Doug

If you are really interested you need to give Chris Merrill a call in Granger Indiana ( South Bend ) at Merrill Power Boats. We were just talking about the setup a week ago and they are going to send him a drive for a display. Chris has really been helping me out on both my Cigarettes and a straight up guy. He should really have some great pricing on the drives. Give him a call at 574-272-9716

Audiofn

I have been interested as to why these drives are not on more boats. They seem like the ticket. Tougher drive, higher X, you can just swap over the drive or do the transom assembly at the same time. There seem to be a lot of advantages. To swap over to Bravo would be about the same money but then you need to do glass work and that is not so easy or cheap. I hope we can get some more info on this and some real numbers to see what the TRUE cost of the conversion would be.

Jon

Audiofn

Has ANYONE used these? What was the result? Did the gains by the raised X get lost with the longer bullet?

Jon

dockrocker

Jon, correct me if I'm wrong, but if you go TRS-to-Bravo, you're looking at moving both motors back 12 inches or so because you no longer have the trannies? So to convert TRS-to-Bravo you have to:

• Pull both motors
• Fill and recut the transom
• Remount both motors further back and higher
• Bend over and smile when the Merc parts bill for the new Bravos comes
• Hope like hell your 501hp motors don't grenade the Bravos

The real question is, does a boat old enough to have TRS drives warrant the investment?

Audiofn

My guess is there are plenty of them out ther. I know Giggus's boat sure is. There are a lot of them out there. Now I know that not everyones is but the TRS was one of the most popular drives in the histry of boating.

Jon

Biggus

iTrader: (1)

Sutphen 30,

You have the wrong info. The drive AND transom assembly list out @12k retail.

Pricing for the drive alone is @9k retail.
I do not feel that is unreasonable for a drive that has been proven to last, with over 1500 hrs in the Hong Kong police boats. Warranteed to 740 ft lbs of torque!

This will be a direct bolt-on if your existing TRS gimbal assembly is in good shape.

I'm very excited about this product. It really fills a void in the drive market and if you are shopping for a used boat it will make a TRS boat an even better bargain.

Kurt

Audiofn

Kurt what is the deal with the Bravo Conversion? Is that a TRS to Bravo or a Bravo to Conrad set up? That transom assembly looks fairly large due to the tranny being in there? I wonder if that would bolt up to a TRS cut out with out any glass work and if so are there any benifiets/negatives to doing so over the drive you are looking at.

Also the transom assembly is 4 grand!!! Is it sapposed to be stronger then a stock unit? Why change over if you do not need to?

Audiofn

ALso are they cool with running 4 and 5 blades with that much power? I know that most recommend that they DO NOT run 4 and 5 blades on the TRS drives. It looks like the display has a 4 blader on there.....

8 grand is not bad for a drive that will take that kind of power I do not think as you will spend about 4-5 grand rebuilding a TRS drive (with a new case) and often times have to use a lot of old parts to make it happen. So for 3-4 grand more I can have something that is guaranteed to hold a lot more HP and is NEW. Not cheap by any means but I think as you said the value is there.

Also as you said people avoid TRS boats like the plague so you can ussually Steel them!! Now steel them and put these drives on and you have one hell of a package. Not to mention they are cool looking

Audiofn

Plus if you swap over I can buy your TRS stuff off ya

Jon

Biggus

iTrader: (1)

The Bravo conversion pictured is a rugged unit also. This set up is for someone who is at their limit with the Bravo drive. This package keeps the motor in the same location as a Bravo set up. The stand-off box bolts to the standard Bravo transom bolt pattern and the tranny is located inside the box.

The Konrad transom assembly is the same transom cut out and bolt pattern.

As I have mentioned above, if you have a good TRS transom assy, you can swap the drives. (minor differences in the bellhousing)

Kurt