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Boats and Hoes....prop vs jet boats

15K views 147 replies 36 participants last post by  montecarlo33 
#1 ·
Gents who has had both a prob and Jet boat(yamaha, Sea doo) and what did and didnt you like about each. Im looking at a Yamaha AR210. I have never owned a boat before and wanting something good for inland lakes. My wifes JK rubi is only good for around 4k lbs towing so Im limited to 21ft or under boats.
 
#57 ·
I did not read mush of the posts so i'm sorry if i am repeating what someone else said.

I have owned a lot of jet boats(mostly to fix and flip). The seadoo's are nice but very problematic.The older ones with the jet ski engines are a lot of fun but also a lot of money to maintain. The engines should be rebuilt roughly every 120 to 150 hours. Nobody does it and they tend to last to about 150 to 180 hours on average. If you get the newer seadoos with the merc motor those two have issues. My 2002 x20 had the 225 merc and it never ran right since new. It finally blew the top piston after about 50 hours.

I do not know much about newer yamaha's but i know the early to mid 2000's were very problematic as well. I do not have any personal experience since i have never owned one but i know many people who did and they refuse to even look at another yamaha jet boat.

Now My personal boat that I have had throughout the years is my inboard boat. We do go out mostly on the small lakes around Traverse and have no problems. It is beyond reliable, never had a single issue with it. I stick with inboards because in me personal experience you can get a much nicer inboard boat for half the price of a decent running jet boat and you do not have to deal with all the reliability issues.

You may think that you do not have to worry as much about getting into shallow water but you do, those boats will suck the sand and rock up into the jet pump and ruin the impeller and wear ring which then will cause power loss and cavitation. Plan on at least $500-$800 bucks if and when that happens, and that would be using used parts to repair it.

Get an inboard, you will be very thankful that you did.
 
#79 ·
I had a mastecraft and now have a yamaha 220hp 17ft jet boat, its more fun and practice than the mastercraft, I dont pull 10 skier just a couple kids on tubes, plenty of power and faster.The only down fall is having 2 motors so it is more maintance and a little more time to get them started.
 
#80 ·
Don't the older Seadoo boats with the twin motors also burn the 2 stroke oil? I haven't had my jetski for ages so I don't even know how common it is anymore or not. But either way that's something to factor in to your operating costs. IIRC my 99 SPX with the 7something motor would burn like a gallon of it ever couple tanks...
 
#92 ·
cant speak for the 2 stroke seadoo's but my 2 stroke merc sportjet 175 only uses 1 gallon of oil per year. Beginning of the year the tank is usally half full and takes a whole gallon to top off and then I dont have to fill it until next year. but a gallon of merc preimum plus is $60 plus just like sled 2 stroke oil.
 
#103 ·
right, that's like saying i get a half a tank out of $20, I mean who cares what my mpg is, or how big my tank is.....

I used to use over a gallon a weekend....your post is useless.
No I dont think it was useless. When you use a gallon of oil a weekend and I can go all season (with living on the lake driving it at least 5 times a week for an hour or more and usally on sundays I try to be out on the water all day) dont you feel like running costs are cheaper? I wasnt talking about how much oil yours holds vs mine, I was talking about overall oil consumption as in how many gallons per year based apon useage. When you need a gallon every weekend to go out and play, and I can go out every weekend with just 1 gallon per year which is cheaper per weekend to get the boat off my hoist or trailer to be used equals to me more money I can put in the tank to get more useage. Maybe Im looking at it the wrong way, but when I go out I try to do things on the cheap and buying a gallon of $60 + oil a weekend would not work for me.
 
#107 ·
No I dont think it was useless. When you use a gallon of oil a weekend and I can go all season (with living on the lake driving it at least 5 times a week for an hour or more and usally on sundays I try to be out on the water all day) dont you feel like running costs are cheaper? I wasnt talking about how much oil yours holds vs mine, I was talking about overall oil consumption as in how many gallons per year based apon useage. When you need a gallon every weekend to go out and play, and I can go out every weekend with just 1 gallon per year which is cheaper per weekend to get the boat off my hoist or trailer to be used equals to me more money I can put in the tank to get more useage. Maybe Im looking at it the wrong way, but when I go out I try to do things on the cheap and buying a gallon of $60 + oil a weekend would not work for me.
I see we're dealing with a real rocket scientist here.

You are talking about a gallon of oil lasting you how many hours? How many gallons of fuel are you burning? Just stating you use a gallon of oil a season is fucking retarded.

At approximately 50-1 ratio you are burning 1 gallon of oil for 50 gallons of fuel, based on the approximate10% of horsepower rule for a 2 stroke at WOT/gallons per hour (17 gph in your case) you're telling me you put between 5 and 10 hours a season on your boat. burning 50 gallons of fuel.

THAT would be useFUL information, simply stating you only use a gallon of oil per year is useLESS information.

Also you really should shop around for your oil, $60 a gallon?

I used to get 2.5 gallon jugs of the high performance oil for $65, you can get the pwc oil for $30 a gallon all over the internet.
 
#87 ·
I bought my first boat this year, an 89 18 foot bow rider with a 3.0 mercruiser. For me this is a great starter boat as I am only $3200 into it. I do worry about shallow waters though. I just printed a chart and studied it and took my time to learn the lake.

I know the 3.0 is a weak motor but its 140 HP is enough for me. Doing 40mph is all I need right now. Usually I just cruise around on what the slowest cruising speed is.

I know boats are money pits and I already had to do a bellows job but I am still glad I bought the boat.
 
#93 ·
Go with a good used large Yamaha or sea doo stay away from the older Yamaha 21' with the twin 1200 two strokes. They are cold blooded sons of bitches unless you put an electric primer pump on them! How ever even that older boat is roomy and plenty fast. But it is loud with the twin 1200's. The new four strokes are smooth and quite. They have no trouble towing skiers certainly not like a ski boat but up to the task as others have said they have come along way from the mid 90's boats the new ones are great a lot of my customers use them for tenders to there yachts
 
#97 ·
All my experience is pre 4 stroke sea-doo. The twin engine ones were a blast, but the singles lived at redline all day screaming for mercy until they let go once a season. All the new 4 stroke stuff sounds pretty nice but they have priced themselves out of the market especially on the Pwc side. it seems like it was not all that long ago you could get 2 jet ski's on a trailer with covers for the price of what they want for one of the newer ones. Maybe I am exaggerating.
 
#100 ·
you'll be lucky to get 100 hours in on a machine in a season.

the average boat owner puts on less than 20 hours in a season, do the math.

"IF" you live on a lake, you're lucky to go for a boat ride after work, that "may" include a half hour or so of run time, let's call that twice a week. you have about 18-20 weeks of boating.

that's 20 hours if you live on the water, add in about another 2 hours per weekend of actual running time and you have a 60 hour season.

Now, move off the lake, take the boat out every other weekend, and you're looking at about 20 hours a season.

I think my dad's 97 ski boat has around 300 hours on it, and we used to ski as a family quite often, and some of us competed so we trained a fair amount. This was a family of 6 each taking turns skiing/training.
 
#102 ·
I know of at least one malibu on my lake that has 100 hrs on it this season.If you live on a lake and have teenage kids,your boat will not be shut off unless it is out of fuel.
Most boats sit 90% of the time,but there are a some kids on my lake that ski/tube all day,till after dark.
If I go to hardy dam for a weekend of boating it probobly involves 3-4 hrs of actual boating. So thats probobly around the 20hr a season kickstand mentioned.
 
#118 ·
So back on topic...

There is a lot of data that will really go either way. I work at Wilson Marine in Howell, Mi and to be perfectly honest. Both boats have their ups and downs. But usually it comes down to six key factors that people look for when making a boat purchase.

Safety
Performance
Appearance
Comfort
Economy (Cost to Run)
Dependability

Now there are arguments each way as to which category goes to which boat (Prop V. Jet)

Props have been around a LOT longer than jet drives, there are also more companies that make a conventional stern drive boat than do a jet drive.

The only two big boat companies that still make a jet drive are Sea Doo and Yamaha. Companies such as Bayliner and Searay have made jet drives in the past, but have discontinued those models.

The number of stern drive manufacturers in the world is ridiculous, just off the top of my head I can think of atleast twenty or more.

So my question is, if it were as efficient, safe, high performing, or dependable as everyone says it is? Wouldn't more boat companies make a jet drive?

Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using Tapatalk 2
 
#128 ·
Anyone here able to run an MC number without losing their job? I want to get back my 14.5' AeroCraft outboard. When I last had it, I had a 75HP triple Evinrude, .030 over, bored carb barrels, hydraulic jack, power tilt/trim, hydraulic plane skids on both sides of the rear, absolute flat bottom boat. It was Maroon in color, and was a short shaft transom boat...

I sold it to a friend, who traded it in to now defunct Saginaw Powersports Center. I rebuilt the boat from top to bottom, added GPS, and flew up and down the rivers and lakes. The boat would do 68MPH flat out, fully trimmed, with the engine jack dropped all the way down.

Fun times, would like to relive them with that boat!
 
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