Is there such a thing as drive overkill?

The smooth shifting of a transmission is a big plus .
Also much cleaner install with trim and steering in the transom assembly on a #6

Dan,

I’m definitely a “no such thing as overkill” thinker myself. But cost, weight and mechanical drag (gears) could all push one into an overkill condition, by my observation. I just didn’t realize there was nothing between the XR and the M6. It was more of a curiosity question initially. All good.

I also saw that massive rooster tail, and all the presumably lost thrust, and figured it was because of the drive. I've also literally never seen a single M drive on a boat. It's always been pairs. I guess I figured they were kinda reserved for bigger boats that actually needed all that extra..... extra.

Thanks. Brad.

Tuff builds a single #6 boat as well. Not very common to see a single with a #6.

Hustler does/did a single NXT on their 29 too.

the land down under water ski guys use one or 2 6s or 8s with a huge 1500+hp engine in 22-25 foot single engine boats there is a gear box to run 2 drives and one engine a few have hit 140 with 2 skiers its pretty futtin nutz

You've seen Bass boats barely in the water, barely any of the lower in the water busting ass down the lake throwing a rooster haven't ya? Same theory

I can't find any good pictures at the moment, but Check300 on OSO here had a sweet single 30' Checkmate with some huge power twin turbo single and a single M6.

Like Dan said, no such thing as drive overkill.

Slim Shady was a single w M6 drive. Activator I think?

And No - you can Never have Too much Drive. You can Always add more Power!

I used water cooled heat shields to control the temp under the engine hatch.

Cheech,

I get all that. But that VR-1 had a full-on peacock flare, not just a roostertail. The boat also doesn't appear to be really hitting it in the video, so the roostertail might lay down as they roll into WOT. Yes, I've seen plenty of bass boats zipping down the lake. And none of them had anything near the roostertail that thing does. I've also seen model boats, particularly the outrigger hydros, which are all surface drive and run extremely light and free on the water, pick up double-digit MPH with a prop change that also resulted in considerably less roostertail. The conclusion is that water thrown up isn't water thrown back; i.e. "lost thrust".

I guess "overkill" was not the appropriate term; more of a mismatch. My train of though was "good engine, great drive, just not appropriate for the application". And one that someone else referred to as a "failed experiment". I believe the Tuff being referred to with an M drive also had an 1100QC4V. Typically the drive and powerplant scale together, and it seemed, with this VR-1, the drive had scaled considerably more than the powerplant. Obviously, it's more a case of it was the next drive up in the lineup that the powerplant wasn't going to grenade. The boat might have been rigged with an NXT if it were still available.

Thanks. Brad.

There were a fair amount of boats with the SCI 700's that would use the NXT transmission and a M6 leg. Look at the NXT compared to the M6, the M6 looks much more streamlined to me.

Pretty sure every or most 700/#6 boats you see made now still use the nxt trans in front of the #6. They take up much less room especially in an application like this.

Not for everyone but I think it’s an awesome boat.