Stronger Bravo XR upper gearsets-Question
 

I have been working on coming up with a stronger upper gearset for the Bravo XR drives. We are making good progress and I am now at the point where I need to know who would be interested in purchasing new gears.

The new gears will be exact replacements and should be able to handle around 800-900 hp and about 800 ft lbs torque. They will be made of better material and some design changes, expecting prolonged gear life.

They will cost more money than Merc gears, but also have a much longer life span, so long term costs should be lower.

Not sure on final pricing, but should be somewhere in the $2500-3000 range for a upper set.

Do you offer any type of guarantee and/or replacement if they are installed by a shop that you consider "qualified"?

That is a very good question. That is something we are thinking about also. Problem is, this is a high performance upgrade. Much like the stock gears, we cannot control the amount of horsepower the user runs thru them or how the boat is driven. My goal in making these gears is to give people the option of better gears that will last 2,3,4 times as long as the stock gears would. I drive my rig very easy, but have still managed to break teeth clean off the gears at only an average of 20-30 hours running time. And my drives are built by one of the best guys out there.

To sum it up, there most likely will be a warranty, but it would be based upon info provided before install. If there was a failure, we would have to see and test them to determine cause of failure before a new set would be issued.

Just a note. In general, the gears are not the issue. The upper driveshaft and the niddle bearing or (pin gear as I call it) is the problem but Merc. will not admit it. The "pins" dig into the driveshaft, start to get lose/wobble and then the whole upper is poof. Yuo can make the "gears" from titanium or whatever, if the driveshaft fails, nothing else will hold up. just food for thought. Some tech. guru need to fix the shaft and niddle bearing issue.

The failures we have seen from high horsepower applications, the teeth are breaking off at the root, which is a gear design issue. What you speak of would cause wear on all of the teeth. I have broken sets that look perfect, minus the one tooth that snapped off.

It takes a boatload of money to make a gear like these- good luck and keep us posted.

Not sure Id buy a set "between builds", but at rebuild time if you had the goods Id get a set from you.

Uncle Dave

Uncle Dave-- you are right. You should see my quotes for prototypes !!! It will be worth the time and money. Not looking to get rich here, just offer an option so us guys that have higher horsepower can have trouble free drives.

I would be interested for my 20 cig, when will they be available?

Xr Gears
 

I would be interested. Keep me posted.

I should be coming up on rebuild time at some point this summer. Keep us posted, I would be interested.