Going to Konrad Drives
 

I've been busy the past few weeks preparing for my trip to the Konrad Marine facility in WI.

I wanted to be sure the boat would be in top form for the installation of the drives and testing. Now I have 2 fresh motors thanks to Dorr's Marine Engines in Windham Maine. (I can't even begin to tell you how pleased I am with his work and business ethics) and I'll be hitting the road on Friday.

I am going to take some baseline numbers with the current set up and then the folks at Konrad will install the 540HP drive and note any performance increase. I'm sure we will gain some speed as the Konrad unit is 1.6" shorter and I will now be able to run a more agressive prop with the much stronger Konrad drive.

It sure will be nice to be able to run as hard as I want without worry of drive failure!

www.konradmarine.com

I'll keep you posted,

Kurt :cool:

Kurt will you have a stand off box also? or do you have trannies already?

Have a good trip:) That's a long ride from Maine:(

Good luck.

Spoke with Ken Konrad several times (2 years ago) to discuss his drive. I too think this is a great option for a boat with 600-800 hp. His build process looks great and time will tell on the performance.

I really hope this works out, as there are too many broken Bravo drives laying around.

Keep us posted!

Man I can't wait for the details on this project! Keep us informed - they do have internet up there in Wisconsin, don't they? :)

I wonder how they would do behind a couple deisels???

dyno, I have TRS drives with Huber HM925 trannies.

mopower, it will be nice to get out of Maine for a few days. Living in this town is like the movie "Groundhog Day" were every day is the same....:D

Boomer, yes, I am pretty excited about the Konrad 540 drive also. I'm told they have around 100 units in service at this time, mostly on the Navy SEAL boats and there have been no failures just routine maintenance.

I hope to be staying at a hotel with a decent connection. I'll try to keep everyone posted.

Kurt :cool:

dyno, check out their website. The 520 drive is made for a diesel application and they have many of them in service all over the world.

The one pictured has a more aggresive nose cone is that a 540 with a different nose? and I'll be the first to ask what do they cost? I'd have to convert from Bravo so I'd need the boxes with the trannies......sounds like big money but then again I can sell the Bravo's...they look way cool!!!!

dyno, yes, the 540HP is the performance drive with the cone. It is 1.6"shorter than a TRS drive and will bolt up to a Merc TRS transom assembly. They also offer a Bravo conversion package that does not require altering the motor position but it does require a transmission. The tranny is located in their stand-off box. Here's a pic of the Bravo conversion package.

Have a good, safe trip buddy!!!

Give me a call when you get a chance, I can't remember what the name of that distributor gear was that you told me about!!:crazy: :crazy:

That HP is BAAAADDDD!!!!

Here's another shot of the Bravo conversion teamed up to an Innovation 720 HP EFI :D

Now that's a sweet reliable package!

Kurt :cool:

Kurt where was that ??? IMTECH???

That was the Konrad display at this years Miami boat show.

Kurt how much modification do you need to do to the transom?

Sounds great, can wait to see how it turns out.

-Greg

KURT
 

Have a safe trip and I , will call you on the cell ,hopefully we can come up with somthing in time,Darin

A nice article I read in BoatDigest.com April 04 re: Konrad. Sounds like some solid gears off Formula 1 technology. Price is 12k. Developed off demand for high torque diesel motors with a stern drive want. Keep us posted BIG..

Thanks Troutly!

Lets be sure to meet up sometime next week!

Thanks again,

Kurt

Biggus, while you are there can you find out where they got those carbon fiber valve covers on their display engine. I think the engines were loaned from some engine shop but maybe you can investigate and let us know.

Love carbon fiber.

Kurt, Can't wait to hear the results.

Where in Wisconsin are they located?

Have a good trip.

Mark

I saw the Konrad guys at boat show also and am looking at the drives for replacements to my TRS drives. I got some negative feedback about them from a couple of performance shops in Miami regards reliability---althought they did say warranty performance was great.

From what techrep said they are direct bolt-on replacements for TRS.

After plant visit--what did you think about drives, components, engineering testing, etc?

I've got an '87 SR357 and drives got cooked from electrolysis action from boat parked next to me in marina.


Bill Miller aka Poorsche

Mr. Cig....they are located up in Hudson WI...kinda across the river from the Twin Cities.

Kurt, there is a good little restaurant "Dick's Bar & Grille" in dowtown Hudson that has some very good burgers...and cold beer.

And as Troutly said, if the ice is off the river, you should be able to walk down to the water and nose around if you are looking to kill some time.

I dont follow either they stand up well or not...

Those are Innovation 572/720's. You can call Innovation at (941) 756-4337. Rick LaMore or Dave Stiff will be the guys.

Or try here:
http://www.totalcontrolproducts.com/valvecovers.html

Direct TRS conversion? I am interested... and impressed!

Poorsche, you have been given some bad info. Until now these drives have been only available to governments, Navy SEAL and police boats. They have proven to be extremely reliable under some very adverse conditions. Many have 1500 hrs or so without failure of any kind. I'd guess the Miami shops you spoke to would like to keep selling you the Merc stuff over and over.

Hi-Tech, yes they will be offered as a direct bolt-on to a TRS transom assembly. From what I am told the only part that needs to be swapped out is the transom assy drive bellhousing. The reason for this is the Konrad drive has a much larger u-joint and also uses a bravo style drive lube coupler.

I'm very excited about this trip. I hope to be testing my boat sometime next week.

Kurt :cool:

The guy at WPM racing was rigging a deck boat with Konrads over a year ago (F and Perfom. Boat Mag. covered this). I saw this in his shop.

Unfortunately, the owner crashed the boat and trailer on the way to the lake. He had BIG HP in front of the drive. You might want to check with WPM to see if they ever fixed the boat and hit the water.

This is the only HP application that I know of for Konrad. However, they are very anxious to get their drives on some HP boats!

No one should be surprised that someone's competition gave out bad information... they are trying to sell their stuff and will go out of their way to discourage anyone who is shopping for new ideas. Not my way to sell, but...

TRS Replacement with Konrad 520
 

FYI--my TRS drives got eaten up from electrolysis created by home-made houseboat next to me in marina.

I've been researching this with Rich and others at Konrad and truley seems like it is a "plug and play" replacement. They said it may be wise to buy thier beefed-up gimbal ring which will directly go into the mercruiser/TRS gimbal housing.

I'll be gald to share some of the emails I've gotten if anyone is interested.

We need to negotiate an OSO group discount of retail price of $8k per drive.

poorsche

please share all you can Poorshe!! I need a set with the boxes and trannies!!

1997 Konrad introduced the 520 for the diesel stern drive market of 180-370hp range. Four years later (2001) Konrad introduced the 540 in two versions, one for high performance work and the other for recreational use. I cannot state how many 540's are out there but after 3 yrs, I suspect several at the least. They seem to have a better mousetrap and thanks to BIG we all will get some reliable feedback and not that of a backyard Miami u-fix-it shop.

How do the Konrads compare to the B-Max drives? If anyone has info on both as a comparison it would be helpful.
I currently have Bravo1's on my Powerplay and in the future I know I will want to beef up the HP500's with some more power, so I will need to upgrade the drives without going to # 3's+ and having to add trannys.

Dont forget having to shift the motors forward to allow for trannys.

Hey Matt
What's up dude, long time no see! I do have room in the engine compartment to move the engines, I just don't want to spend the money to do all that.

G-
You taking the new toy to Havasu for the HW Poker Run?

Probably, I am picking it up in Havasu next weekend, so I might just keep it there is storage for the run. I wanted to get used to it first before being around all those other boats.

I believe Dean Clauson (sp?) at B-Max started out working for Konrad and then moved to FL to start his own business.

Kurt,

Please be sure to post some comparisons once you get the drive testing done. I spoke with Ken at Konrad Marine and they are excited to test your current set up and the set up after the Konrad drives are installed.

If everything goes well, I will be seriously looking at a set for replacing my current TRS confirguration.

Had a customer in our shop with an Eliminator looking to swap from the TRS Drives. I told him about these - This is definately better than re-glassing the transom.

Interested in your findings here.