TwinZ,

First, welcome to the Fountain Family, and the Fountain forum. You've found yourself a fine looking vessel, and I'm sure you're going to enjoy the heck out of it.

About those Konrads... can't go wrong with them, especially in a TRS conversion. It's a simple project, couple of days work in your garage. There's also a growing dealer network that can do the conversion for you.

Let any of us know (Biggus, Lofty, Zero Patience, myself, others...) if you have any questions about your application when the time comes.

Again, welcome and congrats.
Brian

Oh yeah... they even come in purple (or any other powder coated color you'd like)

What kind of HP are you pushing thru those Konrads?

I'm running a set of N/A 509's (502's) doing around 610hp, 625tq. I've set them up to make a bunch of torque down low to get me out of the corners better on the race course, and have 550ft/lbs available at 3000 rpm. THAT's hard on drives.

Sounds great. I know tests have shown that they are faster then the old trs drives, but how do you think they compare to bravo's? Especially to the more effecient sportmaster and imco lowers. Btw, what kind of speeds are you getting out of your boat?

Marginmn,
We run 675hp NA mills in our 8.8 meter. They're torque monsters to say the least. The best speed we've got to date is 91GPS. I can't hit that consistently yet but under the right conditions she'll get there.

It's hard to say how much speed we picked up with the Konrads because we changed the power big time. I can say that the Konrads require more positive trim than the TRS'. The Konrads are also taking the way more torque than I would dare run through a TRS never mind a Bravo.

It's hard to say how Konrad and Bravos' compare speed wise because nobody has yet done any comparison tests. I believe you will see some new boat test comparisons this spring with similarly powered Konrad and Bravo hulls.

Thanks a bunch Lofty. I want to go faster in my 38 but the prospect of constantly breaking drives has me sitting on the fence. Maybe Konrads are the solution.

I'll be anxious to see some more results. Keep us posted if you hear anything.

Robert

They are faster than TRS's for a few reasons: first, they're almost 2" shorter, so higher X-dim usually equates to more speed. There are a number of lower spacers available to fine-tune a setup. A bigger advantage is that a boat can be propped more correctly to make use of all of the available power. Many TRS boats are under-propped simply to help the drives live longer. Running a 5-blade prop with the correct pitch for top speed vs rpm, gains you better cruise, less slip, better accelleration, and good holeshot - all because you don't have to worry about popping drives. Just hammer and go.

I'd argue any gains with "more efficiency" in the sportmaster or imco lowers. The Konrad lower with the bullet nosecome is an efficient setup. They are as streamlined as you can get, while still fitting the over-sized gearsets and shafts in a lower. Props are interchangable; if it'll fit an XR shaft, it'll fit a Konrad.

Bottom line is the Konrads don't have a cone-clutch in the upper, and shifting is done inside the boat (or in an ext box). Having a tranny, by nature, moves the motors forward about 12" which helps the balance of the boat in a big way. Also, with your shifting mechanism being done in a 12x12" space vs a 3x3" space, durability increases accordingly.

Durability is what the Konrad story is all about.

Cheers,
Brian

Sorry, missed this part...

On a perfect day, 2ft wind chop, just me in the boat, light on fuel, I've seen 85mph. With a race load of fuel and my throttleman and myself on board, I'll see 82+. That's up from about 78.5mph top end when I was running a TRS setup. Like Lofty, I've also done some motor work, so it's hard to tell the actual gains from the Konrad conversion.

Brian

TwinZ... sorry about hi-jacking your thread

Hey no problem Brian, that's all good information

Do you still have those sweet nose-coned TRS's that were in the swap shop?