New member with question

[tendollar]

Hello all, excited to be on board!

I'm looking for opinions on I/O's vs outboards. Interior space is not a concern with me, performance and realiability are. I'm looking for a boat, particularly a crestliner phantom SST with a 150 intruder/faststrike. I have spent alot of time in this combo and it really performs but I ran across a crestliner sportfish with a volvo 4.3L GS in excellent condition with very low hours but i'm not familiar at all with performance and realiability of I/O's or this particular engine. Opinions and advice anyone?

Thanks, Tom

 

[maxh]

Re: New member with question

imho it boils down to personal preference, some people will say outboards are better. while others will say I/O is better. I would stick with what you are comfortable with and what you know. both setups will be equally reliable with proper maintenance, but I believe outboards will have slightly less maintenance.

 

[searay3]

Re: New member with question

Depends on where and how you fish. If your a bass guy and shallow water is your norm, the outboard hands down. Just cant go real shallow with an I/O. But if you fish the open waters, I think you would love the I/O for noise and reliability. They are quieter and just more heavy duty in my opinion.

 

[tendollar]

Re: New member with question

Good points fellas, the boat will be used mainly pleasure (camping,tubing ) fishing canada waters. What about maintenance to the sterndrive?

 

[familyguy]

Re: New member with question

I haven't owned a boat with an outboard, but I hear they are easier to perform maintenance on. The owners manual for the sterndrive I have states I'm supposed to actually pull the outdrive off every season to lubricate the u-joints and splines that come off the gimbal bearing. I haven't done it yet, but probably will at the end of the season. I believe this is somewhat standard for similar sterndrives. It requires a drive dolly or a hoist and an allignment tool. Don't have to do this with an outboard. Engine oil/filter is easier to change on an outboard. On my I/O the filter is all the way in the back corner by the transom. Drive oil change is similar between the two I believe. On an I/O changing the impeller requires you to bend down into the engine compartment to get to one of the bottom pulleys, not sure about an outboard, but probably easier. Changing plugs are definitely easier on an outboard. Good luck.​