I'm in the process of re-powering a 38 cig with 750s and have had some say the drives can handle the extra power and others say no way. Anyone have real world experience here?

We have a Sonic 386 which started life with "Bravo" type drives. They lasted 25 hours with 800's in front of them. We lost each drive about three miles south of the RT37 bridge going about 3000 rpms in 1-2 foot chop. We had Doller Offshore rerig with Konrads. No problems since. We have two seasons on them.

thats kinda what I guessed, however I have been told that 750s are about the limit for bravo ITS drives as long as you dont beat them up.

merc seems to think 600hp is the limit....i would say its a matter of time before they break.....why not just pony up for better drives and not worry about it.

*I was told the same thing from the builders of my "Bravo" type,go easy and don't hammer it out of the hole."We have 1000hp on boats with no problems-they were 25' cats. The first failure was the clutch shaft lost the splines-tore them off, and the second was the upper gear set tossed a tooth.

They think its ok to have to re-build a set of drives 2x per year but thats not for me. I'm tryin to find a set of 6s reasonable or Ill just trade the boat which Id rather not do. Just dont want to dump a ton into it and not get it back.

Putting #6's is not going to be cheap. When I put the Konrads on I went down that road. The Konrads are able to handle 800hp and my motors put out 800+ftlbs of torque also. The engines didn't have to be pushed forward because the transmissions are in the set back boxes. Call Mindi at Doller Offshore 1 800 376 1616. She will be able to anwers all your questions about the Konrad connversion if your interested.

I built a set of 598/780hp went into a 98 top gun running a set of bravo -2 sportmasters,drives are the weak link,he has used his boat 2 seasons no drive failures,only a matter of time,he takes it easy on them,50-60hrs so far.If you plan to keep boat i would recommend a set of konrads really work nice on deep v hulls with 800 or less hp,have set up 2 35 cafes,1 30 superboat no issues to date,this winter we are putting a set on 38 powerplay and 29fountain,at this point of time only real proven upgrade to bravo running 800hp,6 speedmasters are great but very expensive upgrade,most people will sellthere boat and buy a new one before they invest that much.If you run the bravos with that much power you have to run easy and plan on dealing with them,change oil every 15-20hrs and check magnets for excessive metal,also we recommend rebuilding after around 100-120hrs if they last that long.We can hook you up with a set of konrads and trade those bravos in while there are still good,give me a call if interested 410-956-5381 Dave

Dave
will call tomorrow to discuss this. Curious to see the cost difference between the two options.

heres some idea of bravo set up that live with 750+ h.p .