Dick (Mr. Gadgets),

That I can understand. It is a big upfront cost to move to the Arneson and the unknown is how that boat would handle with a surface drive. If there is someone that has done it and it works great easy choice, if not it is hard being the first to try.

BTW

Easy on the logic thing, you may ruin my reputation.

LOL

Mr. Gadgets,

When you reference a Bavo 1 XR holding up 5 years or so ago to 1100 hp in a light boat are you referring to boats like a 25
Daytona or a 26 DCB Mach. And I undestand that driving finesse has a lot to do with it. And is there a way to look at a set of gears and know the vintage by part # etc.

Thanks,
Joel

I was talking about this earlier today... has there been any further research or advancement in looking at better gears for the XR based drives, or is it still just not financially feasible for anyone to do so? Or are we stuck with these extremely expensive ticking time-bombs for years to come? I suspect the size of the gears is really the limiting factor and not much more can be done with them unless a larger gear is used (SCX style).


BTW, I still think the Arneson drives are the way to go, plus you gain some decent speed! Just so damn spendy...

Joel,
sorry I lost track of this thread. I was talking about a Baja H2x that ran at LOTO a few years back and set a record of 109mph. That was with a fresh motor and drive, completed just before the trip down there. No run time on the motor or drive. On Friday, break in was the poker run Friday night.. Sat with his big prop on, he made one pass at 109mph. Impressed a few people to say the least. He came home and ran the boat another 60hrs or so, before the season was done and I checked the gears and both upper and lowers were starting to go away.
He would go the river on the weekends and make 100mph passes all day long, with a boat load of friends. That is when the XR gears were good enough to recommend. I never saw any broken teeth, and the maintenace schedule for that hard running combo was 65-70hrs. He later ran 1400hp thru the drive for a short amount of time and then it went to two other boats before it came unglued.
Those were the good ole days!!
I have not heard of any replacement gears for the XR as of yet.
Next best thing is the SCX.. Then if you want to change it all.. the Arneson seems bullet proof.
I have no experience with either, but I will be putting some power to an SCX this coming summer, if all goes well. I do have one mounted on my boat, so I do have experience with the install, so far.
Dick

You're going to be happy with the SCX Dick. I have 57 hrs on my SCX /SC combo on a 25 daytona with 900 blown hp and 870 lbf infront of it.

After the initial break in period and oil change,( 10 hrs ) I have done the oil every 15 hrs and not one metal flake ever.

Comparison wise, I averaged about 20 to 25 hrs out of XR upper gear sets before they would toss a tooth off the driven gear. That was with 570 hp and no blower.

I think the fact that the drive runs at the surface on a single cat and literally "slaps" the pee out of the uppers as the prop loads / unloads is what caused the constant gear set failures.

Same boat, same power when it was 570hp and a Black Hawk drive went 160 hrs without blowing a gear set. My thoughts were because there was so little drive in the water, the props never really unloaded / loaded hard and did not slap the uppers as hard as the drive skipped along the surface.

I plan on a disassembly and inspection on the IMCO drive at 100 hrs. if it lasts that long. So far nothing has indicated that it won't.

I know my friend has to have close to 600hrs on his SCX/SCX's. I have not spoken to him lately, but in Sept, he had over 500hrs. And he doesnt give up boating until the water is hard around here ..