arneson asd7m surface drive vs bravo xr
 

OK, I need some info on surface drives. I am hoping to change out the drives this winter. I currently have a 35' Nordic Flame, twin 525's with xr drives. I was looking at IMCOs, but then started to think about surface drives.
What are the advantages, and dis advantages of surface drives? Has anyone done a similar application? How does it effect handleing? How does it compare price wise?
All information appreciated

Thanks

They work well on some boats and not as well on others.Do a search on the topic

Are you looking for more speed? Your XR's should be strong enough for your power.

Ask Rik Wimp at Arneson, they will not break and cheaper than you think.

would not mind more speed, would love more stability at speed, hoping the nose cone on the IMCO, 2" shorter for both the above.
I have already blown one drive, at 75 hours, and want something more bullit proof, to ensure less down time, and $$$

Than the Arnison is your answer. Report back with your findings please.

Have you considered Konrad drives?. I know I would give them serious consideration based on the feedback I have read here.

what are the handling charactoristics of the arnesons vs the bravos?

Do they help high speed stability (80-92 mph)
how are they coming to plain?
docking?
assume they are fairly bullit proof for moderate hp (525-750 hp)
anyone on the board that you know of that has used it on a 32-40' stepped hull v boat?

thanks

You may not be able to acheive the bow lift you need on that boat. You need to approach this with EXTREME CAUTION!

current set up had a problem with too much bow lift. I have removed two of the four batteries from the back, and have the drives slightly toed in to keep the nose down at speed. I had Tres Marten look at the boat a couple years ago, during a driving class, and he seemed to think the center of gravity was off in the boat, too much weight in the back.

That sounds like a good candidate for Konrads. I would go that route before surface drives, allot less r&d on your nickel.

If you're thinking seriously about Arnesons then call Rik and get his .02. He's pretty straight about it and won't candy coat.

If you want some $$'s on Konrads give me a call I can get you a hook up.

If you have too much bow lift then surface drives can definitely help. I'm selling my pulsedrive and going back to bravo's because I already had too much stern lift and the surface drives tended to push the bow down.

He will actually lose some speed but they wont break

Trust me on this, when you try something that has never been done before it gets real expensive, real frustrating, and it often takes a whole lot of time to get it right.

To me it makes no sense to dump 35 - 40K into a mid-level performance boat just because you had one drive failure. Putting surface drives on a 35 Nordic is something better left to the factory to experienment with on their coin. It might turn out great or it might turn out really bad but either way it's going to take a lot of tweaking which will eat up and loads of time and money.

I can see going through that trouble and expense for a race boat or for a big budget poker run boat, but I can't see doing it because of one drive failure on a 90-ish mph boat. You can also expect to take a huge beating on the resale value of the boat. On a 32 SKater with big power surface drives would likely be a plus, but there just aren't many buyers who are going to want them hanging off the back of their midly powered 35Ft V bottom.

If you want to do ASD look at the Bravo to ASD6 conversion package. I know this was done on a 382 Formula.

I would try some semi-cleavers on the boat. They will pick up the stern and drop the bow. if a 4B semi-cleaver isn't enough then try a 5B or a 6B propeller.

there would be less R&D on the konrad set up I think there about the same height as a XR using a ACE KONRAD drive and LOFTY can help you. props if you stay or change throttleup has there own custom props which I have herd good things about and can set you up either way,BIGGUS can give you a second opinion on the konrad he has a set on his cig. for surface drives Arnesons seem to be one of the best and RIK would be the guru to talk to, maybe that bravo swap set up might work. but I would not buy any xr off brand drives either no names sorry . if you stick with the xr then call MR GAGGETS

Art, Good answer what's up? How u-doin w;the leg? Best wishes. J

1CE !! HAA HAAH HA LEG CHIT i JUST GOT MY GUTS TAKEN OUT LAST SUNDAY AND NOW HAVE A INFECTION:D:D otherwise I in pain:grinser010: looks like the knee replacment is on for dec 10 but I am sure it will bounced:rolleyes: whats up

If you go conrad, you HAVE to buy the ACE system because it has a transmision in the set back box. The conrad drives don't shift.

Another option is a B max drive. A bolt up, direct replacment for the bravo that shifts just like a bravo. Price is resonable too.

I will be going to a b Max depending how long my new XR lasts.

Konrad is a very strong drive but Ive heard (and experienced) some significant speed losses.

Bam as I recal said only a 2 or 3 MPH loss (would not call that significant). However the guy used his boat trouble free for the entire year were he was blowing drives all the time with the bravo's. That was out of the box set up. Not sure if they got the speed back with testing. Konrad also now offers an even shorter lower that could see even better results as far as speed is concerned.

is there allot of re griggin for conrads? I have a 42 staggered lightning would be willing in the future to go with that drive if I would not have to have all the head ache of putting in trans and all the other stuff!

You MUSt put a trany in for the Konrads. You'll also need; Trany coolers, water pick ups, and in your case a new starb. drive shaft shield. In a staggard 42 I would put the trany's in the boat. Would be relativly easy and clean job. What power are you running and how far forward are your motors now?

I just realized we are hijacking an Arneson thread. Why don't you post this ? up in a new thread.

Not looking to lose any MPH, hard enough keeping up on poker runs allready.

If I was looking to do engine mods, then a slight loss from the drives would be made up by the mods, but for the added expense, it seems like the arnesons would accomplish both the durability, and potentially increased top speed for less than the konrads, and mods.

Tough choices, not factoring in resale, might get a second boat, but not looking to sell the Nordic in the near future. Just looking to be as fast, safe, and dependable as posible.

So we got the Top Gun over the 100+ mark yesterday, ( post 1 of 97)
It's been a great deal of work planing and prop testing but CONGRATULATIONS to GotTime, we ran 108.6 with out and playing around, no wind, and tabs down at 6000 rpms. The props were 18 35's and the motors are still on the chips, so we could potentially see higher #'s with the proper props and some adjusting on the tabs and drives depths. The boat has a set of 1000hp 572ci with 1471 blowers and is a 1996 Top Gun FULL CABIN hull. I'll post a link to a quick video of us running.

( post 5 of 97)
i put a set of arneson conversions after all the hard work it paid off little more tweekin we should see 110 to 112 hopefully motors are running awesome...

Posts and pics Speedwake.

man -o-man
 

Dude, u-need if I can I will God speed for U---J --:eek:

Have you put a call into Nordic yet? That would have been my first call. Are there any Nordics they know of with a surface drive? Have they built any? What are their thoughts on your hull and an arnison? Just a few questions I'd ask.

SAince this thread is 6 months old I hope BT wont mind if I take it into another direction.

Formula built a bunch of boats w Kaama drives in the mid to late 80s.
Does anyone know how these worked? say compared to stock (TRS) drives for top speed and handling?

Thanks
Evan

I think Cuda had a Kaama Formula.