CR CRUISER
Seaman
- Joined
- Nov 19, 2009
- Messages
- 64
We are running a fleet of 5 Yamaha 225 and 250 four stroke outboards on our guide boats. They are getting up in hours and it's time to start repowering. These motors are running every day during the 5 month fishing season at a remote lodge on Vancouver Island. To keep downtime to a minimum, we keep a spare 225 motor there in case of any breakdowns. I've have it down to less than 2 hours to swap out the motor.
The options we are looking at are:
Either new 300 or 350HP Yamaha 4 strokes. Big dollars and complete new controls and instrumentation. It also means that it would no longer be a less than 2 hour re and re to swap to the spare 225. All of the controls etc. would have to be swapped out too.
I have found some new non-current old style 250's that would be compatable with with the existing controls and spare motor. They would be much cheaper and simpler that the new generation motors. The down side is that I'm tired of replacing the exhaust housings on these motors almost every year.
The other option is to go with Suzuki motors. Our main reason to concider this is that our local dealer who used to sell Yamaha sold the dealership and started a new one selling Suzuki. Their service department is second to none as far as customer service goes. They claim that the Suzuki is the best motor available but of course when they sold Yamaha, it was the best. Other than their opinion, I don't have any knowledge of the Suzuki motors. Probably my biggest concern is parts availability. Has it improved any since I worked for them 15 years ago?
Any opinions as to which direction we should go?
Thanks,
Lee
The options we are looking at are:
Either new 300 or 350HP Yamaha 4 strokes. Big dollars and complete new controls and instrumentation. It also means that it would no longer be a less than 2 hour re and re to swap to the spare 225. All of the controls etc. would have to be swapped out too.
I have found some new non-current old style 250's that would be compatable with with the existing controls and spare motor. They would be much cheaper and simpler that the new generation motors. The down side is that I'm tired of replacing the exhaust housings on these motors almost every year.
The other option is to go with Suzuki motors. Our main reason to concider this is that our local dealer who used to sell Yamaha sold the dealership and started a new one selling Suzuki. Their service department is second to none as far as customer service goes. They claim that the Suzuki is the best motor available but of course when they sold Yamaha, it was the best. Other than their opinion, I don't have any knowledge of the Suzuki motors. Probably my biggest concern is parts availability. Has it improved any since I worked for them 15 years ago?
Any opinions as to which direction we should go?
Thanks,
Lee
