So your saying a #6, nxt, M8, are all the same. you should really stop and think about what your saying. maybe you could tell us about your boat and what model asd you have, that is if your not to busy out enjoying it. All allot of us want is someone with one to give us some real answers to our questions and not smart a$$ comments

Thanks for posting followed your thread last year. really well done, Hope you get it all sorted out this year. You say the boat handles different now, how do you mean? Did you feel the conversion went as easy as you thought it was going to? By the way great looking roostertail.

Possibly a little OT, but weren't there issues with the #6 on the Tigers? As I recall that's why they redid the bottom and went to the X, although I could be mistaken. If so, were the issues with the fact that the boat didn't like the surface drives or was it more to do with the change in CG?

If I owned a Tiger and were even considering going to a surface drive, I think I'd want to find the answer to that question before making a move in that direction.

Jerry is one that bought into the hype and now where is he?
Last I heard the Bmax was going back on!
All these folks want is the truth Rik so why not speak it and let the people who are spending the $$$ decide on what best fits their needs.
Rik no one on here is taking anything away from the reliability of your surface drive. A CV shaft is 1 tough part.

I've had a set of Bmax's on my boat for the past 5 years. I've owned my boat for 7 years. In the first two years I blew up XR's, Imco Extremes and even a Max Machine Workx drive. I used to keep two spare uppers just to stay on the water each weekend. I'd blow up an upper just about every 2nd or third weekend. The second summer I owned the boat I spent $14k just in drive repairs to the uppers.

Perhaps the XR style drives have gotten a lot better over the last 5 years but in 5 years I've never had a single problem with my Bmax's and I'm running blower engines at about 750 HP each on a 10,000 lb boat.

I swear by them.. and I never miss a weekend.

I don;t think there's any real magic to them - the gears and housing are just a lot bigger and stronger and the XR style drives all seem to address the problem in the same way by inserting a sleeve in the tower to strengthen it. Great idea and it does work up to a point, but the gears in the tower are still small and lack the surface area of larger gears used in the Bmax's.

Looking at the thread there are certainly more expensive alternatives such as Konrad's, Surface Drives etc....and they all require a tranny retrofit which I really didn't want. I just wanted a reliable shiftable bolt-on replacement drives. My friends warned me before buying the boat that the XR style drives would be a problem and they were right. Worst case is that they'd never blow up when I was running hard - they'd always blow up when I was cruising along at about 3,600 rpm. Go figgur!

Bmax's have my vote.

First I want to clarify, no personal attack, no hard feelings, just here to talk about boats just like we are all tied up at the local sand bar...having fun!

KWright....Yes they are all the same "type" of drive, a surface drive. Whats your point?

You answered your own question by thanking kjm5125 for his thread. There are other threads also, you just have to search.

Do you also want everyone who has a boat rigged with a #6, M8, Indy, etc. to right a thread telling you how much they love the drive also. They are out enjoying boating also, not broken, like us bravo boaters. (actually is a thread about a Indy conversion, he loves his new surface drive!)

I would agree that any conversion from a standard style drive like a bravo needs some "dialing" in when going to ANY surface style drive.

Look at the new SCX-4!! Huge craze right now, everyone thinks its going to be so great because it "looks" normal but its still a surface drive, and so far NO boat has seen a speed gain, handling gain, etc. (IMCO's hallet is biased).

So basically, if someone Can't handle the price, dialing in, etc of a surface style drive, then stick with lower HP/speed and run a bravo! No biggie.

If you want High HP and speed, the ONLY answer in todays market is a SURFACE style drive, and ARNESON is the best overall bang for the buck in doing a conversion from a bravo to a surface style drive!

No hard feelings, just the truth. If I am wrong, prove it with fact??? Whos building NEW fast boats with big power using "standard" style drives???

[QUOTE=chesapeakebay;3644449

. Worst case is that they'd never blow up when I was running hard - they'd always blow up when I was cruising along at about 3,600 rpm. Go figgur!

Bmax's have my vote.[/QUOTE]



EXactlly my problem!!
made it 15 min on first run of the year Thursday. Never even hit 4500

Man that sucks! Sorry to hear that. I assume you run XR's?

I wish someone (like a magazine etc) would do a test on drives.

A test comparing all drives, and torque rating them.

Or AT LEAST a test teaching us what breaks drives.

Yes I know, the common knowledge is landing after getting air, getting on plane etc.

But I have seen people with bravo drives beat the heck out of the boats, keep the throttle pinned, etc, and not have problems. Here the rest of us drive like theres and egg on the throttle and still break.

Seems to me most of us break our drives cruising in mid range. Sorta makes sense, midrange our engines are making peak torque.....

Blown engines make peak torque at around those RPM's, big torque (which blown engines make) kills bravos.

[QUOTE=offshorexcursion;3644454]

KWright....Yes they are all the same "type" of drive, a surface drive. Whats your point?

My point is they all don't handle the same. NXT's do not work well with fountains. #6's do. no one one here has talked about how the asd works on their Fountain. KJM talks about his boat handling differently with the asd's. It will be nice to here what the diff. is. I'm sure it would be different if they were say #6's. I'm not knocking the asd's just trying to learn but everytime someone ask a question the answer is their the best, most speed gain' cheapest to convert, ect. Ok I would just like to ask someone who has walked those steps thats all, not putting you down but just not sure you can answer these from experience.