Arneson Surface Drives
 

Does anyone have any experience with Arneson surface drives? With all of the upgrades for the Bravo it seems like they are still failing. The new Bravo to surface drive kit from Arneson sounds reasonable for what you get. A stand off box, steering cylinders, transmission, trim cylinder and all hardware for ~16K. And it is good for up to ~ 800 HP, plus you do not have to move the motor forward. I know there are pros and cons to surface drives, it just sounds like there are more advantages to me????? Any comments?

Thanks

cool drives!

never heard a broken arneson.

from what i hear the only way to break an arneson (assusming you bought the right sized drive for your power range) is to have your boat fall off a travel lift onto the drive. And hell it might even survive that (i doubt the hull wodl though...)

I have never heard anything but great things about them!

I used to Work in a Marina Back in the 80's and we had a bunch of customers with Arneson, and Kaama stuff. I don't remember anyone ever breaking an Arneson Drive. We had a 26' Corsair with a single BBC with one It was great except around the dock, it was a ***** to drive around with the single engine. The ONLY bad thing I think I've ever heard anyone say about the arneson stuff is the low speed drivability of them vs. a Bravo.

Bullet proof ! Jet set runs AD 8's with close to 2000 hp per side at around 195mph ! Been running for years !! I have them on my cat ,I love them . If you want V bottom experience , there is a guy near me with a 39 sutphen with arnesons and I think 900's . He took them off his old V bottom and put them on his brand new one . He loves them .

They sink just like any other drive if the boat fills with water.

Seriously, I will find another one to put on the Magnum if I don't salvage the one that went down with the Crusader. It just makes simple sense and is 100% rebuildable from a McMaster-Carr and TRW catalog.

They need paint but.......

they work pretty good......

and these guys can testify to it.......