Best Outboard Manufacturer

[Mollers]

Originally Posted by Maximus

You obviously don't know Pikey very well!

That's perhaps why I read and digest what he's saying.

[Maximus]

Originally Posted by Mollers

That's perhaps why I read and digest what he's saying.

You reckon
Whatever it is you got....you got it Bad Pal!
Action always speaks louder the words

[Pikey Dave]

Hang on girls, I never mentioned size ( not in this thread anyway&#128526 'twas Xk59D that mentioned big yams.


.....sh1t happens.......

[Mollers]

Defo a Seagull Silver Century.

[Last Tango]

The trend, you will notice, is that there are bigger differences between one model and year than there is between brands. They all buy compenents from one another.....eg my Honda BF130 has a Mercury gearbox.... I believe some of the 2T Yam V6s had Mercury power heads. The small Mercurys are built by Tohatsu (Nissan ?) I believe the newer Johnson 4 strokes have Suzuki engines under the hood. Old OMC two strokes were bomb proof but you wouldn't want a 2000 one.

Don't touch "Volvo Penta" outboards, you can't get basic service parts for them. (Their inboards are excelent). Don't touch "Chrysler" (Force).

In essence the best thing to do is look for a bargain then do some research into the model and year to look for issues.
Don't go down the route of brand loyalty they all have skeletons in the cupboard.

[jonp]

In this part of the world like the US we have a huge boating community and the weather to boat all year round. We also need to register most types of boat and own a licence to drive a boat capable of doing more than 10 knots.

With that in mind the state I live in has around 250000 registered boats and the state of Queensland slightly higher (there are 6 states).

Without any doubt you can soon see that the majority of outboards on boats especially commercial are Yamaha and Suzuki.

When etec's first came out they were used on many of the government body boats (maritime, water police etc). These departments soon went back to the Yam and Suzuki outboards.

While etec sales are still quite strong over here they are nowhere near the other two. A mechanic friend from a house boat business in Sydney was telling me how they can clock up 3000 hrs per year on an outboard (two per boat). He also stated they used to use Honda but the initial cost was higher than the other big two. They replace their engines at around 3 yrs or 9000 hrs and still get reasonable money second hand for them.

I recently bought a Suzuki 90 (latest model) and while I had very good economy and no problems at all in the 300 hrs (12 months use) I still proffered Yamaha. I recently sold that boat and now have another Yam 70 4 stroke (second boat with this little 4 stroke).

Personally I think any outboard these days needs to be pretty good to stay in the market but theres a huge difference in the amount of hours some are able to do.

JonD

Aside from the commercial boat users on here how many hours per year do most people put on their engines ?

Ive clocked around 80 in the last 3 months (winter) but this will obviously creep up now we are heading into better weather.

Jon

[Nightfisher]

Yamaha 4-40
Merc, Yamaha 9.9, 15 and 40+


And yes you get what you pay for.

[Bigtalljv]

If you look you can find horror stories and engine with 5000 hours on them from all brands. Everybody is making a quality product but all manufactured items will have the bell curve of quality or whatever you want to call it, bad apples and amazing apples. That's why the determining factor seems to be service. Proper maintenance is key. If you don't have a service location you like you will create problems.

Jason

[matt h]

Originally Posted by Pikey Dave

I keep asking meself the same question I was offered a deal I couldn't refuse

Ha ha rubbish PD.. Not when you totally speck up your new dinghy with all bling possible and spend ££££££££s on a new trailer! Nowt to do with price old boy and RC refuse to fit them!!
Ribs become less saleable with these units on as some people are finding out!!��
In terms of the Best out board Manufacturer as the OP has asked, there probably isn't one.
It would however be interesting to see the Outboard registrations p/a from the manufacturers as I would imagine the most units sold would filter down to be the closest to the answer you are looking for

[Poly]

Originally Posted by matt h

It would however be interesting to see the Outboard registrations p/a from the manufacturers as I would imagine the most units sold would filter down to be the closest to the answer you are looking for

Does volume equal best? Would you make that assumption if it was cars (I don't know what most popular car make is - but it would suggest that best is different in different countries, and affordability (which the OP said to ignore) must be a factor). surely Best (if such a thing exists) would be an aspirational rather than budget brand?

We should probably just have closed the thread when TSM gave the only helpful response that is possible. Everything else will be brand loyalty / based on their own personal experience of a handful of engines / trying to talk up the resale value of their rig / trolling etc...

[Mollers]

Originally Posted by Poly

Everything else will be brand loyalty / based on their own personal experience of a handful of engines / trying to talk up the resale value of their rig / trolling etc...

Tedious innit?

[Pikey Dave]

Originally Posted by matt h

Ha ha rubbish PD.In what way is it "rubbish"?*. Not when you totally speck up your new dinghy with all bling possible (I actually bought a very basic un-rigged boat from RC, check your "source")and spend ££££££££s on a new trailer!(maybe I fell for the marketing) Nowt to do with price (How do you know, were you hiding in the waste bin when we did the deal?)old boy and RC refuse to fit them!!(who said they'd be fitting it)

* FYI; not that I actually have to explain anything, but to save further confusion:-
For performance & ease of maintenance, I genuinely think that the Etec beats anything I've tried OBM wise.
There's nothing wrong with the Suzuki per se. It moves the boat, it just doesn't move me
It's quiet at tickover, but so are the Etecs. At cruising speed with the wind in your ears there's no difference.
The Suzuki is like a wet lettuce compared to the etecs when it comes to "grunt", there simply isn't any.
The Suzuki does bang on 1l/nm, which I would expect from any balanced combo in that size range, so no fireworks there. Hadds RC545 with the 130Etec used around 8l less fuel than I did on the GRR, same hull, same trip, different engine, he had 1 extra person on board, go figure.
The Suzuki has got 40 hours on it, & already it's had a return 500mile/2 day round trip to Yeovil for a £120 quid service, the Etecs wouldn't have had that.

So speaking as a bloke who has actually owned & used these engines, & not someone gullible enough to get sucked into the whole "Fanboy" thing, I think I'm reasonably well placed to pass comment, so why was I talking rubbish?

All IMHO of course

[matt h]

Originally Posted by Poly

Does volume equal best? Would you make that assumption if it was cars (I don't know what most popular car make is - but it would suggest that best is different in different countries, and affordability (which the OP said to ignore) must be a factor). surely Best (if such a thing exists) would be an aspirational rather than budget brand?

We should probably just have closed the thread when TSM gave the only helpful response that is possible. Everything else will be brand loyalty / based on their own personal experience of a handful of engines / trying to talk up the resale value of their rig / trolling etc...

No idea poly. Thats what this discussion is about! As i said if you read what i posted.. I dont think there is a Best Outboard.. As such but sales in this leisure product would dictate which outbours brand is preffered! I personally would say that Merc Mariner sell the most.
And for Poly... I dont own one either !!

[whisper]

Originally Posted by MikeSmith1

Who makes the best outboards these days? If you were to buy a brand new outboard which make would you choose assuming price is not a problem. The main criteria in my opinion are:

1. Reliability
2. Fuel efficiency
3. Performance
4. Ease to maintain

I was told that Mercury make an outboard that is simple and easy to service, apparently it was designed with the DIY customer in mind? I'm not sure how true that is though? https://www.mercurymarine.com/en/us/...rd/fourstroke/

[jambo]

Alex I just bought one in April. 150hp and yes it is built and designed with the owner in mind with a lot of the service elements made simpler. Must confess I'm greatly impressed so far.


Sent from my iPhone using RIB Net

[MikeSmith1]

Originally Posted by Xk59D

This isn't as simple as it might appear.

Big yams have flywheel and exhaust corrosion issues.

Zuke 140 has a plug on the block that corrodes and needs a good welder to fix it.

Mercs, etec and Honda all have issues depending on the size in question, you would be better asking what is best outboard in X size. Once you rule out people voting for their own you may have some usable info.

Hi Xk59D,

I have a Suzuki DF175 myself, is there anything like the above that I should look out for on it?

[Pikey Dave]

Originally Posted by MikeSmith1

Hi Xk59D,

I have a Suzuki DF175 myself, is there anything like the above that I should look out for on it?

Iirc it only affects pre 2006 engines


.....sh1t happens.......

[Xk59D]

I only looked at a few engines when i was buying a brand new boat and I know what faults mine was likely to have.

With that said, I have never read anything good or bad about the 175, it is a weird size engine so probably struggle to find a lot of info.

I know my zuke 200 (and 225, 250 and 300, maybe the 175???) can seize the driveshaft into the power head due to corrosion, it means every year I drop the gearbox and grease the splines to prevent it.

There is also a problem with the inlet valves in the intake manifold lose the screws and they can end up in the cylinders, it is easy to check and fix so I also do that every season.

If you read on The hull truth forum you will find a lot of engines well into the thousands of hours. Running is not the problem for modern engines, chances are you won't wear it out, it is more likely corrosion will kill it or lack of use in the UK.

The USA are heavy into yams so they struggle to sell boats with different engines or at least the resale value takes a dump. This is largely due to the fact yam bought a lot of transoms years ago so monkey see monkey do etc.

In last couple of years suzuki is taking a hold there and starting to have owners of yams repowering to zuke.

There are a few reasons for this, the 350 is a lemon and requires a new flywheel every 80 hours or something. It is so bad yamaha will change them free of charge for the life of the engine no matter if warranty applies. They also had a few years where the 200-250 had serious exhaust corrosion issues and wrote the engines off pretty much.

No matter the engine you have you will probably find something bad about it, most times it can be kept at bay through additional checks at service time.

Personally I would put pretty much any engine on my boat except a 2 stroke of any kind due to Loch lomond rumours. Other than that I would go with what a good dealer is near you and the best deal you can get at the time.

Sorry if that is out of whack, typed on my dog.