Rik I don't have boxes so it is 16" more sticking out than what I have. And if you go back and read this thread I didn't bring up your stuff or any thing about a BT with your stuff. No one is taking anything away from your drive.

The teague platinum XR drive still uses Merc xr gears in both the upper and lower, lately I have heard of guys time and time again blowing one tooth off the xr gears set which in turn can completely destroy your upper. So when that happens you can kiss 5000+ dollars good bye. The B-max on the other hand has pretty much a BULLET PROOF upper that has been refined to the point where you don't here of anyone really breaking them. So if your at the point of buying a drive for your boat you might want to consider B-max as a option over the Teague . You will spend 30% more to get a complete B-max vs the Teague BUT pay for one blown Teague upper and you will spend more than the difference to get back on the water and from there you will just be pouring money in it, Smitty

As far as the lower ratio goes, I'm not sure but I think it's the 15/19 set. I think the final ratio is set in the upper on the bmax, but you'd have to check with John to be sure. I do run the neo oil, I just check it more often than johns recommendation. As far as the shafts go, I see a lot of slip down low with my setup- my slip doesn't get any better until I get past 100... I think that might be why I'm not twisting everything all to hell. My combo also doesn't make a ton of low end torque, just tons of power on the big end. I do think that rigidity in the lower gear case is paramount to the life of these drives. I've had this lower off and apart (nothing important, just a cav plate prop stretch mishap), and I've had several of the competitors lowers in my hands. Johns lower physically weighs more while maintaining similar dimensions to the competition. All that tells me is that it's a more dense casting that has to be stronger. Case in point, I have 2 shorty lowers in my garage that have 6-7" vertical cracks that run parallel to the vertical shaft. Both cases are damaged in the bearing area, and neither are reparable. Did the gear fail and wipe out the case, or did e case fail and let the gear walk causing the gear to bind and fail? You be the judge on that one. All I know for sure, is that almost every aftermarket upgrade drive out there uses the same xr lower set. All of the others I've tried have failed, and generally I'm under 2 hours despite my driving style. This one has not in over 40 hours of abuse. I know John has certain processes he uses on the lower gears, I can't say if it helps or not. I also know he uses the neo oil exclusively, and I sampled several brands under a scope before and after running it. The neo is very resilient to abuse. Only more time will tell how it will hold up. With all that said, his drive is alive where others would have been dead already. Before I got ahold of John, I was searching for everything I was going to need to swap to a #6 drive. The first conversation I had with John basically described my desire to not have to throw everything in the trash when something broke. His answer was this, you will break my drive- I can't say when or what for sure, my guess is the lower gears... But I do think it will live longer than what you've been running. Everyone else I spoke with said no problem- you won't break my drive. I appreciate honesty, it goes a long way with me.

[QUOTE=lvrepoman;3512634]28' scarab excel-

Datalogger shows 46 to 133.8 in 14.4 seconds, within 2280', with the throttle never exceeding 77%. /QUOTE]

That is just retarded!

[QUOTE=JasonSmith;3514226]I second that, I would NOT want to ride in it but it would sure be fun to watch!!!!

Very interesting, I just sheared a vert shaft and took out the lower hsg on my boat last month, luckily this only happens once every year or two in my case. Be safe, I hope you use a lifeline and a helmet, Smitty

Just a note,
The SCX uses their own lower gear set, not the XR's gears.

Thats why I say if you have 800+ hp and buy a scx upper spend the money buy the scx lower and have wcm profile the case to make up for the extra drag or turn up your boost. Even under the best conditions xr lower gears are still a weak point on everything else when tortured by big power, heavy boats or tall 5 blades. I'm VERY eager to hear how long the lower gears end up lasting for lvrepoman though, if he gets lower gears to last long running the B-max lower case behind 1700 hp there might be some serious merit to buying one, Smitty

been reading this thread,and one question comes to mind=is the xr outdrive too cheaply built,or are we just asking too much of it?...merc does say 600hp....im curious to hear opinions,as i'll be facing similar problems,with 640hp spinning a standard b1...i was looking for an xr or xz....

Well for what it is worth I have a XR drive Teague Platinum in a 27' Daytona the first power was right at 1000hp and now I am at 1100hp knock on wood zero problems yet......I feel my drive is just setup right on the money it never gets hot or turns white.....but I am very easy on it and my boat does not leave the water.