OffshoreOnly

One for each motor and one for the electric cabin door

bryanspeedracer

Holy crap!

I've fallen in love again

LEOPAJM

Suncoast , how did you arrive at these reasons for "90%" ?
Here's some homework for you ... Do a search here on OSO and come back to us with the number of times someone is looking for a "better Bravo" because they're "eating" them up. And there's even more threads from the guys that found a "better Bravo" and are now having issues with those. Seems that for everyone of you guys having good luck with your drives , there are many who are not. If that wasn't the case , then we wouldn't be hearing all this talk about Arnesons and other's being retrofitted on to otherwise "stock" boats.

105mph_38_2003

What are the specs of the new 39'? Is it CF, epoxy, or kevlar?

All the new 39's are schweet

ONESICKGLADIATOR

Wicked Won



I run a 36 Gladiator with 825 horse power. Total cost new a little over $300,000.00. My boat runs 113 mph. The fastest Gladiator to date. My boat was torture tested by Phil, Hot Boat magazine, and Cigarette. My boat now has 75 hours and is still running strong. All in the Atlantic Ocean and the long island sound, not a fresh water lake. To date I broke a universal at 45 hours. I sent my boat back to Phil. He took both drives all apart and inspected them. Matt at TNT said they look perfect and reassembled them. My total maintenance for 75 hours, of 113 mph boating, since March of 04, was $6,500.00. This was for rebuilding both drives, repairing damaged gimbal and replacing universal, labor included. My only other expense has been oil changes and spark plugs.



You run big Sterling Blower motors with #6’s. How much is your rig total cost new? How much horse power are your engines? How fast is your boat? How many hours do have on your engines and drives? How much do you spend maintaining your set up in 75 hours?



My point is, I don't think 700 horse power on a new Bravo XR is to much. I think it is a practical way to make a vee bottom boat run over 100 mph. A lot less expense than 2 or 3 giant blower motors and #5 or #6 drives in a big vee bottom.



Phil told me he never got 60 or 70 hours on his #6 drives with 1000 horse power. So I feel like I'm doing good, especially when he told me a broken #6 rebuild was about $8,000.00 each. Then he told me his Hering props were $20,000.00 a pair. Phil also tells me Mercury only rates #6 drives for 1075 horse power. I know a lot of people pushing more horse power than that, thru them. Just like a lot of people run more than 575 horse power on the Bravos. To me the difference is a lot less money for the same result. A BIG VEE BOTTOM RUNNING OVER 100 MPH.

Rick OSG

WickedWon

Whew ! Before this goes any further let me just say that Cigarettes are the fastest, best built, best looking boats with the best resale and the only thing better than a regular Cigarette is one purchased from Phil !

No one on this board has *****ed more about big blower motors than me (you would know that if you actually read the board instead of only checking in when notified by the Cig. police ) Besides how does my boat figure in to this equation ?

I ***** about Blowers and Bravo's hoping to actually initiate some change from Mercury as we are all pretty much at their mercy. The new 1075's are an example of them listening to their customers and building something that raises the bar ( and gets customers back from their competition). They have no real competition when it comes to drives and if you guys live in denial of the Bravo's shortcomings nothings gonna change. The ZUL package is as good as it gets and I HAVE SAID THAT TIME AND TIME AGAIN especially in the Gladiators as they are much smaller, lighter boats, but this thread is about a full sized 39' footer, and in my opinion ( and I'm allowed to have one as long as a Republican is in office) the drive is the weak link. The cost to replace them is not the larger of the issues, it's what it does to the small ( for most of us) window of opportunity that we have to use these damn things, and that uncertain feeling many of the people on this board have about really running their boat hard after experiencing a failure, takes alot of the fun out of really "using" the boat.

The bottom line is that their needs desperately to be something between a Bravo and a Six and the more noise Merc hears the more likely they are to do something about it.

Just to clear up a few facts ( not that facts matter ) Their are only two big blower motor Saber's and neither have ever been for sale, the wave conditions on Lake Erie (the fresh water lakes) are much harder on drives than the Ocean.

BTW Why are you guys so threatened by my boat ? It's ok, I kinda take it as a compliment that such a nothing rig gets so much attention from people with really "cool" boats

Thanks,

Jim Deitz

Tonto

It's the black dash, it just scares the sh!t out of me

Nauti Kitty

That is because I already broke them and you got new ones.

RHC apparently you never read about any broken bravo's on this board, huh? It's no reflection on you or your boat, or anyone elses that bravo's suck. I think everyone on this board wishes that Merc could make a bulletproof drive with the same effeciencies as a bravo for the same price. My guess is you will be on a lonely island all by yourself bragging about the quality of a bravo. NK

Nauti Kitty

Geez I should have finished reading the thread before saying anything about offshore boats and their bulletproof bravo's. Sorry RHC It looks like you will have a big group with you.

My .02 cents worth if I can?

Rick Nice ride you have.
I have 1000hp on #6's and a 13,000lb boat going 100 and I have over three hundred hours of hard running on them. Last check they are in great shape. Matt charges 6,000 for rebuild. A new xr is 7,000 You might want to spend a little more time on one of our "fresh water lakes" before you insinuate that they are easy on drives. That is what I think you meant. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

Tom
I have been on a lot of runs with you and your boats in florida and they have all been very fast and nice. Poker runs in florida however are not hard on your drives. In the time you have broken only three drives I've broken none. I don't think ww is trying to convince anyone that big power and drives is an economical way to go fast. It isn't! Where were you the three times your drives broke? I hope not out in big water in the Atlantic. Don't we all wish for continued improvement on the go fast, cheaply, idea?

Gladiator
I have owned many bravo boats, several step hulled boats and numerous cigarettes. Just reciting my resume in defense of these observations of mine. You now have 53 hours on your bravos and the cost of one rebuild under your belt.

Suncoast1
good luck defending your comments. NK

GLH

Yup.

Now Jim, blaahh blaahh blaahh... bravos... blowers... six's... run'em and fix'em and all...

Would you just post pics of Mary so we can all agree on something!