I knew they were ancient.....
 

just wondered if they ever did work as good as they looked??
Only seen them on relics waiting to meet their maker. Never talked to anyone that knew anything about them, owned one or seen one run. I remember seeing them around Lake Erie on old Donzi's w/giant inboard 3 blade brass wheels on them.

Not really. We had a customer with one on a 21 Challenger, couldnt keep it together no matter what. Motor had too much torque, it would just blow one apart. When the bravos came out we re-rigged it with that, never had another problem. We have a customer with a 28 Pantera with one that we have rebuilt before, he doesnt seem to have many problems. Personally out of all the really old drives, if you cant have a #3 and you dont want a trs, a 290 Volvo is pretty strong when well maintained. Its no XR, but its better than an alpha.

Thanks for the info.
 

Always wondered about their history every time I saw one.
Have to agree on the Volvo's too. You see boats crumbling around them but they keep running. I sold many boats w/them in the late 80's and some of the 1st Duo Props in Ohio. Way impressed w/there stuff. Too bad they never got serious about performance.
I was at a boat show in I'd guess mid '90's maybe that a dealer I used to work for had two gorgeous (bolsters, sun lounges etc) Crownline cuddies w/Volvo's. The 23' (225?) had a 502 and they were claiming low 70's and said they were going after that market.
Didn't last long though.

I had them on my boats in the 70's @ I had the early one's that were mechanical shift with no problems. When they came out with the Sp & SSP drive @ BW transmissions they worked very well. A great alternative to the Trs speed II of the day. Roger Munn raced with them on his Mag @ did well with them as did some of the Hydro Tech cats.. Most of the problems were the boats they were put in like the Magnum copies like Aero, Lancer, & Predator were poor quality rigging would cause problems with them.