TRS drive ?
 

Whats the best drive to swap them out with or are they ok ?
A buddy of mine is getting into boating and looking at older TG's and Scarabs and alot in his price range have TRS drives on them.
I don't know much about them but it seems that the X dim is so low on them that if you did a Konrad drive or something like that with a shorter lower he can pick up some MPH and have a stronger drive.

Konrad is the way to go, but there is nothing "wrong" with TRS's. The Konrads are big $$$$, especially when you consider the value of the boat they will be going on. I worry more about my bravos with 454's, than I did with 600hp through a TRS. There may be some speed gains, but on a big heavy 38' strait bottom, you won't be setting any speed records anyway.

Just my .02

Doesn't a #2 lower bolt up?

Yes, but parts are rare, and it will run deeper than a TRS lower.

Speedy #2 isn't any advantage, no parts available and not stronger then the TRS. I had a heavy cigarette mistress. Had the drives set up at Speedmasters. They lasted 90 hours with almost 700 HP naturally aspirated. I sometimes see them in the swaps pretty cheap. I did grenade a lower pinion gear at 90 hours and did the Konrad conversion. I sold the boat with about 20 hours on the Konrads they were bullet proof. The Konrads were about 1.5 inches shorter in the x dimension. I picked up about 3 MPH. Good thing about Konrads is that you can run Bravo I prop, 4 blades. Boat like them. Seems to still be quite a few parts for the TRS, they are good drives, especailly on heavy rigs. You are correct, Cigarette did set them up with very conservative X dimensions. Good for rough water, but not for cranking out every last MPH. Good luck, I am sure other will chime in.

I'd say stick with the TRS unless you go bigger then 650HP. Depends on Driver and Condition of the drives now.

You really have to try hard to break a TRS drive.

Realy they look so whimpy, His dad has some 700-750 hp 572 big blocks and Huber 1050 trans he says he will put in after a season or so, I told him just to buy a boat less power, buy some of the #5's and boxes and stuff that are for sale and put it together now. This will be his first boat in his name and insurance so he wants to keep the hp low at first so the cost is low.
How long will the TRS last with that much hp? or just do the Konrads if he puts bigger power in later.

I had the #5s on my NT, The oil was allways clean when I changed it, I took the center drive apart after I put 125 hours on it, don't know how much time they had total. Everything looked so good I just put it back and ran it, never had a drive problem. For under 900 hp it's hard to beat the #5.

konrads:coolcowboy:, talk to kurt= biggus on here he works for them. I love mine so far, but its still in the box:party-smiley-004: but not for long. I have a single 572 blown gellner power:evilb:.

TRS drives stock are good to about 550hp as long as you are conservative coming out of the hole on a heavy boat or don't cavitate the prop and chatter the gears apart. I have only ever blown 1 of them and I have had a lot. The one I blew was on my 311 and it was because I was overproped and cavitated them by overtrimming to get every last MPH out of the boat.

If you go Konrad then you can run up to 800hp. I think that the conversions run in the 10-14K each range depending on HP but I will let Biggus know about this thread and hope he can respond in more detail. Some will say that to convert over to Bravo is cheaper, but IMO is the wrong way to go. First of all it takes a lot of work, pull the motors, glass the transome, paint, move motors back..... HUGE project. Konrad they show up you unbolt the old drive, change the bell housing and done. If you buy the complete kit then you unbolt your transome assembly from inside and push it off and slide in the new one. Done in a day! It really is the way to go.

x2

Not sure what his budget is but there is that 38 scarab at double R that is very clean and has the #5s on it already, just add the 572's and pound through the waves. They've had it for a while, pretty clean, saw it this fall, should be able to move them on price...

It sounds like from what others are telling ya,, the TRS drive is very old and difficult to get parts for....Ya, especially for someone getting into boating,,, it seems like it mite be a major "money pit" longterm... i guess another option, might be to save a lil more money and spend a little more to get a V bottom with Mercury (bravo style) drives.... mercury will always be there,, i guess only issue is, its gonna be alot more money.... Good Luck..!

It would have to be a steal of a deal in order for me to buy something with a bravo butt, -- for the money i'd buy the trs's and upgrade based on the power level and availability of a stronger drive.
I would not want to 'get into boating' and have to lay out 24 k in Konrads -- nothing against the drives but too much money for just starting out.

TRS's are a much better drive than the bravos in my opinion.

I see them in usable shape on craigslist for 1000 bucks all the time.

TRS drives were made for a good long run. There are TONS of them out there. I have never had an issue finding parts or complete drives. There are things you can not buy new but in that case just look around and you can find them used. They don't like 4 blade props and they don't like to be beat out of the hole. Other then that they shift sweet as well.

+1 I never had trouble getting parts for TRS's. If you he's worried about running huge power through them (600+), I think he would be money ahead to buy a boat that already has SSM's or Konrads. Most TRS boats are selling for under $60k just because of the age of the boats. Most of those are under $30k. In my opinion it just doesn't make sense to put $30K worth of drives on a boat that is still worth 30K when your done, unless it's a boat he plans to keep for a long, long, long time.

If he finds a clean TRS boat in his price range, I would not hesitate to own it, they are great drives, and way better than a bravo in my opinion.

Yes while it is his first boat he's been around them long enough to know not to blow his whole wad on a used boat. Wants turn key to start with as to not sour his wife on boating before they start along with the lower HP for insurance then once his wife and kid are hooked he'll spend the money on upgrades or a newer boat. He has 75k cash but only wants to spend 50 on boat and trailer, he has a 1 ton truck so thats covered.
He knows they are costly but like me he will do all the work, and his dad has had performance boats and is real good working on them also. Has his heart set on a Cig. unless he gets a great deal on a Scarab, he also needs a full enclosed head so there is only about 20 boats out there that fit the bill. He just didn't want to have all the problems like I had with Blackhawk drives and I didn't know much about TRS drives.

What about all the used Konrads for sale for like 5k are they kinda like the B-max is/was only 2 people on the planet can rebuild them and make them last?

If you are looking at used Konrads you have to make sure they are 540 drives I think it is. The others are for work boats that swing large props.