I've always been a Yamaha guy but looking at a boat with a new Mercury 4-stroke. Will primarily be used in saltwater. Pros / cons?
I've always been a Yamaha guy but looking at a boat with a new Mercury 4-stroke. Will primarily be used in saltwater. Pros / cons?
I've always had Mercs.
I am done with them. Suzuki or Yamaha from here on out.
"Rivers and the inhabitants of the watery elements are for wise men to contemplate and for fools to pass by without consideration" -Izaak Walton
Yamaha all day.
Wanna go fast, get a Mercury.
Wanna get home, get a Yamaha.
What size motor?
I hung a lot of Mercs on the back of Freemans at one point in my life. Never heard those guys complaining about them. Just my $.02.... There new stuff is leaps and bounds over the optimax issues of the past. All of them are gonna break down, all are gonna need servicing. Dealer/mechanic location to you is the biggest issue these days.
I know of several guys with newer 250 mercury’s that have issues.
The 60hp and under are tough motors.
I’m building a new bay boat. I went with a Mercury V8 300hp. My builder said great motors.
Yamahas are more reliable from what I'm seeing and hearing with the 4 strokes. Both are still good motors.
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Last edited by Catdaddy; 03-08-2023 at 01:23 PM.
Mercurys were built next to Force..
Lots of people still holding on to those 2 stroke reputations
As noted above, need to know the motor size to give more than a general answer.
The mercs spend a lot of time on the rev limiter and in the air which isn’t good for any motor. The ones I know running I-6 Verados and the V8 300’s are having great service out of them on bigger boats. The ones with bass boats have the same issues as all bass boat motors because they only run them 2 speeds, idle and wide the fuck open.
Last edited by Whackumstackum; 03-08-2023 at 03:39 PM.
Suzuki
Ask any Somali pirate, they are exclusively Team Yamaha (mostly 2-stroke). If you only had one motor and you were crossing hundreds of miles of ocean before you commandeered a freighter, what engine is the #1 choice....Yamaha. You can also bet they drove a Toyota truck down to the water's edge too. I know it would be bad form to advertise that but there is value in their experience. MG
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Last edited by Maggie Glover; 03-09-2023 at 04:30 PM.
Dum Spiro Spero
And the last time we were in the Bahamas I was trying to figure out if I could put a brand new Yamaha enduro 90 in the fish box to bring back.
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