Drive Showers
 

New to forum, I have been boating for years. Somewhat new to performance boats. I have a bravo 3 drive. I was wondering what the advantage / disadvantages of installing a drive shower. Sorry if the question is lame. I feel, if anyone to ask, it's you guys. Thanks

Welcome!

No disadvantage.

Advantage is cooler gear oil. Take a look at Simrek's. Nice units.

Simrek, bolt on and go, no drilling. It's been debated many times on here. On my first boats with standard bravo drives the cases were much cooler at the end of a run. Also my drive oil didn't get smoked as quickly.

Get the shower on as soon as possible.

We have a 7.4 mpi Bravo 3. I put a shower on ours and I couldn't believe how much cooling it provides. A number of times I ran the boat hard - (we have the boat on a lift - inland lake). Just for the heck of it after running it WOT for a while - with the boat on the lift I got in the water and felt the drive -- Even with the shower the drive was warm. These boys generate some heat and this shower cools it and hopefully preserves the oil and the gears.

As an added benefit there isn't any scale on the outdrive - you probably know this - the top portion of your outdrive is out of the water when the boat is on plane. Any water that splashes on there will evaporate - leaving the minerals coated to the drive. Then when the boat comes off plane you have the thermal shock of a hot outdrive getting put into the cooler water. The drive shower substantially reduces this.

I have one that I had to drill into the plate -- If I had to do it all over again I would have selected the model that is a simple bolt on. I don't know if there is much difference in the efficiency but I personally think the bolt on looks a little neater than what I have.

All the best and safe boating-- and oh there is no stupid question -- we are all learning this boating stuff

3pointstar

The only down side can be a bit of reduction in top speed of course this is probably dependent on power to weight ratio vs hull design

If nothing else, read all the quality information at Drive Shower.com
You will learn a lot about different shower types and just how hot the Bravo3's run. I also use the Simrek drive shower and have had great success. As stated above, no more scaling. No more burnt smelling oil during drive service. After using this cooler for 2 seasons, I can say the oil looks, feels and smells as if it was just installed.

Simreks are factory installed on Formulas.

Jeff

Just an FYI the Bravo III is one of the hottest temp outdrives running. I would use very good gear oil and a good drive shower for these apps even though they are not considered a performance application.

There is not a bravo drive of any style that wont benefit from a drive shower, unless its on a houseboat that will never have the top of the drive come out of the water.

I need to get me one (B3 XR) for next season. The builder said to use the one with a cap but looking all over OSO most still go with the no drill Simreks, but there is another which is no drill and bolts to the top of the XR cap.