Bravo drives and HP
 

Are 750 HP engines too much for Bravo drives???? What do you guys think???:ernaehrung004:

All in how you drive it . My boat ran for 200 hours on bravo 1's with 750 hp . Changed to xr's hopeing not to have any trouble, and broke one of them after 50 hours. Go figure !!!!!!! :eek:

It depends on the weight of your boat, and your prop slip.

The less the weight, and the higher the slip, the longer the drive will live.

Chris

Thats a loaded question, Which bravos?? Super Charged?? What size boat and what kind of driving habits.
Water conditions? XRs would be your best chance and cut your inspection times by 50%. Im thinking the new oil cooling system that runs a tank in the boat and a cooler would go a long way in this HP range.
Run taller gears and a smaller pitch to keep the load off the drive. Now go break somthing :drink:

Here is the boat I'm talking about.... 42 Fountain. Long Island sound...nothing too rough... and I don't beat on my toys!!!! Too damn expensive to fix!:eek:
http://www.teamshogren.com/pre-owned...lightning.html

Nice looking ride !!!!!!!!!:party-smiley-020:

Those are XR's with sportmaster lowers. They are about as strong as you're gonna get in a Bravo. Its a heavy boat though. They might last 2, 20 or 200 hrs.

Had a buddy with triple SC525's in his 42 Fever. All were replaced over time.

Very Nice.. Dont worry Obooma got ya covered!!:evilb: I would have a spare if ya dont like waiting for repairs. Its not if but when. BIG BOAT<>BIG POWER<>will depend on your driving habits!! :ernaehrung004: Oh forgot blown!!:eek:

GOT 535 HRS on straight bravos 1;36 ratio, third set of bower motors in a cat.....you just never know!

Hot Dam!!! I heard about the house's but Drives too??????

HOT D A M N !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :drink:

Thats awesome but big difference in a 31 American Offshore and a 42ft Fountain..

Yup now I feel bad for not voting for the King!! :eek:

Very true, I have a 13K pound boat with a pair of 525SC's and just lost my first drive at 250 hrs (basically my fault though) i do attest the life of the drives so far to a fair amount of prop slip and the boat still touches in the high seventies, i dont baby it either. I asked a prop guy once about my drives and he also verified the right amount of prop slip helps keep them alive.


750 hp though? . . . dont know about that one

I have a 4800# boat that has a 600sci in it, and my IMCO SC drive is living at 5.5% slip. I am very easy on it. I am about to step up the hp to about 750, and was told by the outdrive guru's to not let my slip get below 10%, and that I should aim at 12%+ just to be safe.

We shall see,

Chris

Thanks guys for all the helpful info.... after hearing all of you, I have made the choice to look for another boat with hopefully less repairs (one never knows though!).:rolleyes:

:ernaehrung004:

There are two guys that I know on the Bay both with 700hp 100 mph 42 Fountains with Xrs or beefier & a 95 mph 675hp 37' OL Stiletto.
They all keep spare drives in stock, as well as plenty of full coolers for that inevitable 7 mph limp home.
I also had bad luck running over 700hp with beefed up billet Max Worx drives running high ratio and small props in our Kevlar Topgun.
I see guys with even more power in smaller boats doing pretty well with beefed up Bravo based drives.
The guys I know never see more than 20 or so hrs at a time running a larger rig with that kind of hp.
Good Luck!

Smart Move, My friend just received a 35zr donzi with twin 525s.The boat runs in the 90s and looks like a 9+. Great set up on bravos and will make many trips with a turn Key put gas and go. Good luck :D
Also the price was very right!!

Sounds nice..HotPursuit, got any pics?

Ok...I need to adjust my thread! What if the engines are 650's and have IMCO's not Bravo's......

Does this change anyone's minds, or opinions, interested to know.

Its still in donzi classifieds,, Imcos run transmissions and were built with large Hp design from the start.
Much better setup in my opinion. They wont be as fast as a none transmission setup but you wont be at your local drive shop near as much. My bad they also build a shiftable drive too.Go to there site and down load the catalogue..

I have read a lot of replies to this same question, it seems that some have had luck in that scenario. That said the majority will tell you no way as you have heard keep a spare etc. I got tired after drive 6 let go in three years and bought a B-Max. I was running about 650 HP in a 4200lb boat. I now have 720 HP and 727 tourque and 0 problems in two years. Well worth the expense for piece of mind.