Friend of mine is looking at a Sutphen with a Volvo Penta drive and wants to know what would be involved in swapping it for an Alpha, transom cutout, etc. anyone have any experience...thanks: Matt

I'd stay with the Volvo, its stronger then a Alpha. Yea you would have to redo the transom then recut you hole for the alpha gimbal ring, not worth it to change to an alpha???!!!

I'll second that.

yep . . what they said, stick with the Volvo. what model drive does it have?

I got a Volvo drive on my Checkmate. My friend did the boat with a Volvo 502 with a Dp drive go figure. I wish it had a Bravo like every one else. I figure I will keep it until it blows up. But to tell the truth so far its working great. I did paint it black and removed the decals though. Looks much better.

Russ

Volvo drive is much better equipment......switching to an alpha would be making an even trade of a Mercedes to a Mercury.

Stick with the Volvo! My AQ250 (1970 Donzi) has 35 years of hard running and wave jumping and has never been rebuilt! These drives are bulletproof!

What they said.... Stick with the Volvo

No, you don't!

Volvo makes one tough drive! Fobes, what model volvo is it?

I've run 5 years/250 hours with 600 hp through DP-X drives in a 12,000 lb boat. Oil changes only. The Swedes are very good.

I wish I had volvos!!!!

Don't do the switch!!

What everybody else just said... PLUS: The smoothest shifting I/O in the business. Your friend will be the new docking champion of the world.

Glad to here I'm not alone. Now what do we do for performance props?

Russ

I've had both, and currently have a Volvo. One more vote to keep the Volvo drive.

I bought my boat with a volvo and just repowered the motor and drive with a volvo....not the norm here on OSO but I have heard very good things about volvo.

uhhh . . . actually maybe you shoud change 'em. . . .tell ya what . .. i'll trade ya my alphas for your Volvos

Vipers are decent, Turbo, and if you get a Flo-torque II hub for your drive you can run all the Merc hi-perf props.

And boy do they shift smooth!!!

even the old 280's didn't earn the nick name" rockcrusher" for nothing.

No boat I have the Dual prop drive.

Ahhhh, yeah that's a different story. But in stock applications those props HOOK UP! Only problem is when you start modifying/changing the motor/hp/rpm.

What boat do you have?

I have a 25 Checkmate Convincer. Pictures are posted in the Checkmate section on this site. The experts say the drive with slow a boat down. I have a stock 502 (415hp) and so far saw 73.1 on gps only turning 4600 rpm. I need to turn more rpms. But dont know if I can get my props reworked or get new ones. If I get the RPMS right and maybe build some more HP to gain some more speed I have another problem. External streeing? Does and one make a set up for the Volvos?

Russ