Inboard/Outboards Vs Outboards

Stizzla

Crew Member
There seems to be a lot of people not approving on a boat I was looking at. It has a near new 2018 4.3 mercruiser with 50 hours.

besides a doghouse at the back, what disadvantages to they have?

who prefers inboards and why? Who prefers outboards and why?

Again... Let’s be nice.
 
The major negative for inboards is maintenance. i have never owned in an on-board as my friends who did all steered me away. Fresh water cooling is critical in the chuck. you don’t want to be cooling your block, water lines pumps, intakes etc with salt water. Blower motor thing kinda sucks. you have to run blower motor for a specified amount of time. that could be an issue for me if you need to get on your power right away.
Winterization is super critical on an on-board and making sure no water exists. my bro in law had to pull his motor twice in very short order due to improper winterization. one resulted in a cracked block, the other was plugs

I dunno. just seems like a lot of screwing around. i do like the fact it’s “ like working on a car” if something does go wrong. starter gives up the ghost? unbolt it and go get another one. same as plugs, coils etc.

if anything ever goes wrong with my Etec i wouldn’t have a clue how to fix it. it’s straight to the mechanic
 
The list goes on and on and on...first safety from blowing up due to ignition being so close to fuel. Cooling systems are an expensive pain in the butt although you do get the opportunity to have heat which is nice for the half hour of the year you need it. U joints suck, engine alignment sucks, clunky shifting although in my experience having owned both merccruiser and volvo, the nod goes to volvo but they're super proud of parts.

It totally sucks for fishing with an IO if you have a remote control kicker. You can use a panther style remote steering or an ez steer like I do and hang your butt off the swim grid in lumpy seas to connect the bar, at best you get soaked, worst you're in the water. Oh and the quick connects love to seize at the best possible time too so keep a set of 1/4" spares around to .

Maintenance on an IO is super fun, particularly if the asshole who built the deck left you less than 4" around the manifold sides.

The number one reason to go OB? Who in the eff decided it is a really good idea to cut an 8" hole in your transom under the waterline?

And ya, my boat is powered by a VP 320 gxi DP and its days are numbered if I keep this boat for sure.
 
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In our waters with all the **** in them IOs should be banned. At least if you smoke a log with your outboard you're not gonna sink...that happens to me I am in deep **** so I stay below 2o to 22 knots all the time.
 
My main complaint on inboards was access. Everything is mounted down low in the bilge area, which was very difficult to access or let alone see!
 
The one main thing for me is I have yet to see or hear of a outboard blowing up a boat, where conversely I know of at least 6 inboards that have destroyed the boat that it was house in. Big fan of OB's
 
There seems to be a lot of people not approving on a boat I was looking at. It has a near new 2018 4.3 mercruiser with 50 hours.

besides a doghouse at the back, what disadvantages to they have? who prefers inboards and why? Who prefers outboards and why? Again... Let’s be nice.

The boat you looked at, that same hull with outboard config has an engine well that protrudes into the cockpit a bit, taking up valuable room. The I/O doghouse doesn't stick forward all that much more but it is definitely wider and higher so the space left is less than the outboard version. On a smaller boat like this you would notice it, especially with 2 fish on and scrambling to bring up the downriggers, grab a net etc.

Before outboards on a sporty were the rage, buying an I/O was the preferred way to go. Quieter, cleaner, no 2 stroke smell if you trolled with it, better trade in or resale value.

I don't agree with the point about maintenance being harder on an I/O. Oil changes with the right equipment and tune ups are easy on an automotive engine in a boat.
 
Oil changes are literally the only thing that's easy on my boat, even then it's still a bit sloppy. Again it all depends on how much access around the engine the builder provided. Billy didn't give us much room at all, there's a deep 3/8 socket rolling around my bilge that I still haven't been able to retrieve.

Steering systems with an IO are a pita too, the plastic volvo alligator clamps fail over time and it's not easy to service the system.

After 5 years with this setup I would absolutely not replace the volvo if it blew up. I really dig the boat though so a pod sounds good to me...
 
There seems to be a lot of people not approving on a boat I was looking at. It has a near new 2018 4.3 mercruiser with 50 hours.

besides a doghouse at the back, what disadvantages to they have?

who prefers inboards and why? Who prefers outboards and why?

Again... Let’s be nice.

Ok my opinion and I owned both. I fix a lot of my own things on my motors. Presently have a Mercruiser/Alpha 3.0L. Probably the cheapest motor I have run.

There isn't anything wrong with the mercruiser 4.3, and if has Alpha leg they are easy to work on. Your a shore fishermen I assume, so truthfully this isn't something going to offshore bank every day. Inboards are great for people that are mechanically inclined. Also since you dealing with a car type engine it's easy to get parts, and doesn't break the bank. Outboards are great for people that aren't. Honest opinion. You can abuse a lot of outboards, and it will still run. While the inboard not as forgiving.

The maintenance with my inboard is pretty much identically to outboards I owned. Where people get into trouble is they start to not do maintenance, and the inboards aren't as forgiving as outboard.

My boat right now is Mailbu 185. For the cost of podding outboard I will never get that money back. Made that decision last year. This motor I have has 2400 hrs on it. Can't say that for a lot of outboards I owned. But I don't run it hard maybe 3200RPM max at just cruising speed 20knots or so. never ever push it like my outboards I have had. The advantage is I tend to use less gas.

Just my thoughts I would say either have advantages and disadvantages.

50hrs on main engine is pretty much new. When your looking look at tell tail signs like leg oil, and engine oil. Condition of motor etc. You want to ask when the manifolds were done (very important). Pay extreme attention to the freshwater cooling system, and it's condition.
 
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Great responses y’all! Really glad I asked before I jumped into the deep end.
I think I will stick with the outboard, the numbers on that boat were appealing (brand new 220hp on a mint 19’ hull) and if anyone wonders the seller WILL come down. Not quite low enough to my lowball offer but still quite flexible imo.
 
The older merc 4.3s had a tenancy to hydro lock due to a design issue with the exhaust flapper, I had a searay 185 back in the day that had its engine replaced with 130 hours because of this. The Alpha would shred its coupler too, also happened to ours, if you hammered the throttle all the time. That's an engine out service too, I'm sure these issues are well in the past.

I think Mercury should be sending SpringVelocity a free IO package for achieving 2400 hours that's unreal, congrats!! I would never imagine mine could go that distance...nice work.
 
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