Which Motor ?

[thebigblue]

Hi after some advise, have been looking at a new boat and came accros Trophy Fishing Boats/Walkaround Fishing Boats 2002 which I liked the look of on www.boatsplus.com.au but this model has six different engine options. Any Suggestions would be appreciated and any reports on the hull.

Mercury® OptiMax (135 HP) - Std

Mercury® 4-Stroke Verado (135 HP) - Opt

Mercury® 4-Stroke Verado (150 HP) - Opt

Mercury® 4-Stroke Verado (175 HP) - Opt

Mercury® EFI (150 HP) - Opt

Mercury® OptiMax (150 HP) - Opt

Mercury® OptiMax (175 HP) - Opt

thinking of getting the 4-Stroke Verado (150 HP)

any advise would be appreciated Cheers

[a boat]

Hi Bigblue, welcome to Fishraider. You have a fair choice there and it really depends of what is more important to you.

If initial buying price is important than the EFI Mercs would be the way too go, but they would be the last on my list.

If you want quiet, than the Verado is hard to beat and the performance is more than adequate considering it is supercharged, but that is what I would be worried about down the track-the cost of repairing the engine and/or supercharger.

My persoanl preference if I had the choices you outlined would be the 150HP OPTI. Best performing, best on fuel and I am guessing they would be a fair bit cheaper to buy than the Verado.

I am a 2-Stroke fan as I am sure you would see by most of my posts, I just like the performance when compared to any 4-Stroke. taht said you would like both the Verado and OPTI I am sure and you shoudl run both and see which you like.

Just my 2 cents worth,

Huey.

[stingray]

Have you considered any other brands ? In that Horsepower category, Suzuki 4 strokes win hands down. The Suzuki 150hp/175hp lead the pack in power to weight and torque from the largest cc block. They have over 65% greater cc than the Marc Verado's and they weigh atleast 19kg's or 8% less. Despite all this they are much smaller in overall size than the overweight and oversized Merc's. In fact, I reckon Suzuki have the best 4 strokes in every outboard class over 100hp. Do you research and make sure you get totally independant research. Be careful of the clever marketing you read. There is a lot of unsabstantiated and biased opinion out there, particularly from 3 of the outbaord manufacturers. And no, I do not have anything to do with selling, retailing or marketing Suzuki outboards.

Edited December 10, 2007 by stingray

[vision21]

I noticed a magazine called 'Go Boating' today at Newsagents it had comparisons done on the top brands in 175hp bracket, could be just showing specs only. I dont think it was water testing.

Tony.

[martinc]

transom weight is everything to me. then that comes down to two strokes. This gets people offside - but anything more than 2 srtokes is a wank when it comes to boats, trailbikes and lawn mowers. It comes down to less moving internal parts.

Find a brand you are happy with, a model with at 5 at least years track record of good service, and the best power for weight in that class of outboard.

[Mcfusher]

i would go either 150/175hp optimax.

reliability and performance is great. wouldnt have to service it for a while.