Smitty.

Just a thought. If you turn up your power to gain what you've lost in speed. What will that do to the scx? Where is the limit? You will also put more strain on the motors. How will an scx with the mods you mentioned stack up to the ASD7, including the increase in hp, price wise? What I'm shooting at is. Wouldn't it be better to run the ASD7 with no increased power, have superb reliabillity, and maybe even have the fastest setup of them all to boot?
What's your thoughts on this angle?

"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.... "

It's not that the XR is built cheap. It is what it is, but the gears from the early XR's held up better and snapping teeth off at the root, was not an issue. The lower gears would go 250hrs or so with 700hp.. These days, you dont know if you will get a good set or not. Very frustating to build a drive and then have a tooth break off and destory it. No good way to warranty the gears. Merc wont stand behind them unless you have stock Merc power. Only way to warranty is to charge double the price and hope it doesnt take out the upper case.
Dick

I can't help but wondering, when I read something like this. Isn't there anyone from Merc lurking here on oso, and thinking "Hm, maybe we are doing something wrong", or are they just thinking "Ha, we sell alot of crappy expensive gears these days, and that's great for us, as we don't give a chit".

SERIOUSLY!?? The xr drive is not junk if you use it behind a stock merc engine like it was designed for.

I never hear people say " this 496 is junk cause it wont push 1300 hp on stock internals" merc makes a 1300 turbo for a reason! Just like they make a #6 and a m8 drive.

People on this very website don't expect a half ton truck to tow a 51 outerlimts so why do we expect a stock outdrive to handle the world.

+1. I think people want a drive that will handle 1000hp at a price of an XR. It just does not happen. If you want to play like the big dogs, you have to pay. If you can't pay, you are out of luck. I'm sort of stuck in the middle.

Sorry if it sounded like I was attacking the fact that the XR won't stand up to overrated power. That was not the intention.

What I'm refering to, is not the fact that they only rate them for 600 hp. I'm with you there, it is what it is.
What I am trying to say I guess is, that people are having XR problems wether they run 525 or 800 hp thru their drives. Of course more have problems with 800 hp, that goes without saying. But the quality of the gears has gone down over the last 10 years or so.
So when Mr. Gadgets write as he does, and what he and others have written before, I'm thinking "Does anyone from merc see this, and give it some thought, or is it just about the money and don't they care?" They still produce lower quality gears than they used to, so it honestly looks like the latter to me. This is also why I like the Arneson's better than the stock Bravo XR and the upgraded drives, no matter the brand really. Merc needs competition in the drive market.

i think merc could play the game too,if they wanted;like selling a better xr,one that could stand 700hp,as a b1 upgrade...they could call it xxr...they probly would sell it the price of 2 arnesons

Sorry if it seemed like my comment was directed towards you but it wasn't. It was for everyone. You have hit the nail on the head and I have always beleived mr gadgets about the old gears being better. I just get fusterated when everyone thinks some special xr will last. The fact is the gears are just to small. There is a reason bigger drives have larger gears. Semis and race cars all have bigger rear axles with larger gears for a reason. Off road jeeps and trucks swap out larger axles all the time to get bigger gears!

which years were the ''good'' ones?

How much bigger is a #6 lower gear set than a XR set?