Bravo X drive's

Cat-n-Around · 01-27-2004, 08:33 PM

How well are the Bravo-X drives holding up with 600 HP in front of them? Locking at a new 28' Cat with twin's and Im having trouble shelling out the extra cabbage for XR drives.

BOSSMAN · 01-27-2004, 08:42 PM

Get it without xr and you will be on the trailer more than in the water. Pay up front once or many repairs later change to the xr. I tried the x units got two runs then changed to xr no more trailer rides. I learned the hard way.

Rich

Cat-n-Around · 01-27-2004, 08:49 PM

How much Hp are you running?

KAAMA · 01-28-2004, 10:22 AM

If it's any help, I have a 32' Active Thunder (V-hull) with a pair of naturally aspirated 540's that make about 680hp @5500rpm with XR drives. To date, I only have about 65 hours on the drives. Last year I removed them from the boat and disassembled them for inspection and found that the pinion gears were going away on them with only 50 hours on them at the time. Rumor has it that Merc had installed improperly treated pinion gears in their drives at the time. We have installed new pinion gears from Merc and have 15 hours on them since then and no problems----but then I haven't taken my drives apart to inspect them again yet either. I think the faulty heat treat pinion gear from Merc is over with now---just a bad run of gears I guess.

I bought my drives in the fall of 2000. I have always changed the drive lube within every 20 hours or so. I also have the Simreck Halo drive showers to keep them cool. Keeping the drive lube changed within 20 hours and using drive showers are very important for the life of the drive. Keep the drives COOL with showers and the drive lube CLEAN should be top priority. Also, no hole shots and throttle back on re-entries.

rv · 01-28-2004, 11:51 AM

Kaama,
I have the same wear problem on my pinion gears. I have new replacement gears but don't know if they are from the good or bad batch. Do you remember the date code that was on the box your new pinion gears came in?

Sounds like your new set is ok.

Rick

GLH · 01-28-2004, 12:33 PM

The gentlemen that owned my boat before me changed from Bravo's to XR's a year after he bought it, something around 7k each. Running Merc 600SC's.

What are they rated for I read 750HP but I could be mistaken?

Mr Gadgets · 01-28-2004, 02:22 PM

rv,
I have heard that the pinion problem is more than a bad gear problem. I never did any hardness tests to confirm that the worn ones are soft. I was told it has to do with alignment of the gears. Which I take great pains in doing. Measuring the case to make sure everything is in the right place. I will be inspecting Kaama's drives again to see how things are looking. First I have to get my new shop up and running.. If you have any ??? shoot me an email..

Dick

rv · 01-28-2004, 02:56 PM

Dick,
I sent you an email.

Thanks,
Rick

KAAMA · 01-28-2004, 02:59 PM

Oh yes, forgot to mention that it was Mr.Gadgets who did my drive repairs. He installed the new pinion gears and then completely blue printed and re-assembled my outdrives-----and he's got a massive set of micrometers to accuartely measure just about any angle you can think of !!!

BOSSMAN · 01-28-2004, 06:54 PM

I have a little over 750 hp each in a 40 footer and no problem. I also agree with kaama no fast starts and easy on the air jumps.

Rich