hayabusa200

RedDog, I left ya my number on your cell.

Iggy

We all know that the TRS drives are hard to get parts for but a person could swap them out for Konrads. Then you'd have bullet proof setup. I know trasmissions go out but how often does that happen as opposed to blowing a Bravo drive? I've been on OSO for quite a while and read more stories about Bravo's blowing than tannies.
If it was me I might lean the other way towards the TRS equipt.

Just my .02

Croozin2

True enough, Iggy, but how many Bravo problems that we hear about are legitimate Bravo problems or operator error/HP overload? There are so many Bravos out there now that you're bound to hear about the failures. Mercury goes above and beyond in stating the mechanical limits of the Bravo cone clutch yet people continue to add Whipples, Pro-Chargers etc and then complain about the drive's reliability. I'm in no way saying that all TRS/Tranny combos are junk - far from it. Personally, I would just rather have one less link in the chain to fail if at all possible. Oh, BTW, have you priced a Konrad drive? I know they are great units but they're pricy little devils, aren't they?

jaybird

They are almost the same price as an XR after discount (~$8k), but a far superior drive. Basically the next step up would be a #6 drive which costs about 4 times as much.

I would love to put a set of Konrads on my 311 someday w/ BAM upgraded transmissions. You most likely could never destroy that combo. I just don't know if it would add enough to the resale value to warrant doing it. My setup runs fine as is, so probably not. But the guys who have the Konrads beat the living bag out of them (hole shots, poker runs, circuit racing), so it would be a lot of fun just to hammer down whenever w/ no worries.

CMG

16K is probably amost 50% of the value of most of our late 80's 311s though.

Croozin2

My point exactly. You've spent $16K on a pair of drives but they still don't work - need trannys. Now, if you already have TRS/trannys I agree, the Konrad would be a logical step. For the power and speed that I run I'll never need anything more than a Bravo with a shower and some good Royal Purple inside. This is kind of like the perpetual Crane/MSD argument - people like what they've had prior success with. 6 of one and half-dozen of another

mcollinstn

Bravo boats have the motors moved back which gives you plenty of room to climb in the bilge and work on em. That's a plus.

saulesses

I just Sold my 311 SR-1 had TRS Drives i actually thought they were amazing drives zero problems, the main thing is the Transmission, Make SUre you have the Borg Setup which is the best, also add some Oil Pressure gauges to your transmissions this will really help you see if you are entering into trouble. I had in my boat twin 540 HP Engines from Bullet and it Ran 74 MPH with Mirage Plus 23 Pitch Props, TRS will take the hp amazingly. VERY STRONG DRIVE

alj

Of course they made the 311 with Kamma surface drives. And don't give that garbage about having to go a couple hundred miles to find one. I drove 2700 miles to Lake Havasu for the right boat. Oops - I guess I'll have to pay up my membership to post my pics

go chiefs

just read entire thread, seems to me if you can take resale out of the equation it just comes down to preference. or am i just telling myself that because we are looking at 4 different boats right now, two 311's, one with trs/420's 260hrs 1989, one with bravo's 454 mags/365 375 hrs 1988. the other two are cigarettes one with trs/420's and one with # 3/hawk 540's , and don't want to amit that somethings eventually become obsolete, old, and expensive compared to the newer stuff