my bravo one has a lower water pick up by the prop and skeg. do them come like that stock? im just curious because it doesnt have the normal water pick up on the side like most lower units. are they better since u can run drives out more?

My '99 stepped hull has the lower water pickup. My '94 non stepped had the side pickups.

Do you mean it has the water p/u holes on the front of the bullet only??????

Its a LWP(low water pickup) drive. They are used on many step hull boats and boats with a high x dimension.

Better????? no, but necessary in some cases.

They also suck up sand very easily in shallow water.

I had a boat with SWP in the nose cone, Pain in the A$$ in shallow water would plug with sand very easily.

We have run across this in the past as boating on the Chain in our area has some shallow areas. We simple took a standard pick-up Bravo lower made a template and drilled holes for the standard pick-up's makes a big differance and only takes about a half hour or so. Make sure that you chanfer the holes toward the front of the drive. We use a rattle can to cover the area back to black. Works great.

thanks for all the replies. appreciate it all. where i run the water is very very shallow but no problems with sand getting clogged yet.