I enjoy OBs. Will I regret switching to sterndrives?

[Joolz]

Hmmm some very good points here, including some I hadn't considered. Trolling at low speeds with a 2 stroke motor isn't a good thing (then again that can be corrected by opening up for a bit). When my kids are driving the boat, it usually stays under 10km/h. Not something spark plugs in a 2 stroke outboard enjoy. My current boat as a super reliable and well built carbed Johnson 115 V4, from 1983. That thing is simple and it just plain works. I have no experience with modern, fuel injected 2 strokes. And frankly, I'm terrified of the possibility of the VRO failing on me. Of course, with a fuel injected motor you can't simply bypass the VRO and feed the motor straight premix. VRO fails and it'd be the end of my boating experience, likely for a few years till I could afford to fix the thing.

On the other hand there are some sweet deals around for mid to late1990s sterndrives to be found, including a 2002 in beautiful shape for under $5000 (or USD 4,500 if one wants to be technical about economics). Now I hear that replacing the bellows isn't as a common a preposition I had thought. Not sure what risers are but glad to hear these aren't as common to be replaced. One of my concerns is, if I have to pull the motor to work on it, the alignment isn't something I can handle. Can these 20+ year old I/O motors be trusted? I mean, it all depends on how their owners have maintained them but since parts are easy to find and cheap, it has me wondering if these are the dreaded beasts I feared. Last week I was to supposed to go look at a 94 Campion sterndrive with a tower. Then figured I'm sticking to OB. Now it has me once again wondering.

I hate to pull a D. Trump and do yet another about-face, but I wonder if with the amount of boating we do (out no more than half a dozen times a year) if a sterndrive may still be an option. Winterizing sure sounds like a pain. Especially since we could get a freeze in September and then have two months of warm weather after that. With the outboard I'd still get it out. But if I went through the trouble of winterizing a sterndrive I truly don't think I'd want to do it a second time.

The feedback here seems to suggest I'd be fine with either, despite the lesser space in a sterndrive and/or an OB with borrowed design from the I/O. Now I hear that maintenance costs for a sterndrive to not be that high.

So much to consider...

 

[Scott Danforth]

My first boat was an I/O (OMC Cobra/3.0 4 cylinder). That experience was enough to make me go outboard only from that point forward. Only way I'll ever have a sterndrive again is in something offshore, with big power, and me paying someone else to do the work. Gonna be a long time before I get there LOL.

unfortunately you may have picked the worst outdrive and nearly the worst motor as your first experience. the only I/O motors worse is the OMC 2.3 pinto motor or the Mercruiser Vaser.

 

[jkust]

Hmmm some very good points here, including some I hadn't considered. Trolling at low speeds with a 2 stroke motor isn't a good thing (then again that can be corrected by opening up for a bit). When my kids are driving the boat, it usually stays under 10km/h. Not something spark plugs in a 2 stroke outboard enjoy. My current boat as a super reliable and well built carbed Johnson 115 V4, from 1983. That thing is simple and it just plain works. I have no experience with modern, fuel injected 2 strokes. And frankly, I'm terrified of the possibility of the VRO failing on me. Of course, with a fuel injected motor you can't simply bypass the VRO and feed the motor straight premix. VRO fails and it'd be the end of my boating experience, likely for a few years till I could afford to fix the thing.

On the other hand there are some sweet deals around for mid to late1990s sterndrives to be found, including a 2002 in beautiful shape for under $5000 (or USD 4,500 if one wants to be technical about economics). Now I hear that replacing the bellows isn't as a common a preposition I had thought. Not sure what risers are but glad to hear these aren't as common to be replaced. One of my concerns is, if I have to pull the motor to work on it, the alignment isn't something I can handle. Can these 20+ year old I/O motors be trusted? I mean, it all depends on how their owners have maintained them but since parts are easy to find and cheap, it has me wondering if these are the dreaded beasts I feared. Last week I was to supposed to go look at a 94 Campion sterndrive with a tower. Then figured I'm sticking to OB. Now it has me once again wondering.

I hate to pull a D. Trump and do yet another about-face, but I wonder if with the amount of boating we do (out no more than half a dozen times a year) if a sterndrive may still be an option. Winterizing sure sounds like a pain. Especially since we could get a freeze in September and then have two months of warm weather after that. With the outboard I'd still get it out. But if I went through the trouble of winterizing a sterndrive I truly don't think I'd want to do it a second time.

The feedback here seems to suggest I'd be fine with either, despite the lesser space in a sterndrive and/or an OB with borrowed design from the I/O. Now I hear that maintenance costs for a sterndrive to not be that high.

So much to consider...

For us, once the temp dips below 70F, which is happening right now, that's the end of the line for us. Maybe we take one fall ride the day I pull the boat out but my boat is in no danger of needing to be rewinterized. I mentally move on from boating in the fall onto other things.

 

[JASinIL2006]

Hmmm some very good points here, including some I hadn't considered. Trolling at low speeds with a 2 stroke motor isn't a good thing (then again that can be corrected by opening up for a bit). When my kids are driving the boat, it usually stays under 10km/h. Not something spark plugs in a 2 stroke outboard enjoy. My current boat as a super reliable and well built carbed Johnson 115 V4, from 1983. That thing is simple and it just plain works. I have no experience with modern, fuel injected 2 strokes. And frankly, I'm terrified of the possibility of the VRO failing on me. Of course, with a fuel injected motor you can't simply bypass the VRO and feed the motor straight premix. VRO fails and it'd be the end of my boating experience, likely for a few years till I could afford to fix the thing.

On the other hand there are some sweet deals around for mid to late1990s sterndrives to be found, including a 2002 in beautiful shape for under $5000 (or USD 4,500 if one wants to be technical about economics). Now I hear that replacing the bellows isn't as a common a preposition I had thought. Not sure what risers are but glad to hear these aren't as common to be replaced. One of my concerns is, if I have to pull the motor to work on it, the alignment isn't something I can handle. Can these 20+ year old I/O motors be trusted? I mean, it all depends on how their owners have maintained them but since parts are easy to find and cheap, it has me wondering if these are the dreaded beasts I feared. Last week I was to supposed to go look at a 94 Campion sterndrive with a tower. Then figured I'm sticking to OB. Now it has me once again wondering.

I hate to pull a D. Trump and do yet another about-face, but I wonder if with the amount of boating we do (out no more than half a dozen times a year) if a sterndrive may still be an option. Winterizing sure sounds like a pain. Especially since we could get a freeze in September and then have two months of warm weather after that. With the outboard I'd still get it out. But if I went through the trouble of winterizing a sterndrive I truly don't think I'd want to do it a second time.

The feedback here seems to suggest I'd be fine with either, despite the lesser space in a sterndrive and/or an OB with borrowed design from the I/O. Now I hear that maintenance costs for a sterndrive to not be that high.

So much to consider...

Draining the block on an I/O really isn't that hard... if you have the blue plastic plugs, you just have four plugs to pull, plus the central water pump line and the power steering cooler. (You can install a plug on the P/S line, too; I will do that this year when I winterize.) Draining the block is literally the easiest part of my winterizing routine. It takes maybe five minutes.

Changing the engine oil, pulling the outdrive for winter storage (I put mine in the basement and change drive oil over the winter whenever I have time), and lubing the drive, coupler, and engine/steering linkages are what take time. Most of these activities get grouped into "winterization", but really, most of them are just maintenance items that can be done any time. It's probably better to get fresh oil in the engine before winter, but it's not absolutely essential.

 

[hvymtl939]

unfortunately you may have picked the worst outdrive and nearly the worst motor as your first experience. the only I/O motors worse is the OMC 2.3 pinto motor or the Mercruiser Vaser.

Won't disagree with you there at all! Had I known about this website then, my boating history story would be very different.

 

[dingbat]

Hmmm some very good points here, including some I hadn't considered. Trolling at low speeds with a 2 stroke motor isn't a good thing (then again that can be corrected by opening up for a bit). When my kids are driving the boat, it usually stays under 10km/h. Not something spark plugs in a 2 stroke outboard enjoy.

I read this on forums yet that's not my experience.
I literately have 1000's of hours of trolling time on a 200 Hp 2 stroke (8-10 hours a day) without missing a beat. Same goes with 1000's of hour on a VRO without a problem.

 

[aspeck]

... I wonder if with the amount of boating we do (out no more than half a dozen times a year) ...
So much to consider...

Okay, so if we are talking about getting out on the water only 6 times a year, till you pay for the boat, the maintenance and winterizing, the insurance ... is that really worth it? The lakes you are boating on, do they have rentals? Some marinas have some really nice rentals and the end result would be much cheaper ... $1,000 - $1500 a year for 6 rental days of boats verses the time and money spent on purchasing, maintaining, and insuring a personal boat. Just a different thought into the mix.

That said, I have grown up with boats literally ALL my life and I could not imagine NOT having a boat in the garage ...even if I don't have time to use it often right now ...

 

[Watermann]

To put winterizing an IO into perspective, knowing how lazy most of us have become... watch one one DVD movie and you've wasted enough time that it takes to winterize. Take your date out to a Mexican restaurant one night during an entire year and that's what it costs to do the maintenance. You'd have to be cheap and lazy to use that as an excuse not to have an IO.

 

[JimS123]

To put winterizing an IO into perspective, knowing how lazy most of us have become... watch one one DVD movie and you've wasted enough time that it takes to winterize. Take your date out to a Mexican restaurant one night during an entire year and that's what it costs to do the maintenance. You'd have to be cheap and lazy to use that as an excuse not to have an IO.

Maybe a bit simplistic. My I/O used to take me about 5 hours to winterize. That included running the motor in the driveway, followed by sucking out the oil, transferring the dirty oil to the original container, draining the water, fogging the engine, repacking the wheel bearings, etc. It also required my wife to turn on / turn off the hose to the muffs, etc.

The job usually ran between 4-5 hours. But of course, I'm very particular and never in a hurry.

The new Whaler outboard took all of 20 minutes, in the garage on a rainy day, no muss, no fuss. Of course it has sure lube axles so that was 5 minutes, not 2 hours. The oil change was minutes, no sucking needed. No water to drain.

My old I/O ran like a top and was quiet and smooth. We loved it. It was an awesome engine. My Merc 4-stroke is so quiet and smooth I can't tell if it's running unless I look at the tach. Fuel consumption is better as well.

The OB takes up less room in the cockpit.

To each his own.

 

[Joolz]

Is draining the water enough to keep the block from cracking? I hear that it's necessary to run a few gallons of -100C pure trailer antifreeze to ensure all the water is out. This part seems like a major pia, and costly too. Not to mention messy. Or is this overkill? If draining the water is all that's needed and fogging the engine it sounds like an hour or two job. How do most of you in really cold places like Alberta, Minnesota do your winterizing? Still hoping not to completely pass on the idea of owning an I/O but it'd be good to know what's ahead in order to make an informed decision.

 

[Scott Danforth]

Is draining the water enough to keep the block from cracking?

as per the manual. Yes - air doesnt freeze.

I hear that it's necessary to run a few gallons of -100C pure trailer antifreeze to ensure all the water is out.

not required, simply covered as a side-bar note in the manual that its optional to add anti-freeze. and to make sure if you do, you add it with a funnel at the thermostat housing and it must be -100 (because the -50 stuff freezes way too early and still busts your block)

 

[JimS123]

as per the manual. Yes - air doesnt freeze.



not required, simply covered as a side-bar note in the manual that its optional to add anti-freeze. and to make sure if you do, you add it with a funnel at the thermostat housing and it must be -100 (because the -50 stuff freezes way too early and still busts your block)

Not exactly correct. My manual said "for extra protection in a severely cold climate, add antifreeze". It didn't say what type.

What I always did was drain a few ounces from the stopcock on the block (it was an older model with no "blue" plugs) and store it in an old butter dish placed on the transom. If the weather got particularly cold I would check the dish to see if it froze. I always used the -50 stuff.

Now, was it necessary? I dunno. Did it cost alot? Maybe 8 bucks. Did it take alot of time? Maybe an extra 45 minutes. Was it piece of mind? Sure was.

I mean the 8 bucks was chump change, What would a new block cost? Maybe $50 bucks?

 

[NYBo]

Insurance? Not required where I am. Heck, I never even considered it. Is this a mandatory thing in the US? Not to hijack my own thread, but do other Canadians have insurance or see a need for it?

Not required in my state, but do yo want to risk losing your boat, house, etc. if you are found to be at fault for an accident? Even if you can absorb the loss of your boat, liability insurance will help protect your other assets.

 

[JASinIL2006]

Is draining the water enough to keep the block from cracking? I hear that it's necessary to run a few gallons of -100C pure trailer antifreeze to ensure all the water is out. This part seems like a major pia, and costly too. Not to mention messy. Or is this overkill? If draining the water is all that's needed and fogging the engine it sounds like an hour or two job. How do most of you in really cold places like Alberta, Minnesota do your winterizing? Still hoping not to completely pass on the idea of owning an I/O but it'd be good to know what's ahead in order to make an informed decision.

Not necessary at all. A waste of time and money, IMO. Just drain the engine, etc.

 

[Joolz]

In order to give this thread closure, here's an update. As to the question in the title whether I'd regret moving over to the dark side, I shall not know: this past weekend bought the ideal boat with a 120HP outboard :joyous:

But I must admit, I was fully open to looking at sterndrives after all the great responses I got from this thread. It eased my fears and I was prepared to jump in. But I landed just the ideal boat for us, some 4 hours drive away.

Key things were the weight of the package since my tow vehicle is small. The other key thing is interior space. This 1997 Starcraft 17' boat has plenty of seating and utilizes the space well. Unlike modern outboards that share (compromises) interior space with stern drive design and only offers you a bench at the aft, the older style boats prove far better in this regard.
I know, I know, you all want to see pics. Will start a new thread with pics as soon as the clean up is done. Removed all the seats in order to fully shampoo the carpets as the PO had a large dog and there's dog hair everywhere. My kids are allergic, so every strand of hair has to be removed. Doesn't help it's been raining and my time is limited. But what better way to know a boat than to clean every single square centimetre of it?

Will add a link by next week. Really glad this chapter is over, all I need now is some good weather in order to get it out to the lake before it freezes. Thank you all for participating in this thread.

 

[Watermann]

So did your camera run out of film? :lol:

Let's see your new SC purchase.

 

[Joolz]

So did your camera run out of film? :lol:

Let's see your new SC purchase.

Fine, you twisted my arm. Pics taken with my crappy phone on a crappier day, rain and freezing (on the way there nearly lost control on snow that had began to accumulate). Boat needs a good cleaning, so new pics once all is done ought to look way better. But here's a taste. Have to say, really like the fit and finish of the Starcraft. Pretty modern looking interior for a 97.

 

[Watermann]

Looks to have been well cared for, should be a good boat for many years to come.

 

[Maclin]

Looks good! May the Force stay with you

 

[Joolz]

Looks good! May the Force stay with you

I am no Yoda but I sure hope so. Hear mixed reviews on the Force but this one appears to run strong. Will fire it up in a couple of days when the rain ease off a bit and plan to do a compression test. It has been well cared for, as has the boat. Guess that's all one can hope for from a motor and boat that has been passed around a few times (looks like I'm the 4th owner). Got all the manuals for it, so that right there is a good sign that it has been owned by responsible people. It has always been stored, apparently. Condition of the interior seems to reinforce that.