JT, Did you run the bravo X with your 575's ? Also, when you broke the drives did the cases or the floors break? What I'm getting at is, I'm going to try the 525's with the X's I don't mind a break down it would just be nice if the case is not destroyed. Know what I mean?

Mine came with XR's.

I bought the boat with 150 hrs on it, it had already
went through 1 drive ( assuming port, since it didn't
have a serial # in the side decal)

1. After I had it for month or so, I changed drive oil,
noticed chunks in the starboard drive oil.

Tore it apart, pinion gear was chunking out,
driven gears looked ok. lower clutch shaft bearing
and clutch shaft was bad, replaced those, dealer supplied
the parts.

2. A few months later, port drive loses drive tooth,
tooth tries to go between pinion and driven gears,
breaks case right behind pinion retainer nut.

Upper is junk, dealer helps out again, put on a brand
new upper.

3. A year later, running a little over 85 mph,
hear a popping, port engine in on the rev limiter hard,
slow down off plane, try it again, wont go into fwd.
tear it apart, female portion of cone had broken off
of gear, gear appeared to have a crack between the teeth,
that probably caused flexing, which broke the cone from
the gear....it's late october, done for the year.
( this was the drive I replaced the complete upper)

When doing some maintenance in the extension box
area, I noticed the driveshafts were installed out of
phase ( yokes not in the same axis) fixed that, ( don't
know if that was a Stellings or a Baja screw up when installing) I figured that had to be part of the problem
( bad harmonics)

Get 2 new upper gear sets, have both of them Cryo treated,
but them together works fine for a year.

4. Servicing the drives, starboard drive has chunks
in the oil, tear it apart, pinion and driven gears are chunking
out......ended up putting the gearset that I took out of it
back in.....it's been running fine so far.

Yes, I have been running blade props, Stellings
boxes ( no drive coupler for cushioning) and a high
X dimension, but most of the problems I've had appear
to be from sh!tty gear material.... once they wear a little
these bad area's are exposed, and they start to come apart.

I seen others on here have the same problem with gear
pitting.....do a search, you'll find a few threads.

I've never had a drive problem on any of my past boats,
(which included a pair of HP500's behind reg. Bravo's) til I got these great XR's, so you can see why I might be a little skeptical towards them

If they crap again, I might try a set of X's......I don't
know if they can do any worse than the XR's have done for me.

JT I can almost mirror your story with the 500EFI and XZ drives. (spiral cut vs straight cut)

There is/was a problem with the XR gears for sure. Mr Gadgets was pulling his hair out as were many others.

I strongly feel the XR is your best option with a 525 + HP unless you opt for an IMCO, Konrad or NXT.

None of the bravo drives were built for real horsepower and I think you need to be prepared to spend $$$ anually on drives if you want to play.

I'm hoping for something new from Konrad at the Miami boat show as a STRONG XR replacement. I'm heard a lot of rumors and was told last summer to hold up buying anything new if possible that the wait would be worth it.

We'll see

I believe that is very true.

One other think is I never broke anything but upper gears "XZ" spiral cut on my XZ's. I have a friend running blower motors in a 36 with standard bravo's and he broke a vertical shaft, lower gear set or a case EVERY season. He finally got tired of it and sold the boat.

I just took the 35 to central power and rigging today. Scott is pulling the motors and then I'm headed to ft myers to get the 525's. Should have them in the boat by next Wednesday.

NICE

Keep us posted.

You will love the 525's in the 35.

Redbud
Keep us posted. Cant wait to hear the results.
I heard who you are dealiong with in Ft Myers. Good people.

Dennis

Sorry for the high jack… Want to ask the expert that writes the policy as my lady sucks.

Matt – Curious when I had State Farm (my insurance company) quote me on an ’08 Malibu 23 LSV my insurance went up. I am at $30.50/month now for your old boat and it went up to around $40. Not a big deal but I tried to explain that going to a tow boat/wake board boat from where I sit was like going from a Mustang to a Subaru Outback and that it doesn’t make sense. She asked for everything you listed below with the exception of hull type (do you guys get this from the make?). The other big thing that was asked was drive type? Are there other factors in knowing what boats are designed for? I.E. water sports and they may cause liabilities?

Again, sorry for the high jack.

what size props are you plannning to try????/when your project is all done,,,i know the 35 came with 26,s ,,,,anybody got any ideas???

Brett at Bblades seems to think 30" labbed would be a good choice. I have a set of 28 labbed Bravo1's from him that I ran on my old boat. I'm going to try them first just to get some numbers for Brett to do the 30's. I've heard of guys running labbed 32's. I just don't want to overprop it with the drives I'm running.