I enjoy OBs. Will I regret switching to sterndrives?

[Joolz]

I take it back: there is a second advantage to I/O over OB: less risk of your engine seizing due to reliance on VROs. My 115HP Johnson drinks straight premix from external containers, so no worries here. But I've heard cases of OB's VROs failing mechanically and as such, not setting off the alarm (which seems to only detect electrical failures). This does scare me. If I was to land an OB that's not fuel injected, I'd likely bypass the VRO and serve premixed gas. Or of course, a 4 stroke engine that drinks straight gas.

So there you have it, a second reason why I may still consider an I/O should I come across a great deal on one.

 

[MTboatguy]

In the right area, a couple of $20 gets the same result without the repair or maintenance costs of a boat....lol

I have a good friend that lives in S Florida, who has a really nice boat and a plastic trophy wife and she don't like tan lines and he posting picture of his trophy all the time, nothing dirty, but he likes to brag, that is all it is. He has twin 500 HP I/O so the engine cover is more than enough for her to sunbath on.

 

[89retta]

Oilers all the way. As for the I/O over OB I prefer my inboard. I find there is more usable space in it and on it. Since you have kids , I know my grandkids love jumping and diving off the sunpad. If you decide to go with a I/O try and find one with a swim deck. I find it to be one of the best features on our boat.

 

[poconojoe]

My I/O is my first power boat. I felt I was more familiar with the automotive type engine than an O/B. But the winterization, hard access to some components and all the areas for possible water intrusion make an O/B more desirable in my opinion.
I do love the clean look of an I/O. No big O/B sticking out the back and having a nice swim platform is a plus. Mine also has the bench seat in back. So instead of a dog house covering the engine, I have a big cushioned tanning bed.
I think my next boat will be an O/B. But that's my opinion...

 

[Maclin]

Joolz If you go I/O, look at the engine access closely. Do all the seat fronts/back/panels all remove easily. On my current boat I can get to the dipstick and oil filter from the hatch but nothing else. Seat back removal requires removing several screws, PITA.

 

[poconojoe]

Joolz If you go I/O, look at the engine access closely. Do all the seat fronts/back/panels all remove easily. On my current boat I can get to the dipstick and oil filter from the hatch but nothing else. Seat back removal requires removing several screws, PITA.

Agreed...access can be a big problem. I have the 4.3 V6 and I've had access problems and I have the big hatch/sun pad as verses a dog house. I can't imagine the access problems with a dog house. Maybe with a small engine it wouldn't be too bad. But with a V6, I don't think you'd have much room.

in one instance I had to change my broken (plastic) bulkhead transom fitting for the sterndrive remote oil reservoir. Somehow I was able to contort myself into the engine bay and blindly reach and replace it with only one hand. Couldn't get two arms/hands in there. Used my cell phone camera to see what it looked like before hand. So, yeah, access sucks.

 

[capecodtodd]

An interesting post and answers here. My first 2 boats had OB my last 2 have had I/O but the style of boat I'm looking at now 90% have a OB.
For me I had 2 stroke OB's and I got tired of mixing the oil and gas in my portable tanks. It was a treat to dump that ritual with the I/O. The maintenance and winterizing wasn't that bad on the OB's. The I/O I have now is a 98 Mercruiser 3.0 and in the 15 plus years i have owned it I have probably spent about $1000 on the engine. It has been very good to me.
Winterizing isn't that bad between fluids like lower unit and engine oil, I drain the system through 2 petcocks and pour anti freeze product into the block after fogging the engine through the carb and removing each of 4 plugs and squirting a bit into the cylinders.
I like the I/O's but I will probably be going with a OB on the next boat, a 4 stroke would be cool.

 

[JimS123]

The new boat we're looking at has a full width swim pad. Under the pad (where an I/O would have been) it's completely empty and I can't believe the amount of storage it has.

It also has a full width swim platform that you can walk on side to side, even though the motor takes up a little space in the middle. In essence it has 2 swim platforms, albeit narrow, but still quite usable. I actually think the big tower-of-power Merc Black Max looks kinda kool hanging out there way in back.

We had our old I/O for 35 years. The doghouse came completely off so there was 100% access to any part of the engine. That wasn't my gripe - it was all the extra maintenance and TIME it took do get it done.

If 2-strokes were the only option, I'd still be a I/O guy. But the new 4-stroke outboards are just so quiet and fuel efficient I just can't turn them down.

 

[Joolz]

Was in the process of creating a pros & cons of both power plants till I came across this link. This absolutely settled it for me: https://www.boatingmag.com/boat-engine-comparison

It shows that the cost of a swim platform in an I/O not only costs you real estate, it also costs you in additional fuel for these thirsty and yet sluggish engines. This is way too high a price to pay, especially when children will jump off out of any spot they can get a footing, as proven the last time we went out on the boat. Well, so much for the ONLY item in the Pro column for I/Os...

 

[poconojoe]

Joolz, thanks for the link. That was a very interesting comparison article.

 

[89retta]

There is still way more usable space on a sterndrive. Which on a boat with kids matters the most

 

[Joolz]

Absolutely was, I'm so glad I saw it. I had always wondered what the fuel consumption of the two platforms were. As well as acceleration and other performance specs. Thanks to Glastron making the exact same boat with 3 diff power plants, a definitive comparison could finally be made. Only thing I wish was included in the test would be a 2 stroke outboard. But other articles show the 4 stroke to be slightly more economical albeit not as powerful or peppy as the 2 stroke.

The article also proved what I had suspected but wasn't sure: that boat manufacturers are lazy in their boat designs, compromising the real estate of outboards. If you look at the pics of all 3 boats side by side (top view) you'll notice that the outboard could have been better designed to include a couple of seats at the aft, practically beside the outboard, such is the case with my current boat and just about every boat built up to the late 90s. Instead they "borrow" the awkward design of the I/O and add all that junk on the top, which to me is nothing but dead space. This truly annoys me as floor space is compromised for no other reason than their lack of desire to change the design slightly from I/O models. It's like boat manufacturers view outboards as an afterthought that no one buys.

A felling I am well familiar with in my recent search for a new vehicle with a clutch.

 

[Scott Danforth]

its not being lazy, its having only one mold and a few plugs to make a complete family of boats in order to keep costs down so the average person can afford a boat.

if there were different hulls for just the outboard models, most boat manufacturers would need to charge about another 30-40% for their models to offset the cost of development and tooling


I personally love 2-stroke outboards at full song on a small, light hull. Love the smell of 2-stroke oil. it brings me back to happy times. I like the quietness of a 4-stroke motor on a pontoon boat at night, however I do not like the added maintenance, plastic covers, etc.
I love I/O's because I can afford the parts to repair them, not to mention I can always add more power via bolt-on mods if needed.
I like sails for the simplicity, however thats a lot of work for 7 knots
I like oars and paddles for the tranquility

 

[southkogs]

I personally love 2-stroke outboards at full song on a small, light hull. Love the smell of 2-stroke oil. it brings me back to happy times. I like the quietness of a 4-stroke motor on a pontoon boat at night, however I do not like the added maintenance, plastic covers, etc.
I love I/O's because I can afford the parts to repair them, not to mention I can always add more power via bolt-on mods if needed.
I like sails for the simplicity, however thats a lot of work for 7 knots
I like oars and paddles for the tranquility

Whoah! That's almost a poem

 

[JimS123]

It's like boat manufacturers view outboards as an afterthought that no one buys.

The times they are a changin'.

Ten years ago outboard powered boats were few and far between. Aluminum fishing boats and Gradys and Whalers. Now, most every manufacturer has a line of outboards to compete with their I/O models. SeaRay hadn't made an OB model in many years, but now does again simply because of the demand.

Another anomoly is the pontoon. We used to see some on small lakes, but never in the Niagara or St. Lawrence rivers. Yesterday we spent the afternoon on the sandbar and EVERY other boat there was a pontoon.

Supply always meets the consumer's demand.

 

[jkust]

I live in the suburbs of MN and both of my lake homes are in northern MN which is where my boats are. Similar to you, October can be a crap shoot of 80f on Halloween or in the teens and colder where my boats are. Pretty much by next weekend since school is now started, I need to pull the boats out and get them winterized so I can't really harness the extra time I could be boating if we had an outboard. In addition to that, I have an I/O because the equivalent 300hp OB would be very expensive and used early to mid 2000's outboard bowrider boats in the 24 foot range just aren't around for lake boats. As I am on freshwater, nobody ever has to replace stuff on their I/O that is a common item on a salt water I/O. Maybe I hear about someone having to replace a bellows, but risers and of course wear items that require preventative replacement....I've never known anyone of my boating friends have to do a riser replacement on their lake boat...It's just so ultra rare. My ocean friends are always replacing stuff. 20 year old I/O boat engines still look untouched, shiny and new in fresh water.

 

[Watermann]

Was in the process of creating a pros & cons of both power plants till I came across this link. This absolutely settled it for me: https://www.boatingmag.com/boat-engine-comparison

It shows that the cost of a swim platform in an I/O not only costs you real estate, it also costs you in additional fuel for these thirsty and yet sluggish engines. This is way too high a price to pay, especially when children will jump off out of any spot they can get a footing, as proven the last time we went out on the boat. Well, so much for the ONLY item in the Pro column for I/Os...

You may have overlooked one glaring difference between the OB and IO comparison and that's cruising. Lower RPMS and higher speed for the IO, if that 1 MPG difference means anything to someone then they need to find a different sport. Having both an IO and an OB I find cruising the IO is way more enjoyable, just the pitch of the sound emitted by the IO is more pleasing.

 

[H20Rat]

Having owned roughly equal number of outboards and I/o's, I can tell you I have spent WAY, WAY more on outboard repairs than I have on i/o. I try to do most of my own work, but on outboards there is a limit to what you can do, especially on newer ones. The older I/O's (chevy based) used some of the most common engines on the planet.

Like jkust above, I/O's in northern freshwater lakes tend to run forever with very little of the stuff you coastal guys see. I honestly have never heard of anyone having to replace risers, and I've had boats that had 20 year+ bellows. (I've never personally replaced either in any I/O I've owned)

 

[jkust]

Having owned roughly equal number of outboards and I/o's, I can tell you I have spent WAY, WAY more on outboard repairs than I have on i/o. I try to do most of my own work, but on outboards there is a limit to what you can do, especially on newer ones. The older I/O's (chevy based) used some of the most common engines on the planet.

Like jkust above, I/O's in northern freshwater lakes tend to run forever with very little of the stuff you coastal guys see. I honestly have never heard of anyone having to replace risers, and I've had boats that had 20 year+ bellows. (I've never personally replaced either in any I/O I've owned)

My last I/O prior to the current one never had a single thing go wrong with it in 8 years of ownership the current one, I replace the impeller every couple of years (technically since I have a bravo drive the impeller/water pump is part of the engine versus alpha drives impeller in the drive) and the only other thing was a plastic piece on the engine that had some residual water left in it when the marina winterized which caused it to crack and need replacing. I think i'm at just over 400 hours now which in cold climate might be slightly higher than average for the age.

 

[hvymtl939]

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.