Black Thunder is a nice Performance cruiser, but with all the bravo xr failures because mostly of the weight of the boat and jumping out of rough water. I see several every year with broken drives, thought they may move to the konrad or b-max, do they have any new products or designs in the works.

Tell me a manufacturer that does not have several with broken drives each year.

I can personally attest to numerous BT's that have 250-300 hours on them and have not lost a drive. It all comes down to the driver and how they care for their equipment.

We have been through this many times. If you want to know the answer call Black Thunder. They will tell you the same thing everyone else said in the past.

They are a custom boat builder and will put on whatever drive/engine combination the owner requests.

I had a friend that had a 43 and blew drives some. Then put xrs and didnt have as much problem. There is another guy i boat with he alos has a 43 and hasnt blown one all summer. I guess it all depends on how you drive.

BT did not want to use Konrads, as the boat already has a built-in extension box. By adding in the Konrad box and transmission, they were concerned over the leverage point of the boat. I was told the boat with #6s had issues with balance et al. This information is going back several years, so maybe things are different now. I know that some used B-Max and Imco with not much better results.

IMO they should work very hard to see if they can get a boat set up with the new Merc drive and 700s. This would be a nice package.

"I will never own a bravo boat again!!" Do you remember me saying that one?? $2000. a time gets old fast.

A 525, #6 boat is about 20K less expensive than a 700 NXT boat. I rerigged my SC430 with #5's several years ago.

You might want to check that.
US retail list 525 Dry-Sump Six $92,630 ea
700 NXT $84,780 ea

That was the #'s given to me by Dennis at BT.

Yea, but that was after I went through all that debris at almost 80.

Haven't blown a drive since I bought my 97 four yrs ago with 500 Hp's. We'll see how the XR's make out on my 07 46 EC this yr. I know alot of people that have blown them on BT's but if you don't work the trottles correctly it'll happen. Not if but when.