Gary Anderson

My understanding is that it took on water at LOTO. But before it even went under, at the owners dock, a salvage Co took it! They assessed an ourageous price on it and expected the owner to pay the salvage fee, a percentage of assessed value. Anyway, ended up in courts, very messy.
But the boat is VERY heavy and I dont think the original 540s were easy on the bravos. Big boats and bravos dont mix. BTW can you tell I'm not a bravo fan?

Mr Gadgets

Kaama,
Thanks for the plug!! I am slowly moving into the new space, gearing up for the summer rush! How's your project coming any way?

Gary,
You are right.. big boats and bravo's is a compromise for sure. It sounds like Stinger wants to give it a try anyway. It sounds like there was a history to the drives ability to hold up. If that is the case, he could be in for an expesive learning curve. But there are things that can be done to help. I have seen shafts break, and teeth break and towers and all kinds of damage. I do believe you can build a drive that will live for a while any way, depending on driving habits. If it wears out, thats not too bad, but if they break all the time, well the money is better spent on something bigger and stronger than the bravo. Any way you look at it.. three motors, big boat, will cost big money to maintain. No getting around it. I think what Stinger is looking at is a starting point. Check the drives out to see what condition they are in and hope he can make them live for a reasonable amount of time.
That 50' Hustler is keeping drives on it for some reason now, and I dont think it is because of the build quality of my drives, I think the guy is doing a better job of driving it. It does have XR's on it, but no after market shafts, so things can be improved some.
I dont want to disillusion anyone about a miracle Bravo drive, but they can be setup to do better than they are in stock condition. If Stinger's boat has regular Bravo's on it then he does have room to improve.. Will it solve the problem?? Without a good history and intial inspection we wont know.

Stinger, if you want to give me a call and talk about this, I would love to give you my .02.. Like I said before the more people you talk to about the subject the better idea of who to pick for your drive man. I personally spent a lot of money trying to find a good drive man.. and decided to do it myself. I have had alot less trouble with my standard Bravo with XR gears in it since I rebuilt it and set it up!! The next time I need to replace my XR gears because of wear, I may just step back to the XZ gears. I will cross that bridge when I get there..

Again, I hope this helps you in making your decisions on how to proceed with your new boat..

Dick