I agree with you GAZ!

Good luck in your research. I hope you find the perfect setup for your boat.

I currently run IMCO SC drives with every upgrade on them to make them stronger. I baby the sticks every time I move them forward or back. ZERO jumping, easy out of the hole. Amsoil fluid every 15 hours. Still EAT junk XR gears every 30-50 hours!

I would still say it's how you drive the boat .
i have had xr drive's on a 38 sonic with 525's and they lasted over 150 hour's until I sold the boat and also a single xr on a 600 cubic inch 750 hp motor on a 28 pantera with over 80 until I sold the boat , both boat's where ocean running jumping wave's , but I would never do hole shot's and I was good on the stick's when coming out of the water , I even had x drive's on a twin 496ho outlaw and they lasted until I sold that boat .
again it's on how you drive the boat .
these guy's with the SCX drive'a that are putting some hour's on them see if there doing hole shot's from a dead stop ?
I just never had a problem with xr's so I never looked into anything else .
good luck with your search
mike

But the key is mine is still going, no issues oil looks fine never stranded. Teardown this season will tell the tale. So....7K drive/100 AND STILL RUNNING = happiness.

I still believe you have other issues, no way less than 500 HP should be breaking drives like you are. Whatever direction you go I hope it gets you more trouble free boating!!

I personally don't think how you drive the boat really matters on gear issures. If you are snapping shafts and other parts then yes. But these newer XR gears are not made as good as the older ones. They pit and the outer coating comes off untill the tooth finally snaps, all in the meanwhile those metal shavings are going through the drive. Mr Gadgets and John Bravo Shop etc will agree to that. So maybe your boats had the older gears in them.

SCX hole shots happen all the time. Blue Moon's 36 Apache with SCX drives and 850-950hp Vortech 540 efis. He has something like 800 HOURS on his SCX drives. He runs his boat super hard. Thats what its made for.

How much fun would it be to have a Viper and granny shift, baby the pedal. NO, you want to floor it and powershift!

The technology is there for us to drive our boats like we stole them. But Mercury makes to much money on parts to allow that.

yes , all my drive's where the older style xr's . so i guess that's the ticket

I agree that its a crap shoot on what XR gears you get. I had over 100 hours (maybe even 150) on a TCM drive behind 800+ hp when I had it rebuilt. There was some minor pitting in the forward gear, but the rest of the gears looked good so we reused them and only replaced the forward gear because we may have gotten new gears that were worse than what was in there.

I believe Mr. Gadgets, amongst others, have had success cryo treating the gears. If your drive is eating XR gears, I would cryo the new set before I put them in. Just make sure you have someone cryo it properly, don't just drop it in liquid nitrogen.
-Tom

How much fun would it be to have a Viper and granny shift, baby the pedal. NO, you want to floor it and powershift!

The technology is there for us to drive our boats like we stole them. But Mercury makes to much money on parts to allow that.[/QUOTE]

This is exactly why there will not be a bravo in my boat. I did not buy this kind of boat to baby it.

And so long as people keep putting up with CRAP Mercury gears and keep buying them and blowing them up or chipping them off or the coating wearing Ect,Ect. Mercury will keep making them and selling them for 1500 bucks a set!