Considering Arneson
 

I have been considering for a while now on switching to a surface drive, pro's and con's

Here is a video that makes me think even more about doing it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Of1RY4M8VqM


Thanks

I love that vid...............especially the part from 1:10 on when the props are all but out of the water! That is just freaky to think there is so little prop in the water propelling the boat that fast.
I'd say go for it! If I could afford them they would be on my boat for sure. Rik says they are an average of 10 mph increase just from the drives alone. I'm sure that is mostly due to how far set back the props are and being surface piercing. Similar studies showed that adding a 5" spacer to a 12" standoff box was good for 5+ mph.

Read some of the posts and really only thing left in the water is between 3 and 7

I know where there's a #6 for $5,000 so if I sell my bravo 1 at 2 to 2500 really the initial cost is only $3000, but how much are the props? Maintainance?

Just curious from other owners

I spent a lot of money trying to make a surface drive work on a straight bottom vee with little rocker in the hull and inner strakes that ran back to the transom. Lots of natural stern lift to begin with. Even had #6 props tuned to lift the bow, but they could not overcome the lift at the stern. The faster the boat ran the worse it bow-steered. Now, if I had a stepped bottom vee or a cat :cool:

arnesons require almost zero maintenance, thats one of the beautiful thinks about them, and no 90 degree transfers of power

What drive were you trying to make work and in the end you did not like them?

Wow, fantastic video. Thanks.

Props are all over the place in price! Maintenance is virtually nothing, change gear oil in the drop box and thrust tube and that's it. If you run Arnesons and have questions, etc. you can call Rik and he answers the phone unlike dealing with Mercury. Not bashing Mercury but the response time between the two is not comparable..

700 + hrs on my trips and no issues. The setup works well on my diesel Nor Tech.
Bob

The Arneson is worth more than your boat, it does not make sense at all. And a Number drive (3,4,5,6) requires a transmission, therefore relocation of motor, probably not going to work. An XR on your hull makes sense, just not seeing the value in anything else.

I had a Pulsedrive. The company is no longer in business. It had it's pluses and minuses. Prop shafts were mounted to the underside of a platform. The whole platform was trimmable - great for swimming off the back of the boat. The rooster tail was different than that produced by the Arneson. The Pulsedrive threw the water high. Each chunk of water carved up by the blades tended to stay together so you had spirals getting thrown up instead of a solid spray. My passengers were usually facing backwards underway just mesmerized. Those features could not offset the impractical application on a boat with a ton of natural stern lift. It was enjoyable up to 65 mph. Not pleasant over 70 mph or in rough water. If I had the right hull for the Pulsedrive I would have kept it.

Thank you for all the info, nobody likes to be a test mule when things don't work out right and you still have to pay big money .

Sorry but to bring you negative experience with something like a Pulse Drive onto an Arneson thread is nothing but pure idiocy. There are no comparisons to the two most evident by which one is out of business. The Pulse shares nothing in relation with an Arneson at all. I fell that most people that have had a Pulse drive regretted it yet like yourself they try to lump it with an Arneson which is totally unfair and off base to say the least. When one reads your original post they could defer that you had Arneson experience and that is certainly not the case.

I think Arneson's are awesome except for around raft ups.

Easy there Rik. The original poster made this a general surface drive thread in his second post when he mentioned #6 drives. If he had not posted that I would not have made any comments. I also did not lump the Pulsedrive in with an Arneson. Please read my post again. The Arneson is a well engineered system, far superior to the Pulsedrive. If I were building big power in a cat or stepped vee hull I would take the Arneson over anything else out there. Arneson would also be my choice it I were putting on new drives and wanted to gain top end - in a hull that would respond well to surfacing props.

We good?