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View Full Version : Which outboard for reasonable fuel economy



gadgetqld
08-09-2005, 03:12 PM
Gidday all, have a friend who has an old Swiftcraft cuddy cab, about 21 foot with an old 175 Mercury on the back. He is currently in the process of buying a new motor and is leaning toward the 175 Mercury Optimax. He has been around to all dealers asking for ther opinions but seems to be receiving bias feedback which makes it dificult to choose. I thought I'd place an entry into this chat room and hopefully receive some valuable feedback so as my friend can make a confident choice. Any kind of recommendation would be greatly appreciated.

Thankyou, Gadget

Spaniard_King
08-09-2005, 03:42 PM
Gadget,

If he wants to save $$ look at the ETEC, prety impressive engine!!

Make sure he takes into account service costs ::) ETEC's do not need to be serviced for 3 years, thats a hell of a saving.

Most of the engines on the market are reasonable products these days, they all have good points.

I would be doing my home work on servicing costs add them to the purchase price then the picture may be clearer.

When you are getting quotes don't forget to mention what the other brands are quoting ;)

Garry

PS I got a Honda but I service mine myself 8-)

revs57
09-09-2005, 07:54 AM
Hey Gadget,

I was talking to a commercial charter operator the other day about his 2 stroke 175 hpdi (high pressure direct injected) Yam (this is Yams Opti equivalent). He had run up 900 trouble free hours in 2 years on a 6mt platey. He reckons with five blokes and a fully loaded boat he was getting 13litres per hour @ 22-24knts. I thought that was pretty impressive. I then chatted to a pro crabber about his 175 Opti, he had run 1100 hrs up since last November trouble free. He raved about the fuel economy claiming it was half what his brother was running (200 efi Merc).

I checked out a thread on this chat board the other day where one of the guys had replaced 2 powerheads on his 175 opti in 120 hours and was understandably pretty cranky...I suppose there will always be a lemon, look for the post a few pages back...there were a few replys worth looking at too.

I talked to my mechy mate and he reckoned the Yam servicing and parts deal wasn't as developed as Merc, with many parts a 2week wait for shipment from Japan, where Merc has a pretty comprehensive support network...you'd need to check that out. Me, I found a very cheap 150 efi Merc very low hr (only 2) 2005 model for my new project so bought on the dollar at this stage alone, but will probably update with a 175 Suzuki 4 stroke in a couple of years time. They are Light, powerful, fuel efficient, quiet, good rep for reliability and even when they had those lean years out of the buisness a few years back apparently they still supported their product which I thought was pretty impressive.

Rhys

revs57
09-09-2005, 07:59 AM
Hey Gadget...I found and bumped the OPTI thread for you

Rhys 8-)

gadgetqld
09-09-2005, 12:48 PM
Thanks a lot fellas for your response, will pass it all on to my mate...much appreciated