quote:
Originally posted by Sushihunter
quote:
Originally posted by LastChance
Go down to any well stocked marina with a lot of guides, and ask the outboard guys how often they have to replace alternators, water pumps, power steering pumps, solenoids, leg bellows and risers. Then, assuming you can find a guy who uses his boat a lot with a stern drive, ask him the same thing.
Last Chance Fishing Adventures
www.lastchancefishingadventures.com
www.swiftsurebank.com
Ya, and then ask the outboard guys how often they replace the entire outboard. And at what cost.
I can rebuild my 350 chevy for 2 - 3000 dollars - how much to replace that 250 Honda or Yamaha? $25 - $30,000 ?
Jim's Fishing Charters
www.JimsFishing.com
http://ca.youtube.com/user/Sushihunter250
A 250 Yam is around 18 grand, and can be swapped in a day, assuming you have one already and it blows. Yes, there is considerable cost in converting over if you don't have one already. And I only know one guy who has replaced a modern 4 stroke who has had to replace it out of it going boom, this is out of around 60 operators who run their boats for charter business. We're not including the smokey, loud fuel hungrey outboards of 15 years ago here.
A modern outboard ought to give you near 4000 hours of service. I know of a few with over 2000 hours on them in Renfrew, they have done impellers once, and one injector. That's it, just put oil in it, and change the Racor's when they get so full of water that the boat quits (Not my boat!). The boat gets run full time.
I'm willing to bet that by that time with a typical stern drive setup (Based on the ones I ran years ago), there will have been at LEAST a couple of sets of manifolds, a few starters, and probably a stern drive surprise in that time. With an outboard, everything is high and dry, not sitting in a humid bilge. This will get around things like having altenators and starters getting wiped. Last, but not least, for the most part, your outboard is all aluminium, meaning that you will have much less in the way of dis-similar metals in the water at any time. An outboard, in my experience with the units that I have run, and several guys I fish with, will give you a nice long service life, then gracefully explode and save you the trouble of nickle and diming you over the course of it's life (10-15 years). You can then buy a powerhead for it and bolt it on for near the same money as rebuilding a small chev, there are plenty of two stroke heads out there for sale, a V-6 is around $3500. Probably a little early to price a four stroke head (Don't see a lot of them for sale), but SG figured around 3 grand for a ring and gut kit, plus the time to make it happen. This assumes that everything else is in great shape on the rig.
Last, but not least, by the time a good ol' Chev 350 engine has worn out, what likelihood is there that the rest of the stuff bolted to it is really serviceable? I'm willing to bet that several sets of risers and Y pipes will have been done, and at least a gimble joint if not the whole stern drive.
There are going to be exceptions to every rule from pure luck to guys who are very good at maintaining their stuff, but as the fleet where I fish evolves, there are two, (which will probably be one by the spring), full time guide boats with stern drive setups. And they BOTH lost days to silly, nit-picky problems that you just don't see or hear a lot about on the outboard end of things.
My $0.02, not meaning to start a war here!
Last Chance Fishing Adventures
www.lastchancefishingadventures.com
www.swiftsurebank.com
