MR MAGOO
04-20-2004, 11:51 AM
Well guys, now there is an alternative to running the TRS drives. If you are not aware about the future of the TRS, Mercury is going to dicontinue all parts for the TRS by the end of the year. I have been a fan of the TRS for years but my current boat seems to eat them up qute regularly.
At the Miami boat show I had spoke with the guys in the Konrad Marine booth about their 540 HP drive. This is a direct bolt-on to the Merc TRS transom assembly. This drive is as close to unbreakable as you can get. You probably have not heard about the Konrad product as the majority of their business comes from the US Navy. The Navy SEAL boats have been running this drive for the past few years and its the only drive on the market that has been able to stand up the the abuse that a Navy SEAL can dish out!
After talking with the folks at Konrad, I decided to tow my 38 Top Gun Cigarette out to the Konrad facility, have a pair of these drives installed and be done with drive failure altogether.
The swap went very smooth and the test results were incredible. Usually when you go to bigger, heavier drives you will lose speed but the trade off is accepted to gain reliability. (the Konrad unit has much larger gears and bearings, lube capacity is 7 quarts instead of 3 qts)
After a day of rigorous testing on the St Croix river, we were very surprised to see close to 5 mph faster at top end and now I can run an agressive 4 blad prop without worry of overlaoding the drive.
For those of you who are running the TRS, I highly recommend checking out the Konrad drive unit. It is the best outdrive made in the world.
www.konradmarine.com
At the Miami boat show I had spoke with the guys in the Konrad Marine booth about their 540 HP drive. This is a direct bolt-on to the Merc TRS transom assembly. This drive is as close to unbreakable as you can get. You probably have not heard about the Konrad product as the majority of their business comes from the US Navy. The Navy SEAL boats have been running this drive for the past few years and its the only drive on the market that has been able to stand up the the abuse that a Navy SEAL can dish out!
After talking with the folks at Konrad, I decided to tow my 38 Top Gun Cigarette out to the Konrad facility, have a pair of these drives installed and be done with drive failure altogether.
The swap went very smooth and the test results were incredible. Usually when you go to bigger, heavier drives you will lose speed but the trade off is accepted to gain reliability. (the Konrad unit has much larger gears and bearings, lube capacity is 7 quarts instead of 3 qts)
After a day of rigorous testing on the St Croix river, we were very surprised to see close to 5 mph faster at top end and now I can run an agressive 4 blad prop without worry of overlaoding the drive.
For those of you who are running the TRS, I highly recommend checking out the Konrad drive unit. It is the best outdrive made in the world.
www.konradmarine.com