aswhite

hello all im new to boating and this site. hopefully someone can help. we need to replace the transom assmbly for our alpha 1 gen1 drive. it is bolted to a brand new 350 merc. would now be a good time to upgrade the whole drive to say a bravo drive or would there be no bennifits to this? bravo 3 has pretty good write ups other than the corrosion problems ive read about however in a 23ft long boat will it help or hurt? the boat was great with the gen 1 so i dont want to make any uninformed decisions and loose performance.
thanks in advance for any and all help.

fireboatpilot

Bravo's are stronger obviously but for a small block setup your personal choice and pocket depth would come into play. If the gimble assy needs rebuild or replaced but the drive leg is fine then maybe sticking with what is there would be the answer. If the gimble is shot and the Alpha is iffy then maybe the upgrade is the way to go. When the time comes and you have made up your mind, I have 4 bravo 1 drives with less than 40 hours on them and also 4 bravo HP gimble assys. I can sell you one setup, drive and gimble for $3750. + shipping

aswhite

Thanks the leg seems fine but old and the assmbly has a rotted hole in the aluminum. We need to pull the motor so I dont know if I should replace in kind. If there is no speed or controll benefit then im going to stick with what Ive got. I will keep your offer in mind. Can you shoot me some pics of the unit you are looking to sell? Thanks

phragle

iTrader: (3)

small boat, with the stock 350 the alpha will be fine, depending on what you need for the transom/gimble assembly there is usually plenty of stuff on ebay, I also have some alpha transom assembly pieces parts. so the expense of bravo stuff really isn's warrented. if you decide to go with bravo stuff later if you upgrade power etc. the cutout is the same, there would be very slight modification to the existing alpha cutout for a bravo setup. people are probably going to try and sell you stuff, but in reality the alpha's matched well for your setup and I'm sure theres other things to spend 3 or 4 grand on...