The Blackhawk is the worst drive ever built, why do you think they don't make it anymore? I had them on my p29 scarab and they were allway's breaking. I have never broken any other drive so I know it wasn't me. Do yourself a favor and call the people that build drive's for a living and ask them what they think.Plus I was told that they are not going to make the shafts for them anymore. I had Dean at the Bravo Shop look at it to see if he could do anything with it, pretty much told me to throw them away and put bravos on. When new they wouldn't put the on a carb motor because you have to turn the idle upto about 1600 to keep it from stalling.Props will be hard to find too.

Lapse... you are SOOOO wrong....

whatever do you own them

In 1996 Merc. had a race team called BlackHawk Racing, they used BlackHawk drive's. They Broke a drive every race. Entered 12 races dnf in all.

Owned one for 5 years, not a problem. Certainly not the best drive to load and unload because of the characteristics of the counter rotating surface piercing design, however; the Blackhawk is not the worst drive ever built by far! Boat designs and applications is what killed that drive.

Had a friend with a 22'Daytona 502 Black Hawk. It was an awesome package 91m.p.h. G.P.S , running 32 p., at 4900. Was a bit sluggish to get on plane. A little harsh going into gear. Very, very efficient.

With that said, it did have some handling quirks. When running on the sponsons only a crosswind puff would just move the boat a great deal. Not a little, a lot. It also did not want to turn at high speed. Almost had to drive it like a jet, apply power in the direction you want to go. It did spin out on a couple of occasions at a slow speed. My friend(Actually his wife!) got scared and sold it.
My opinion is that it was an awesome piece of machinery, the efficeincy was unbelievable. It needed external steering. Yes, Leach sent this one out without it. I believe that adding length to the skeg would make it handle better! The sound that the props and drive made were great. I wish he wouldn't have sold it.
Eric

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Lapse of Reason
[B]The Blackhawk is the worst drive ever built, why do you think they don't make it anymore? I had them on my p29 scarab and they were allway's breaking. I have never broken any other drive so I know it wasn't me.

Lapse,that drive was never designed to run on a big V hull period. I suspect you saw big air alot. The re entry is what kills bravo uppers. With twice the grab on re entry its not suprising that you broke them. The real reason behind the demise of the drive was cost and severe misapplication. If used on the right hulls,many more would have been sold.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Airpacker

Quote:

Originally posted by Lapse of Reason
... With twice the grab on re entry its not suprising that you broke them. The real reason behind the demise of the drive was cost and severe misapplication. If used on the right hulls,many more would have been sold.

When you run drives as surface-piercing, each time a blade hits (enters) the water, it sends a shock through the driveline. With two props, the situation gets so complicated, you can wind up with some very nasty harmonics. As I understand things, the BlackHawk was not bad with smallblocks, but didn't survive very well with bigblock/heavy boats.

It's a similar story with the Volvo DPX. As long as the builders put 'em where Volvo said (submerged), things went well, but when they started mounting them too high, the aforementioned problems showed up. Since Volvo (and Mercury) couldn't keep the builders under control, they each pulled the plug on those high-performance projects, although the DPX is still around....

Blackhawk does look wicked bad, though, doesn't it? Do you get a double roostertail?

I don't think a 29 foot 6500# boat is a big V, plus it ran 350 mags not a real high hp motor. I live on the potomac river and didn't see much air at all.Yes they looked real cool and the boat drove great. The big problem with them was twice the prop suface, counter rotating running on the surface,witch we all know is harder on the drive, and it only had the same strength shafts and gears as the bravo. Do you think it is ok to put 1200 hp in front of a XR drive that would only be twice what it is rated for. It was a cool idea and if they did it with a drive like the BMAX it would last. If you look at the size of the shafts in the DPX drive they are a lot bigger than the one's that merc. used, that is why they last and are still around, but I think they rob more hp than they are worth and the props cost to much and are to hard to get. AirPacker said he had a high Xdim and I would geuss a big block a cat is allready hard on drive's. When Merc. started with blackhawk the target boat was mid sized v's with factory power, Like the p29 scarab, it was good for about 5mph. Just do yourself a favor and call the people that build drive's and see what they say. I bought one of my spares from The Bravo shop for 3k brand new in the box, they had a retail of 20k, He said if he didn't get rid of it now he was afraid he would be stuck with it forever. What boats was it the only drive offerd on besides the p29 or the donzi? I never saw it on a cat.

Lapse...

For the record, I do own a BlackHawk drive, two to be exact. One resides on my 97 Donzi 22 Classic. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that drive when set up properly. One of the Donzi's on Lake Winni, an X-18 has a 350Mag MPi setup, 1:65 ratio turning worked 31P's (32P) and he runs 77.8mph all day long, never broken, still under Merc's factory warranty.

I put a 1.5R Blackhawk on My Donzi, 454Mag MPI (385HP) and I turn my 27P's all day long at 75.2 mph. My drive is set too deep (stock Bravo location). Once I get the drive up 2" or so, I expect to see one or two extra mph.

Structurally, there is no real difference between a Blackhawk & a Bravo. If you launch a stock Bravo and get the props into the air enough you WILL break the upper gear set... its just a matter of time. Same goes for a BlackHawk. This especially pronounced on heavier boats, like the Scarab P-29. You need to drive it like an offshore throttleman... on the gas... off the gas...

With the new XR upgrades available from Merc, I think one could build a pretty bulletproof BlackHawk... Before you start trashing drives, you really ought to do your research...

If your Blackhawks suck so bad, why not just replace them with Bravo's?


Woodsy