Triples vs Twins
 

At a conversation over the weekend, a fellow boater mentioned that he'd never want to own triples (and had his various reasons).

Can anyone out there enlighten us on this subject? Has anyone owned a boat with trips? What was your experience? Was it something you loved, hated? Do you own it now? Did you go back to twins or stay with trips on a subsequent boat? And for those that have been there done that, or know someone who has, what are the pros & cons (obvious and no so obvious)?

I've heard people talk, but never heard anything from the perspective of someone that's actually owned a boat with triples.

Mark

hey mark,i have tripps ,200,s on a 30 footer,outdated,but fun. my friend has a 32 cat with 3 300x,s,all new,boat runs real good,but has some mota probs,but is solving them slowly.some of my other buddieswant to go tripps,but havent done it yet. i would not rip my boat up to put twins onit,and spend alot on 2 new motas,but i would run twins in a i/o,staggered if possible,cause u can make plenty of power with bbchevys. good luck,tripps:D :D :D

A friend of mine has triple 408 small blocks...seems to be three times the trouble. Summer of 2000 I still had to tow him in once. Three engines don't run any better than one , when you run out of gas:eek: .
One advantage is , his boat will still get up on a plane with only two running , and believe me, he's had to do it more than once:rolleyes:

TRIPLES IS DEFINATELY MORE WORK.............BUT THEY ARE UNIQUE AND MINE WILL ALMOST PUSH 70 WITH 2 RUNNING

I have tripp 500's. 1500 VERY reliable HP. plus you can't beat the cool factor.:cool: More oil, more plugs, extra parts at rebuild time, but I hve no complaints.:D

I'm on my third year with triples, and thus far I find less trouble with drives and engines in a triple than twins. Possibly because the load is shared by 3 instead of two drives?? The maintenance factor is indeed more expensive, simply because it's 3 times impellers, oil, plugs, dist. caps, plug leads, etc. However, I find the reliability factor more consistent with triples. I'm running trip 700's and in the first 200 hours of use didn't experience any mechanical failures. Recently replaced the engines and drives not out of necessity but choice. One engine blew a head gasket.

I believe the folks that bought my Bravo units are still using them without breakage (they were each OSO members). I switched to XR's about 14 months ago.

If you talk to Mark Adams in Fort Lauderdale, he'll share his experience with the triples VS twins debate. He maintains a fleet of Apaches and other fine boats. I believe you'll find a bias towards triples for producing less problems over a given period.

That said the more radical you go in any set up the more one decreases reliabilty. Conversely, run with solid stock power as Madcow demonstrates with his trip 500 efi set up, and it's almost bullet proof.

As to the cool factor with three under the hatch, I kinda thought that until James Millen joined us on some cruises with his former 50 Nortech 50' V bottom with quads...........................That redefined "cool" :eek:

I am afraid that I must agree with Steve above... I also am on my third year with triple 525 SC's and other than routine maintenance they are trouble free... The maintenance is, however,
a bit more but the engines are not working as hard to acheive the same speed... I was a bit surprised that the gasoline is not more than than I had experienced with twins previously (10%-15%), but then again I am not pushing the sticks as far as they
will go... Like Steve said regarding the cool factor, there will alway be someone else pushing that envelope...

Tnx, Karl
:) :)