I'll ask.....I thought he had a tower put in them but not sure. (and it could have been someone elses towers???)

Unless you have steel towlers don't even think about it.

Thanks for the input guys. Do the satndard bravo xr's have the steel tower built into the case or is that a bennefit of an aftermarket upgraded drive?

A std bravo xr has mercs version of a steel tower, but it is more of a short,stubby steel insert. It is definately a step above a std bravo's aluminum one that either shears off or becomes deformed once you get the rest of the parts to hold together. On the other hand the best steel tower which is built by max machine worx extends thru the whole upper and uses the benefit of its length (about 12") for its rigidity. They are proud of it though and charge a small fortune to install one,Smitty

cstobe,
All the Merc XR drives have a steel tower in the case as standard equipment. I have not seen one fail as of yet. I have seen a gear welded to the tower but the tower did not fail, just got very hot when the gear bearing failed..

My steel towers have 2" of thread on them, better than the XR Merc tower, but not as good as Max Works. Although I have not had any failures with my towers, and I dont charge an arm and/or a leg to do it.

Smitty, isnt there a change to the bottom of the case that was a problem when you tried to put a spacer in between the upper and lower with the Max works tower?

D*ck