Audiofn

How do you know that, you are assuming that. What do you base your OPINION on? Have you ever seen the drive, have you ever taken one apart, are you a metallurgist If you don't know what you are talking about and you clearly do not then you should just shut the f up. Do you think that Mercury would have sent a representative to this guys location to test props and work with him on set up for his boat? You give Mercury a call and ask them to come out and test props for a #3 drive and let me know how that goes. Do all those #3 drives really belong to you or some one else, maybe some one that owns a Cig?

SpeedMaster

Hey Smitty,

I know you work on your lowers, I had some gears treated by you and supplied you a lower gear set.

Maybe just a coincidence, look at the part # in the first pic on the propshaft gear - 43-818928 -, the same number as on the Bravo gear ?????, just observing.....

Steve

Joetool

Hey guys, the real question here is can the drives handle 800hp. and higher and if so why did mine fail????????????? after 48yrs. on them??????????????????????????????????????????? because the manufacture doesn't know why?

SpeedMaster

From what I can see in the photos supplied and if they are an accurate indication,

the upper appear stonger,
the lower use Merc Bravo gears and are set up better on the propshaft,
they are using an 'impeller' on the propshaft to circulate the oil, which IMO will help considerably.

What that means to your bottom line HP rating, FIIK , but better than a Bravo XR.

articfriends

iTrader: (1)

After closer look I definately see what your saying,I saw the cutaway of a konrad drive at st claire BUT it might have been the funny looking,unique teeth on the upper gear had that I remember being drastically different,Smitty

Audiofn

And you base this OPINION on what?

Joetool

When I asked Konrad why my drive failed they weren't sure they told me the uppers looked fine but the lowers are what let go? Then why did it cost me $6000 to rebuild the drives?

Maxumus

My two cents on the subject having spent a fair amount of time recently looking for a drive strong enough to handle a 615 BBC engine producing 800 HP (and worse than that 800 ft/lbs of torque) in a heavy boat that will have alot of prop bite.

Any type of stock drive wont get it done and the only two conventional style choices that leaves is BMax or Konrad. Seems just about anyone I mention BMax to cant tell me to stay away fast enough.....most of the negativity concerning lead times, poor customer service, and warranty issues.

That leaves Konrad which has produced just the opposite response from most industry insiders that I speak to. Most people have very positive things to say and especially concerning customer service and specifically Kurt who attempted to help out the OP some time ago.

Also, many people who I have spoken with have shared with me about the internals and design being significantly larger and improved over the typical Merc stuff and also a few mentioned that the Konrad is more of an improved/refined TRS style set-up (only quoting other peoples opinions here). Having recently seen a drive in person it certainly looks alot beefier than any XR or conventional drive....especially the upper half.

I also discussed my project in detail with Kurt and in spite of the weight/hull design we are going to push (9000 pounds in a deep V hull) he didnt flinch when I mentioned the power output (and torque output) of the application, mentioning the drive would still be "warranty-able" for a year behind that type of output. He was very comfy with the application and I could tell this guy has been around the block once or twice. He was very knowledgabe and good to talk to.

That said, in the world of anything high performance unfortunatly stuff sometimes breaks and regarding drives it also seems the general consensus is the guy weilding the throttle has a pretty direct role in the longevity of the unit. I make my living selling/designing aftyermarket high performance speed equipment and ANY type of warranty is welcomed assuming the manufacturer stands behind it. In Joe's case he was past the time alloted and that of course sucks but its no different than taking your car to a dealer in its fourth year of service after the three year warranty expired (you all know the outcome there). In either case your just SOL and its obviously frustrating and unfortunate but thats just the way it is.

We shall see how stout these drives are when I put them behind my big cruiser which is going to load them alot harder than any type of go fast boat, not to mention my engine is right at their warrantied limit so assuming it lives thats going to be impressive. Even without being hard on the throttle, with the bite of the dual prop, the amount of water I will be trying to push out of the way, and the torque this engine will be generating, the Konrad drive will have its hands full to live reliably in my set-up and I certainly hope it's as much a no brainer as Kurt seemed to think it will be.

Should have some real world info on this situation next spring as this is a big winter project I will be embarking on.

Cheers,
Tony

RMPRam

iTrader: (1)

I have never used, nor owned, a Konrad on any of the 3 Cigarette's that I have owned. I presently have a heavy 38 flat deck Cigarette with twin 1100hp. PSI supercharged 572" BBC running either #5 SSM drives on Stellings box's or #3A's on the transom. The boat has a full interior and runs side-by-side engines. The drives all use the net forged, straight cut, upper gears and in 10 seasons of boating, in fresh water, I have never had a drive failure. The #3A and #5 drives share basically the same internal gears, bearings, seals, etc. My point is even though the #3A-#5 SSM drives have been discontinued they are, in my opinion, the strongest drive, not counting the #6 SSM. I have spare #3A drives and also spare #5 drives and have never had to use them. I have a friend with a 43 Black Thunder with 1100hp. blower motors running #3A drives with over 450 hours on them with no problems. My opinion, and it's just that, so take it from someone with experience with only Mercury #3A and #5 SSM drives is, if I bought another performance boat with big hp. I would only get it with either #3A's or #5's or #6 drives, not any of the Bravo derivatives. Just my $.02.

Audiofn

My 311 has TRS drives and my 302 will have aprox. 600hp to start with then I will change blowers and go up from there once I can see how the boat handles. This boat will have Konrads on it.