What's the best brand outboard to buy?

[OBJ]

Re: What's the best brand outboard to buy?

Personnal opinion here....find your self a Johnny/Rude in the late 80's or early 90's. Around where I live......there just isn't anything else for reliability. And parts can be gotten easily.

 

[Forktail]

Re: What's the best brand outboard to buy?

phatmanmike, I'm not looking for conflict here, nor am I pushing one particular brand like you are. I never mentioned Yamaha.<br /><br />However, I would not want crguy to get the idea that since Merc and Evinrude have been around 50-60 years, that they are the best and most reliable outboard today (that is what he asked).<br /><br />Your comment, "ask yourself, whens the last time you saw a 30 year old yamaha or honda still running..." tends to lead down the wrong path. I think you're insinuating that a Honda or Yamaha can't last 30 years. That would be wrong.<br /><br />The Honda's didn't really make their statement in the US until the late 1970's. But many were used around the world way prior to that. And yes, many of them are still running. Honda was certainly running their 4-strokes long before either Merc or Evinrude even had one. Yamaha didn't hit our US market until the 1980's, but immediately established themselves as one of the best.<br /><br />But since you brought up Honda and Yamaha, IMO both of them are better than Merc or Bombardier. But what do I know...I just own a charter operation and a fleet of outboards. BTW, Yamaha makes outboards for Merc and Suzuki makes them for Bombardier. Go figure.

 

[peterbo3]

Re: What's the best brand outboard to buy?

The time difference always kills me. But I think that, with a few notable exceptions, outboards are like dogs.They are all basically good, some better at certain things than others, but at the end of the day the owners input determines how things turn out.<br />You look after your engine & it will look after you - with a few notable exceptions

 

[swist]

Re: What's the best brand outboard to buy?

I think Tohatsu is an unheralded entry in the field. The do make the motors for some other brands, but they don't seem to have the spotlight of the big 4 (OMC, Merc, Yam, Suz). I have been running Tohatsus on my tenders for 15 years during which my kids learned to drive boats. Have you seen what kids do to motors? Full gas at idle after 1/2 sec warmup - don't shake Jerry jug leading to all kinds of oil ratios other than 50:1 not to mention crud at end of tank. Drag prop and water intake through silt. Jerk geartrain by shifting at way too high RPMs. Luckily they are growing up and learning respect for machinery but it takes a while to get there!

 

[rodbolt]

Re: What's the best brand outboard to buy?

my personal favorite outboard is a dead one. means pappa can get a new pair of shoes. were it my cash it would be a yamaha. second would be an bombardia. <br />good luck and keep posting

 

[achris]

Re: What's the best brand outboard to buy?

From a service side, Mercs are far easier to work on, and in the long run that means you'll be paying less for the service. IHMO.<br /><br />Chris............

 

[Terry H]

Re: What's the best brand outboard to buy?

Originally posted by cobra 3.0:<br /> Buy the one that is in your favorite color. Color is very important because it will be in your face for a very long time. Make sure it matches your favorite boat shirt and pants. Keep in mind, your dealer should not be far from your cleaners, so you can kill two birds with one stone(when you need to take those hard to get out stains from your favorite kakis).

Buy the one that gets you on the water...unless you are gonna run it for countless hours in remote locations like Forktail...then it really don't matter what brand. They're all good enough to a recreational fishing boat...just a thought

 

[phatmanmike]

Re: What's the best brand outboard to buy?

the best outboard, bar none, is the one YOU personally feel the most comfortable with, finding parts, getting service or doing service youreself... every one of them are excellent!!! it boils down to how YOU will use it and IF AND HOW you will service it...<br /><br />mercs can get service almost anywhere and parts even more.<br /><br />evinrudes are the same, service is everywhere.<br /><br />for imports, yamaha is the ruler! more service and parts available than the other imports! at least around here, honda's and suzuki's seem to be excellent motors, but their dealer network is few and far between!<br />if you happen to be near a suzi dealer, snatch it while you can!<br /><br />and forktail, have a great day! no hard feelings! its all gravy!

 

[BillP]

Re: What's the best brand outboard to buy?

A few thoughts from my side...<br /><br />If small mercs and yamahas powerheads are still the same I guess powerhead reliability by brand doesn't matter. However, my local merc mech says the housings and legs are different and yamaha has more leg corrosion problems than merc. Merc dealers seem to stock more parts than yamaha dealers.<br /><br />5 yr old Suzukis are known to have serious corrosion problems in saltwater but I've been told by experienced wrenches they are getting that problem under control. Dealers are spread thin and don't stock many parts where I live. <br /><br />A local environmental company that maintains lakes/ponds has been using Nissen and Tohatsu for 8-10 yrs. The biologists tell me the engines are A1. The company has a fleet of them and works the entire state. Before that they used OMC products and liked them too. Price was the determining factor for the change.<br /><br />Bottom line for me would be:<br />1. Find a dealer network you are comfortable with. I don't think reliablity is a major issue with the big brands.<br /><br />2. Check each brand for a user friendly motor. Is the pull cord long enough not to bottom out? Does the cowl remove and install easily? Are the cowl seals tight? Are the plugs, fuel pump, etc convenient to work on? Are the parts, linkages, etc. plastic or metal? Is the gear shifter and speed grip comfortable. Will the motor store on it's own bracket and does it have hand holds or handles to carry with? Are the carb drains easy to access. Pull electrical connectors and see if they seal well and are full of diaelectric grease. Two or three blade prop? <br /><br />Check the details and see which makes you feel warm and fuzzy...buy that one.

 

[achris]

Re: What's the best brand outboard to buy?

 

[ivar]

Re: What's the best brand outboard to buy?

I'm a yamaha man myself, but the Tohatsu 9.9/15 2-strokes are hard to beat in terms of performance, reliability and simplicity/light weight.

 

[phatmanmike]

Re: What's the best brand outboard to buy?

Originally posted by ivar:<br /> I'm a yamaha man myself, but the Tohatsu 9.9/15 2-strokes are hard to beat in terms of performance, reliability and simplicity/light weight.

yes the tohatsu 9.9 only weighs 52 pounds

 

[Forktail]

Re: What's the best brand outboard to buy?

I believe crguy was interested in a 15 HP, not a 9.9.<br /><br />Tohatsu's 15 HP is heavier than the Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki, Johnson, and Merc. In fact it's more than twice the weight of their 9.9 HP! IMO, the 15 Tohatsu would perform no better, or provide any better reliability than the others. It's certainly no more simple.<br /><br />Tohatsu's 9.9 is by far the smallest displacement engine in its class. And it lacks many features of the others. Thus it's light weight, etc.<br /><br />Tohatsu makes good outboards, but if you need parts or service, you're basically screwed.

 

[ivar]

Re: What's the best brand outboard to buy?

Fork, I was referring to the tohatsu 2-strokes , of which the 9.9/15 are identical. <br />In Norway , almost all manuf's 9.9/15HP 2-strokes share the same block. <br />Due to a most stupid "HP Tax" for all engines above 10HP , the engines are sold as 9.9 and modded by the dealer to 15HP for a small fee.

 

[Forktail]

Re: What's the best brand outboard to buy?

What's a 2-stroke?

 

[red10]

Re: What's the best brand outboard to buy?

forktail, its something that smells great when first started like having your morning coffee

 

[Glassmaster]

Re: What's the best brand outboard to buy?

It is Really your choice.My dad was a comercial fisherman for most of his life. He and all the other fishermen all used Evinrudes or some Johnsons in north east Missouri. Hauling hundreds of pounds of fish and a custom built River-Jon made of 1/4 inch Alum plate with supports 6 to 8 inches apart. To me that some weight there and his Evinrudes allway did the job.and he allways told me you can not beat a Evinrude. I had a Merc and have had Evinrudes and I am sticking to a Evinrude.

 

[skiffer]

Re: What's the best brand outboard to buy?

If you want a 2 stroke 15hp long shaft engine, you don't have as much choice as some of the above posters indicate. <br /><br />Yamaha does not make a 15hp long shaft 2 stroke.<br /><br />Honda does not make any 2 strokes.<br /><br />Mercury does.<br /><br />Johnson does.<br /><br />Because of the corporate incertainties with Johnson, I bought a 25hp Mercury 2 stroke long shaft last summer. BIG MISTAKE!<br /><br />I have never had as much trouble with a new piece of equipment in my life - motorcycles, lawnmowers, cars, outboards, inboards. In my opinion, the Mercury is a piece of shi$.<br /><br />First, it was hard steering. I attributed that to breaking in woes. Found out toward the end of last summer the bushings had never been greased.<br /><br />Two weeks ago, I was pulling into a dock and tried to shift into neutral. It wouldn't shift and kept going forward. I bounced off the dock. Luckily there weren't any other boats or swimmers nearby. <br /><br />Found out a rod connecting the tiller handle shifting mechanism to the gear shift had come loose.<br /><br />Mercury has a plastic cam into which they insert a brass pin that holds the connecting rod. The pin had fallen out of a hole in the cam. I found both rolling around in the bottom of the engine. Now I would think, with a critical item like this, they would have taken the utmost care in the design to be sure this pin would never fall out. What the idiots did was rely on a friction fit to hold the pin in the plastic cam! No thread, no nuts, no positive lock of any kind!<br /><br />The motor has a 3 year warranty. Sounds great until you find out the dealer can't get to it until the end of the summer! So I replaced the pin myself with a dab of locktite.<br /><br />Sure enough, again this weekend, out it falls at the worst possible time. A 30 knot wind is blowing me onto a lee shore, I try to start the engine but it won't start because I can't get it into neutral because the fuc$ing pin fell out again! I was able to push the shift lever under the hood with a knife and made it back to the dock. A nice trip ruined by a lot of stress.<br /><br />And all this with a motor that doesn't have more than 50 hours on it!<br /><br />Take my advice, don't get a Merc.

 

[JRJ]

Re: What's the best brand outboard to buy?

I bought a Johnson 15 4-stroke in 1998 (OMC but built by Suzuki I believe) for a troll/kicker motor. It started easy and never had to go back to the dealer for anything. At a 100lbs, a bit heavy for me to carry around and throw on the bracket. I bought a new main motor and no longer needed the 15, so I sold it easily. My point is do you really need a 15 which usually weighs the same as a 9.9? A less HP, lighter motor may work for you.

 

[Forktail]

Re: What's the best brand outboard to buy?

If you want a 2 stroke 15hp long shaft engine, you don't have as much choice as some of the above posters indicate.

I don't see where crguy specified a 2-stroke or a long shaft. <br /><br />BTW, I have a 15 HP Johnson (2000 year) and the cowling comes off when you grab it to tilt it up. Landing on my back in the Jon Boat was once too many. Also one of the engine mounting bolts came lose. It's a weird torx size, which I didn't have in the bush where this outboard is used. Corrosion, paint, and quality are the worst I've seen.