeth count in the upper.
A good freind of mine had tried all the Bravo fix's teauge,imco,max.....and the longest he ever got on a worked XR is 20 hours babying it with 843hp in a 26' Awesome cat. he bought a re-worked (from dean) poker run B-max july of 2005 ran out the season (and did one poker run), ran all of 2006(did a 5 day trip to LOTO) pulled the motor worked it to 960 hp ran half of 2007 pulled the drive for a bellows leak, and found one chiped tooth in the upper driven gear, swaped the driven gears, put the chiped gear in reverse and is STILL running!! ran 110-111 with 1:5 xr's and 843hp with B-max 1:30 ran 106-107 gps.
DOWN TIME TO DATE 2 DAYS.
no more having too baby it... on the pins streched out is 116 mph.

I'm so impressed We bought 2 HT's for our 388.................. let the power building begin LOL

[Panther]

Originally Posted by tomcei

Is it true that the bmax is rated for 900 and the XR is around 550?

Taken from the website and it's also listed on my warranty card.
"The Bmax HT also offers more in the warranty department. This new drive is rated at 950 hp and 950 ft lbs torque in a gas application. The diesel application is rated at 480 hp and 950 ft lbs torque. The one year limited warranty for these figures is based on boats that weigh 15,000 lbs or less. There is an additional two year extended warranty available for purchase for a total warranty period of three years. "

[articfriends]

Originally Posted by ultimate cat

Dont Do It...aside The Gimbal Has A Tough Time Holding Up On A Cat To Begin With W/o The Extra Weight Of A Bmax.. The Drives Just Dont Hold Up And The Service Is A Joke !!!!!.we Pulled 5 Nor-techs From 1 Poker Run With 11 Broken B-maxs..... Last Year We Had A Customer Without Going Into Details Had Terrible Luck With The Drives And Servce.... Just My Input . You Asked For It .. Good Luck Either Way.. Oh Yeah The 36 Diesel Spectre We Have Went Through A Dozen Of Them Till Finally The Lower Unit Flat Fell Off.. They Complained About To Much Torque.. We Fixed The Boat By Putting Stock Xr Drives On It And Never I Mean Never Had A Issue AGAIN...

I have heard B-maxes have their own problems like porosity in the shifter cap, notchy shifting and they still chew up and spit out lower gears the same as a Bravo because they just use bravo gears BUT I have spoken to several users/owners of them and haven't heard of widespread failures like your speaking of,please elaborate on the failures if you have LEGIT info,Smitty

[RBeyer]

Originally Posted by articfriends

I have heard B-maxes have their own problems like porosity in the shifter cap, notchy shifting and they still chew up and spit out lower gears the same as a Bravo because they just use bravo gears BUT I have spoken to several users/owners of them and haven't heard of widespread failures like your speaking of,please elaborate on the failures if you have LEGIT info,Smitty

Agreed, two years behind my rig and upon tear down this year for an engine rebuild still perfect. Show me!!!

[tomcei]

Artic, are you sure they use bravo gears?

[Panther]

Originally Posted by tomcei

Artic, are you sure they use bravo gears?

Only in the lowers. The gears are treated...similiar to what Smitty and Dick do to their bravo gears. If you had problems blowing up XR lowers in the past due to high x-dimensions (Cats especially) or tons of power you'll probably see the same results but the uppers are much more stout then any Bravo XR or derrivative.

Upper gears are approx 5 inches in diameter. I've completely dissassembled and assembled mine, if anyone has any questions feel free to PM me.

Inside an BMax HT

[articfriends]

Originally Posted by tomcei

Artic, are you sure they use bravo gears?

I should have been more accurate in my description,the b-max uses very large,beefy upper gears made by their own manufacturer,they use a merc bravo lower gear . As far as stock xr's outlasting them (b-maxes) in a big boat with big power,I'm not 100% convinced,Smitty

[Panther]

One of the only merc parts inside the upper is the shift fork/cam.

[ultimate cat]

Originally Posted by tomcei

not good news. You pulled 5 boats w/ 11 broken drives? was one a triple?
With hard core comments like that some details would be nice.
And you went through 12 drives w/ one boat alone?
What kind of power were you running ?
Did you have any gimble failures? And what gimbles were you using?
And what kind of pwr were the NorTechs running?
Is it true that the bmax is rated for 900 and the XR is around 550?

there were a few triple. twins . and a quad which made it back with one drive, which didnt feel real good..it was the miami boat show poker run a few years ago..the spectre was a diesel 440 yanmar.never had a gimbal failure with it..

[Panther]

What kinda boat other than the big Nortech cat runs quads? And why would a boat that big/heavy have a bravo style drive on it to begin with?

And, what broke in the drive? If you have some pictures please post them.