New mercs lifespan

ShaeMcLaren

Active Member
What is the lifespan of the new mercs? looking to pod the commander and wondering what is considered too many hours for my pod conversion over the winter/spring. Thinking about the seasport 225/300's. PFA
 

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Lots of Mercury motors around, but also consider who your closest dealers are. If you’re in a Yamaha area, you might want to consider that.

All of the guys on here that are considering doing a pod or have a project going will probably be looking at those motors to so you should get your deposit in ASAP. They go very fast. (assuming you are referring to the lease return motors)
 
How many hours do you think they can reliably last?
Every engine from every manufacturer last 500-5000 hours. There is no way to accurately predict that. Some suck, some don’t. Some aren’t maintained and last forever.
 
How long they last depends on three things in my opinion. How often do they get used, how hard do they have to work when they get used, and how well they are maintained. The highest hour outboard motors are usually used every day by a commercial operator and well maintained.
 
What is the lifespan of the new mercs? looking to pod the commander and wondering what is considered too many hours for my pod conversion over the winter/spring. Thinking about the seasport 225/300's. PFA
Depends on if they have been serviced at recommended program or not.
 
Ok so in a perfect world with optimal running conditions and perfect maintenance we're saying 5000 hours? Alot of the used motors out there seem to be dumped around 2000 hours.
 
I think it depends a lot on how the motor was used. If you’re dumb enough to put thousands of hours at trolling speed on you high hp engine you could easily get to 5000hrs. If your only using it for traveling/high speed I would expect reliable service up to 2000hrs abouve that I would be cautious and plan for failure
 
Ok so in a perfect world with optimal running conditions and perfect maintenance we're saying 5000 hours? Alot of the used motors out there seem to be dumped around 2000 hours.
ive got a 2018 Seapro with 2000 hours , maintained every 100 hours Synthetic Oils, Motor and Gear, runs better than new , mostly idling hours pullin traps and trolling , these new motors are amazing. i had a 2005 Yami T8 with over 7000 hours , still had perfect compression .didnt miss a beat in 16 years
maintain her !!! and most importantly, imo , use it....
 
I think it depends a lot on how the motor was used. If you’re dumb enough to put thousands of hours at trolling speed on you high hp engine you could easily get to 5000hrs. If your only using it for traveling/high speed I would expect reliable service up to 2000hrs abouve that I would be cautious and plan for failure
? alot of guys troll on there mains, for years n years , no issues in my parts , dont understand the dumb comment ?
 
I think its like asking how long can a car last. People used to say 100,000 miles. Today's vehicles will run 300-400,000 if reasonably well maintained. For a car, keeping it longer than 10 years means planning for more maintenance - brakes, clutches...versus taking the depreciation on a newer one. Some folks want the trouble free front half of vehicle life. For me, I'll keep running it until it gets hard to find parts. So our family vehicles are 12, 19, 22 and 31 years old.

Now, when a breakdown is on the water, my thinking changes a bit - being dead in the water with your wife and kids is different than pulling over to the side of the road. The newest engine I own is the 2016 main on my boat with 425 hours - that would only be 30,000 km on a car.
 
I don’t understand why guys troll around on a 30k to 50k engine when they could be doing it on a 3k kicker. I see so many boats trolling around with there kickers up just seem dumb to me
One of the few disadvantages of my D3 with duoprops -- idle speed is 4.5 mph @ 700 rpm. Not so good for trolling 🤔
 
I don’t understand why guys troll around on a 30k to 50k engine when they could be doing it on a 3k kicker. I see so many boats trolling around with there kickers up just seem dumb to me
I have always run kickers but I fully understand running on the main when you have twins (don't need a kicker for redundancy). Here's a short list:
The big motors are great to troll on now days. Digital throttles make it easy.
They are quiet and easy to dial in rpm (much quieter than a 9.9-25 on a bigger boat)
Keep a heading into the wind better than a kicker
Try turning to port on a windy day in a big boat with lots of sail area when your kickers on the port side (it'll be a real pita). Much easier on the mains
One less engine to maintain.
One less engine to fish around.

List goes on. If I only fished 20 days a year and had a boat with twins I would not add a kicker. Motors like hours so I don't want a ten year old outboard with 200 hours. I personally have had 3 problems with my kickers to every problem with my mains over the last fifteen seasons. The next boat may have two kickers, a center mounted super kicker, or no kicker. I'm still on the fence.
 
I have always run kickers but I fully understand running on the main when you have twins (don't need a kicker for redundancy). Here's a short list:
The big motors are great to troll on now days. Digital throttles make it easy.
They are quiet and easy to dial in rpm (much quieter than a 9.9-25 on a bigger boat)
Keep a heading into the wind better than a kicker
Try turning to port on a windy day in a big boat with lots of sail area when your kickers on the port side (it'll be a real pita). Much easier on the mains
One less engine to maintain.
One less engine to fish around.

List goes on. If I only fished 20 days a year and had a boat with twins I would not add a kicker. Motors like hours so I don't want a ten year old outboard with 200 hours. I personally have had 3 problems with my kickers to every problem with my mains over the last fifteen seasons. The next boat may have two kickers, a center mounted super kicker, or no kicker. I'm still on the fence.
Twin kickers 🥳🥳
 
I have always run kickers but I fully understand running on the main when you have twins (don't need a kicker for redundancy). Here's a short list:
The big motors are great to troll on now days. Digital throttles make it easy.
They are quiet and easy to dial in rpm (much quieter than a 9.9-25 on a bigger boat)
Keep a heading into the wind better than a kicker
Try turning to port on a windy day in a big boat with lots of sail area when your kickers on the port side (it'll be a real pita). Much easier on the mains
One less engine to maintain.
One less engine to fish around.

List goes on. If I only fished 20 days a year and had a boat with twins I would not add a kicker. Motors like hours so I don't want a ten year old outboard with 200 hours. I personally have had 3 problems with my kickers to every problem with my mains over the last fifteen seasons. The next boat may have two kickers, a center mounted super kicker, or no kicker. I'm still on the fence.
Agreed , 20 days ( above average i would think for Weekend Joe) , 8 hours a day , 160 hours , alternating mains , 200 hours a year on each , 4000 hours life if all goes well = 20 years of use , they dont owe you a penny after that , or trade em in after 10 years....
 
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