+1

The XR would hurt your top speed. Harder to spin. Like Griff said, The X drive is the way to go. The 25 outlaw is a relatively light hull.

Merc paired the X behind 496 HO's. That is plenty for that power/hull combo.

The mechanic is talking about the XR gears pitting even behind mild power. The best drive in my book for that power would be a XZ, not made anymore. It has the steel towers, 1.25 shafts but bevel gears.

Have had friends take a XR, buy the XZ gear sets, cryno the gears and make their own XZ. Seems to last a good amount of hours then.

I had XR's behind my 496HO's on my 35 Fountain. Probably pushing 9500 lbs roughly. I optioned the boat that way with future HP upgrades in mind. Never happened.

No problems at all, but they do rob a bit of HP as others have said and cost me some top speed #'s. The XR's also have audible gear whine from the straight cut gears. I told people that was supercharger noise...ha ha...

Most 35's with HO's came with X's from the factory. Those boats did just fine. Just change the gear oil as required.

​​​​Go with the X's since they have a bit more durability with sport boats that occasionally catch air as we know.

With a stock 496HO I would go with the X drive for longevity. The straight cut XR gears wear out faster than the helical gears in an X or XZ drive typically. There's been many folks that have put the helical gears behind much more power than a 496HO 425HP and they have held up just fine. Just change the oil often whatever you get.

I would go with the X gears instead of XR. The XR gears will wear faster than the X gears. Once the pitting starts in the XR gears then its just a matter of time before it starts coming apart. The X gears actually make more contact together as well. I know quite a few people who have swapped the XR gears fo the X gears and really like them. Also a few have said they have less down time now, since swapping over to X gears.

Where did your pristine jewel go?
Wondered if you sold it with your other thread going on about the Axopar.

Highjack over!

The boat is in upstate NY with its new owner.

I appreciate the comments and feedback. Since my drive was stolen I had no way to verify what I had, but I did reach out to Mercruiser. Through my engine serial number they were able to verify that my 496 was paired to the Bravo One X so I’m getting the same thing again. Even they seemed to shy away from the XR. I knew I had a Bravo One, but as the 3rd owner and missing stickers I had no idea my OEM unit was an X.