See full version: How many hours is too many for a boat
All Yamaha outboards come with a limited warranty for pleasure use—two years for two-stroke models and three years for four-stroke models. The reality of a warranty is that it's the cheapest “assurance” you'll find for your outboard motor. [links]
World's Largest Outboard Motor Debuts At 627HP. Miami Beach, Feb. 12, 2015–The world's largest outboard engine, a 627-Horsepower outboard motor by Seven Marine, debuted at the 2015 Miami International Boat Show today. Below is a bullet list of features this behemoth of a motor possesses. more
The average boat is replaced every ten to twenty years. However, some boat will last much longer than that, but this will be determined by how the boat is used and how well it is maintained. The three main types of boats are made from: Aluminum. here
1:00 A.M. until 6:00 A.M. Any hours after this is considered "high". Low hours, if true, means that they didn't use it that much.
Boating experts often put artificial ceilings on hours: anything over 1000 is too high for that age, etc. The truth is, that if the boat got used, it got loved. Marine gasoline engines can run 2500 hours or more if properly maintained before needing an overhaul.
The average boater uses his or her boat about 50 hours per season, so use that as a good rule of thumb. If a boat is four years old, then about 200 hours would be about normal. If it's five years old, 250 is about right, and so forth.
There are a few things to consider when looking at boat hours. Unless you are looking at a really high hour boat (2,000+ hours) there are typically very few drawbacks to the number of hours a boat has. In fact, a boat with normal hours (50-75 per year) will often time run better than a boat with low hours. V-Drive boats are equipped with high-performance V8 engines similar to those found in sports cars and other powerful vehicles. While you don’t want to overuse them, the engines don’t like to sit and when running regularly they perform better and hold up better. Settling (non-use) will cause more problems over time than overuse. [links]
We often get used boats in on trade that have close to 1,000 hours on the engine. People tend to think 1,000 hours is too many, but what is too many? Let’s make a comparison with the automotive industry. We have a shop truck with 28,000 miles on it, which is widely accepted as very new, and there are 745 hours on the engine. Here’s a picture of the hour meter on the truck. more
To directly compare to the boating world, we can use oil change periods. On a truck, it’s recommended to get an oil change every 3,000 miles. That means this truck has had 9 oil changes. With inboard boats, it’s recommended to change the oil every 50 to 75 hours. So if there was a used boat for sale with 745 engine hours, and it was routinely serviced, it would have had 9 oil changes. Like the truck, a boat with 745 engine hours has many years of optimal running performance left. In fact, it’s just past getting broken in. here
We get lots of questions involving engine hours, especially on used or demo boats. Often times we see people looking for boats that are 10 years old with less than 200 engine hours. While that isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it can often lead to people overpaying (sometimes drastically) to get a boat that won’t perform any better or last longer than a boat with higher engine hours.
There’s a widespread misconception regarding engine hours on used boats. The most common question we get regarding used boats is something along these lines: “How many hours are too many hours on a boat?” or “How long will a boat engine last? 900 hours?”
Low engine hours aren’t anything to avoid but given the choice between a 10 year-old boat with 750 hours, and a 10-year-old boat with 200 engine hours, our staff would choose the boat with higher engine hours (given that it’s been routinely serviced) every time.
Sorry for all the questions.
Also, if a boat doesn't have a ballast system can the Gravity 1 or 2 system be installed after the fact? I saw a D-Drive Outback that sparked my interest but it doesn't have a ballast system.
Long story short, I stumbled across a 2001 MobiusV. A bit older than I had in mind but it only had 225 hours on it, and for being 5 years old was in amazing condition. It also helped that it was only 20 miles away. My thoughts were, the less a boat is used, the less wear and tear there is on everything from the engine to the interior - as long as it is kept clean and stored properly. So I bought it. I still get comments from people about how nice it is and clean and you wouldn't know it's 10 years old by looking at it. [links]
“Low hours” and “only X amount of hours” are common tag lines thrown around in online advertisements when selling low hour boats, usually implying that it’s a good thing.
Is it possible to wind the hours back on a boat? Yes, definitely. Let’s uncover this in a little more detail. here
The other factor to consider is the boat’s sun exposure throughout its lifetime, and all the birds/dirt/debris as well. Covers and clears will deteriorate, and if the owner has essentially forgotten about the boat, you’ll find that they’re much less inclined to reach in their pocket to pay to have it detailed or have work done to it.