ASD-8 is a much stronger driver than what is being discussed.

Steve

Miss Geico runs Mercury Racing 1650's with surface drives... (I know not a production boat)
But still, it proves that all the Noise Mercury makes about running their power and drive packages - is just that, noise.

Boat Manufacturers can do whatever they want. You want a 525EFI/ASD-? package, they will do it for you. You are the one writing the check.

Two things:

If Merc produced an Arneson like drive that never broke, what would their pricing be like seeing as they would not be selling anymore parts to fix broken bravos??? I'll bet if merc produced a drive comparable to an Arneson it would make guys beg to have Riks pricing back.

This leads me to my next question. Has mercury ever approached Rik to buy out Arneson or any of its product lines??

The last thing Mercury wants is a better product. They have put a lot of time and effort to engineering a product that fails exactly where and how they want. :D


If Merc purchased Arneson i can guarantee you'd probably never see one again. Marketing pretty much ruins most true innovation anymore

I've had my ASD-7M's on my Nor-Tech for five years now and have had zero problems.... If I were ever to build a new boat they would definitely have Arneson's on them. Rik's after sale support is second to none and the quality of product speaks for itself... Jim

The biggest problem you face is Warranty. Merc does not want to warranty their Motor when it is attached to another manufactures drive and Vise Versa. It would turn into a blame game if something were to go wrong.

Skater will build one if you want. We have 2 338 Fatboy's built now with Arneson drives, both with custom power. Could put Mercury power easily.

ive got a 98 side by side 42 fountain, how would they work on a boat like that,?

Thanks for the thread!!

Honest answer is politic's to a large degree and lack of an engine package from Arneson. It takes seriously deep pockets to develop and bring to market a complete engine package, compound that with a complete engine line up and the cost rocket up even higher. At this time we cannot offer a one stop engine/out drive package. We do have customers that use Mercury engines with out drive units as well as Ilmor engines with our drive units and of course the aftermarket engine manufacturers as well.

The fact that the Arneson Surface Drive's have benefits is often over shadow'd by the boat manufacturer needing to make a sale and make one as easy as possible. We totally understand this and accept this as short of offering an engine package ourselves there is little we can do about it. This is why with the diesel engine market we have a larger presence with the diesel engine companies only making an engine, they need a partner from the rest of the propulsion package. Hence we make a great marriage partner for those applications.

Arneson offers ten different size drive units, ranging from our smallest ASD6 to our larges ASD18 which is rated at 40,000 ft/lbs of input torque. Our smallest drives, ASD6, #7M and ASD8 are offered in a drop box version for gas/petrol engine applications. These are also fully RH or LH rotation with reduction built into them as well.

Rik

Yes, Arnesons have been installed upon Fountain Powerboats for nearly as long as Fountain has been in business. Beginning with the 10M and 12M boats to the current 42' and 48' models.

Your 42' side by side is an easy application.

Rik