Bad News

Handymans342

Long distance is a trip to key west or Cuba or Cayman. All easily done

Dream_Inn

This is always an interesting subject for me.  I've never had the showers on my drives and my lube has always stayed green.  I've also never had to add fluid or had any come out from overheating.  I've also never had the white flaky substance on my drives.  This is both, my current B-2 drives and my B-3 drives I had on my prior boat.  Now, before I get the comments, I did have drive issues recently.  Result of overheating?  Well, who knows for sure, but it was analyzed by insurance company, marine mechanic, and a Mercury rep....none said it was from overheating.  The merc rep commented it could be due to going into reverse at a higher rpm (like when slowing down, but I don't slow down quickly).  He said with my DTS, it can actually shift with rpms up to 1500.

I have to say, I have given thought to the drive showers, I certainly do not see any boats in my area with them. 

Have any of you had better luck with them not clogging?

Handymans342

They clog? Guess its possible. I will post a pic of mine when they are installed. 

Michael T

In our area, when we first had zebra muscles almost two decades ago, they wold grow in the drive shower tubes if a boat wasn't run for awhile and left in the water. One fix friends had was to pull a wire through the tubes with a piece of towel attached that was soaked in tobacco and Vaseline. that would greatly lengthen the time for them to re-attach. Of course not leaving the boat in the water without running it for a month would not help. We talked about this at length a few years ago. Guys who had the flexible SS hose drive shower tubes would just flex them by hand and the little buggers would just blow through when the boat got on plane. IMO t you don't need them if you are just cruising along at 3400/3500 RPM AND have a properly sized engine for your load BUT IMO if your engines are running 4400-4600 RPMs for long periods then you are really spinning your props and that's when the heat would build up in the drive towers. Once again, another reason to get the biggest engines and most robust drives within reason.

Handymans342

Cheap insurance

raybo3

Never ever seen them on any boat in my area. 

randy56

handy, I sent you a PM about a week ago. Did you get it?

Handymans342

I think so. Send again

randy56

 Boat shop called today, They were pull outdrive to do bellows job for me. Wanted me to come and take a look. obviously the PO had a universal go out on the outdrive,  at some time, and beat up and crack the inside of the transom assembly , so he JB welded inside of the bellow area, it was leaking water in bellows, So I have to replace Transom assembly, As i was looking inside and question alignment, the tech said he could not hardly get outdrive off. Because of poor alinement. Then he told, that the splines are wore out on Eng. coupler, which was easy to see, Two fold reason, bad alinement from not checking it and no grease. So Eng has to come out to replace the coupler. stress cracks in fiber glass on both sides of transom assembly, at the bottom area just above drain plug. And transom assembly is sunk in fiberglass 1/8 inch. Boat- Money evaporate's very fast.

Liberty44140

So Al, should all of us with Bravo 3's (gas or diesel) be wise to come off of plane every hour for a few min? That reccendation is a widespread bravo 3 recommendation? 

MarkB

Randy. Wow. That's a lot of bad luck at once. It can only get better from here man.

Handymans342

Randy, you should have had a few more beers so I could understand that lol
I am putting my drive showers on soon.  Will post a picture

randy56

Rum & coke

Liberty44140

Alswagg said:

I would unless you have a drive shower. Cheap insurance 

Will do, thx 

Robs_232

Get drive shower. It will cool the drive. I did and I don't have white chalk on my drive anymore. Sign of heat on outdrive.

raybo3

randy56 said:

Rum & coke

Capt'n Coke I hope......

Michael T

Yes ---- drive shower! There are so many options and they are so easy to install. I have used single arm units and ones that run up one side of the drive, aver and across the top of the drive "tower" and then down the other side of the drive - shaped like a "U". They keep the drive cool even at high rpms for long periods. There should be some lengthy and informative posts on this topic in the archives as we have been down this thread a number of times.

john.woolsey

yeah, sorry to hear.  Just put mine in the water after two years due to cancer and mine is leaking.  2005 Rinker 270.  Never had water in bilge, until now.  Shop did testing, the transom is leaking need to pull engine and stern.  little over $4k.

randy56

@john welcome to the forum, sorry about your leak, it was not leaking when you put it up? had a little water in mine last week but I think it was rain as it rained every day.

john.woolsey

Thanks Randy.  Everything was good don't know how the transom leaks now.  It did sit for the last two years in the backyard.  Southwest living, unless heat did it.

Handymans342

Maybe they can try to tighten the bolts if the transom bracket is not cracked?

raybo3

John welcome to the RBOC. That leak seems minor compared to cancer. Glad you are OK now and good luck fixing your leak.

Black_Diamond

I do have drive showers on, I ran for 3-4 hours non stop on a trip on Lk Mich. in July. One stop for fuel then another 3-4 hours. Stopping/slowing every hour would be a pain. 

Handymans342

At what speed BD?

Michael T

.....as I said in my post above in this thread ....there should be no need to stop a B lll if you have properly installed drive shower(s).

I have towed, pulled slalom skiiers and run at 40+mph for 6+ hours and my drive was cool to the touch.

Stop driving my boat after 3 hours+ to let it cool down? ...that's not acceptable (to me)!

Dream_Inn

MT, if you pulled slalom skiers, unless it was non-stop for 6 hours, then you did actually stop.  LOL!  Just sayin'...

Michael T

Okay DI, lets talk about the 400 hours I ran the boats with Bllls at 3500 rpm for 4 hours at a stretch with no over heating.

If a drive is overheating at (imo)rational rpm/mph that is not a normal problem. I never waited for that so I installed drive showers.

That said, on my EC 310 and EC 360 did not have rive showers and they were run at 3500 rpms a number of times for 3 hours and the drives were never hot. Barely warm, maybe - at the most.

Mind you I serviced them properly. Having to stop every hour to cool drives is imo - ridiculous.

From Alphas, to Bravos, to Bllls to Blll X drives I have never stopped ever hour to cool them - again - ridiculous.

Geez I didn't even stop to cool the OMC I once had!