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View Full Version : What's a TRS drive???


Laszlo
06-15-2005, 10:21 AM
And why does everyone get excited over it? :lookaroun
EricG
06-15-2005, 10:37 AM
It was the Merc HEAVY DUTY drive prior to the Bravo coming out in the late 80's. It is not a shifting drive (like a volvo, alpha, or bravo), instead the motor in a TRS boat is set a few inches forward to make room for the super smooth shifting merc-trans or Velvet Drive transmission. Ironically, in the bigger boats, a lot of folks see them as a negative because they are older and parts are starting to become an issue. But in Classics, they are both rare, and far stronger than any of the other drives availible during their time period.

EG
EricG
06-15-2005, 10:41 AM
...before anyone corrects me that the Volvo's were just as strong, the TRS has trim which to most make it more desireable than all but the few 280T & 290T volvo's. But that's just my opinion.

-EG
no trim here... :biggrin:
Zudnic
06-15-2005, 10:00 PM
...before anyone corrects me that the Volvo's were just as strong, the TRS has trim which to most make it more desireable than all but the few 280T & 290T volvo's. But that's just my opinion.

-EG
no trim here... :biggrin:

Parts are one of my worries on the X-18 I'm looking at. If the drive needs rebuilding it's not going to be fun to find parts. Trim is the biggest plus for me.
Audiofn
06-16-2005, 08:51 PM
Parts are one of my worries on the X-18 I'm looking at. If the drive needs rebuilding it's not going to be fun to find parts. Trim is the biggest plus for me.

If you are truely worried about parts, pull the drive and have it rebuilt. Probably just needs almost nothing then you will have a drive that will last for ever on your Donzi. I do not ever worry about mine blowing up on these small boats. They do not start to blow up on the big boats tell much higher HP. You can also always put a Konrad drive on there and really kick some butt.

Jon
Rodger
06-17-2005, 08:47 AM
You are more likely to have a trans failure rather than a drive failure and even that is not likely with standard power. Parts are no problem for the BW trans and last I checked, the parts were still available for the Merctrans also. Automotive clutches can be used in the Merctrans since they are similar to a Ford trans.
TuxedoPk
06-17-2005, 09:45 AM
Roger is dead on the money. I've got a TRS on mine. And yup the Merc trans died two years ago and it was pretty easy to get rebuilt because of the automotive parts.
Cuda
06-17-2005, 10:12 AM
I've heard the BW trannies were much less prone to failure.
Rodger
06-17-2005, 12:21 PM
The BW trans is stronger, longer (pushes the engine farther forward), and heavier. I have the weaker MercTrans; but I'm running somewhere between 600 and 700 HP. I did have the clutches start to slip a few years ago, but a simple clutch and seal rebuild fixed that. That failure happened with over 1000 hours on the unit although not all of that time with the high HP.