TRS Vs. Volvo
 

Can someone shed a little light on this topic for me. I'm pretty familiar with the Trs drivers, however i know nothing about the Volvo drives that I've seen on some magnums. What are the advantages or disadvantages of both? Is one more durable/reliable than the other? How about performance ?
Thanks,

Cigret1,

I have mag w/twin volvo 280's, also have a lot of time belind a 22' 85 donzi with trs ( fathers boat) . Both are rock solid behind the power behind them , mag has 350 chris crafts and the donzi is a 454 440 hp stock motor. I like the trim with the trs but to be honest, the magnum is too much fun even without the trim, just have to set the pins for the conditions of the day. Volvo is definatly slower for the same HP, but my drives are 30 years old and still shift like silk...if I ever need to redo the drives I am 100% sure I will replace volvos current volvo drives, they are that good IMO.

Paul

The TRS is a more burly drive capable of handling big block power......also they have an external transmission (inside the boat). From what I hear parts can be hard to find these days.

The Volvo drives are very durable in lower horsepower applications but some have pushed the limits. Earlier Volvos don't have power trim.

The new Volvos are sweet.......if money were no object that's what I would use.

A company called Konrad has a burly drive that is a direct replacement for the TRS........I think it's pretty sweet.

Good info. I was unaware that the old volvos had no auto trim. I use my trim quite a bit, how does that work out when driving the boat with volvos? I would think it would take a lot of getting use to...
I have TRS's currently and have never had a problem, big and bulky thats for sure. From what I've read the Konrad drives are pretty sweet... They're also over 10K a piece.
Thanks for the info

Good info. I was unaware that the old volvos had no auto trim. I use my trim quite a bit, how does that work out when driving the boat with volvos? I would think it would take a lot of getting use to...
I have TRS's currently and have never had a problem, big and bulky thats for sure. From what I've read the Konrad drives are pretty sweet... They're also over 10K a piece.
Thanks for the info

The Trs drive is a tuff drive, but it dose have more stuff to go worng, [trans, trim,& more] and Hp limits. But parts still can be had, and if their is a market for replacment parts I shure someone will make them, or ebay ? Magnum's went about 5 mph faster with trs drives compared to the same powered Volvo Mags of the day. I love my trs drives and would never change them out for a Bravo, my 2 cent's. But the Volvo drive is a much simpler set up, no trans. Merc liked it so much they copied there cone clutch drive for the Bravo. If its trim you want, you can make you own with merc outboard trim parts. Over the last 35 years we did alot with Magnums with the Volvo drives, and if I had a Mag with them I would keep them. The red Mag in the pic here, we put twin big block chevy's and Volvo speedmaster drives, she ran for years with reasonable care.
The last owner of this Mag put her back to a single big block and raced her in A- class and had good luck with the Volvo's [that was pushing it]. But today if you wanted to go racing all bets are off, read the racing post here on OSO see what works !! But be ready to spend $$$$$$$$.

the big difference was the trs used a cleaver prop .we had our volvo prop shafts made to accept these props and gained about 4 mph

What was cool about the Detroit area in the 70's was that you could have anything custom made, [props and heavy duty gimbels cast Pete Smith-Wolverine], [custom patterns Wally Harper -Li'L Smidgen],-[gears, shafts, Ken Black, -Li'l Rhino] and many more could make any parts to make the Volvo drives last longer. But even with custom made cleaver props the volvo would run 3 to 4 mph slower than a Trs drive Magnums.

Volvo did make a drive with that trimmed, it was called a 270-T. I had them on my 1974 Cigarette 28 SS.

LS

Also on that pic of LI'L Rhino those Volvo's had the "E" type lowers, which were good for another 4+Mph over the standard Volvo lowers.