To be honest with ya the drive train is about equal to a brute force under the same conditions. For example me and my buddy both put lifts and 29.5 laws on.I broke 2 axles so far and he broke 3. His was a 08 brute 750. He actually broke 2 of his axles with 26inch swamp lites. I broke one front axle (replaced with gorilla) with the 29.5s and one rear with the 29.5's. The rear axle was my fault. When i switched my gears out i did not use the proper rear diff housing and this led to a few problems including one rear axle. The 09 thundercats come with very strong gears in the transmission. There has been a few 08s break the bevel gear with huge lifts and 29.5 and larger tires. I never broke my bevel gears, but it is at the dealer getting them switched out to the 09 gears so i dont have to worry about it. The thundercat was like any other first year bike. Its always good to wait a year!