To break drives or not to break drives.
 

Now that I'm deep enough in years (59) and deep enough in boat costs ($0, my wife might read this), its apparent that there is a significant trade off that we all make regarding HP verses "Bravo type" shiftible drives.

There are several top notch engine builders who can make reliable horsepower and torque in the range of 1000 HP and 1000 ft. lbs. of torque. These are really reliable considering what they are called on to do. The reliability of any "Bravo type" shiftible drive is miles away. I'm not saying that B-Max, IMCO, Konrad, or Max Machine don't build wonderful drives. The physics of the combination just don't have a history for reliability. Been there, done that.

The number of posts from Smitty and others who know high horse power and shiftable drives is fairly consistent with this idea. I'm sure that there are stories of long hours on a drive with high horsepower. They seem to be the exception rather than the rule. I backed off because of costs and sitting on the bank. I ain't getting any younger.

It seems that about 700HP with torque around 600 to 650 will allow a drive to live a reasonable amount of time, but they still break. I'm at 44 hours on an engine/drive combination in this range. I would like to reach 100 hours without failure. My rig is fairly light (4500 lbs) but breaking is inevitable. It is just too small to have a transmission, and potentially longer drive life, without forward engine issues.

Some day, if I'm blessed to live long enough, maybe I'll see a drive come along that will fit our needs. Boat safely. Quent

i couldnt agree more,im on my 3rd set of bravo's XR's this year alone, its seems to me the only way to have a reliable drive is step way up to #6's, but that isnt a worthwhile investment in my boat,i just have come to the conclusion that if i run it will probably break and after running up the chain to the next part and the next part and the next part,im back at the start again,if fuel cost arnt bad enough its cheap compared to drive dollars to the mile cost. their able to build car and truck drive parts that hold together decent,im not sure why they cant build boat drives that hold together,but maybe they make a lot of money on parts and such that they dont want too

I am on my second year and getting close to 100 hours on XRs with 600s, running about 12K lbs plus gas.

No issues yet. I am pretty conservative as far as backing off when getting air. I fully expect my luck to run out, but on the other hand everything has held up well with little indication that I am getting severe wear.

You drive it like ..Drivin Miss Daisy..:D

Yeah - I figure you are asking questions about those E-Tecs so you can replace those 700s that will run about ------oh lets say 85 MPH!:circle:

Looks like the storm is staying south so hope to see you in 4 days!:D

You got that right..stay left and to the way south:D Im countin the days down...road trip:party-smiley-020:

man at 8k pop on the xr's thats 48k, not that far from a pair of 6's. When you figure down time agravation, drive costs and resell you realize the reliability and resell of the 6 is the only way to go.

What down time?:D

I assume you will be around this weekend - see you at Dog Days.

John, would'nt miss it, see you there, what down time?

You are now blessed :-)

http://www.arneson-industries.com/pa...ravoConversion