Boat Budget/1st post

[E-FISH-N-SEA]

I'v been quite fortunate to grow up with access to a salmon/greatlakes boat from my parents or other family members and a some great friends. However, its becoming time to purchase one of my own. I'm pretty sure I have a good grasp of the costs involved with buying and outfitting a greatlakes boat, but am trying to get an idea of gas consumption, which seems to be the biggest cost.

The boat will be 18 to 20 ft. Preferrably aluminum. Probably open bow for double duty with my family. Most likely powered by an outboard. My question is how much more gas do the older 2 stroke outboards use compared to the newer (past 10-15yr) 2 strokes, and the 4 strokes? Probably in the range of 115 to 150HP.

Thanks,

Brian

[KJ pluggin]

Welcome to GLF Brian! Good luck finding a boat.

[danthebuilder]

Welcome!

18 foot aluminum boat with no leaky rivets. 75 hp 2 stroke from 1992. A salmon trip gas costs us no more than $20. That is cheap. sunscreen/launch fee/snacks/truck gas/pop/ice/that new spoon on that report posted yesterday combined will cost you more than gas.

You will spend more a year on repairs & maintenance than you will with gas. Whatever motor you purchase acquire a repair manual for it and read the maintenance section on it. maintenance/repair wise almost everything you need to know how to do there is a youtube video for it. You can save quite a bit of coin if you've got the time and patience.

You're probably also going to want to run a kicker. Using your main for that long on low rpm's is hard on the main. Make sure your transom is also solid. I frequent Iboats forum and there seems to be a guy who purchased a boat each day who finds out the boat they bought 2-3 months ago needs a new transom. That's not something you want to go through unless you plan to do it from day #1 and its factored into pricing.

You also then got insurance & a subscription to towboats.us if towing isn't included in your insurance.

[bluedevil]

Just for a comparison for you, I had a 2000 Starcraft Superfishermen 19'6" with a 2001 mercury 125hp outboard. it was a 4 cylinder 2 stroke and would shut 2 cylinders down below 1200 rpm and I averaged about $8 an hour in gas. Thats running out 5 miles or more, trolling, and running back in 5 miles or more.

[mriversinco]

In comparison, my cousin and I used to walleye fish on saginaw bay. He had a 20' aluminum with a really old 2 stroke 75 on it. We would use 2 separate 3 gallon tanks and come home on fumes after close to a whole day of fishing. When I got my 18' aluminum with a 50hp 4 stroke on it we would barely use 2 gallons of gas.

In short, the 4 stroke used about 1/4 of the gas, but I do know the newer 2 strokes use way less than the old engines.

[melsell]

Not sure the amount. Also figure in the enviroment and how smelling that smokey old thing is going to make you feel in the morning:) The new motors just start up like a car. No choking, restart, choke again...just turn the key and pull away. I would go Direct inject 2stroke or 4 stroke.

[Priority1]

Brian, A warm to the GLF site. You are lucky to live in Hamilton because of it's close proximity to two Great Lakes. I'm on the other side of Lake Huron. You'll get lots of help with your question. Just holler if ya need any more help.

[arbogaster]

an I/O will be far cheaper to maintain, and if you have a buddy who can work on a car engine they can help you with the engine side of your propulsion system. The old 3.0 and 2.5 (120, 140) engines were great little motors. I would think you would be better off with that but I have mostly owned I/O's. My first big lake boat was a Lund Alaskan with a 40 HP honda outboard. That thing hardly burned any gas.

[SeaCatMich]

4 strokes and the newer direct injection (DFI) 2 strokes will definitely be a lot better on fuel than the older 2 stroke engines. It is more significant with mid size to bigger HP outboards. I went from a boat with a single old OMC SeaDrive 260 HP outboard to my current boat with twin 90 HP Honda 4 strokes. Gas costs are about 1/3 of what they were. I spend a lot more on gas to tow the boat to the lake than I ever do fishing and I'm someone that does not think twice about making a run 20 miles out if that's where the fish are.

If you end up doing a decent amount of trolling I would also consider getting a kicker to troll with. Most of the new DFI or 4 stroke outboards will troll down fine but that is putting lots of hours on a relatively expensive engine. Put those hours on the small engine and get even better speed control as a bonus. An average trip for me is 2-4 hours on plane (at the most) and 5-10 hours of trolling. That's a lot of extra hours on the main outboard. It is the one downside to my dual 90 HP outboards -- they do fine, but they also get the "extra" hours on them.

Another thing to make sure of is that the outboard is big enough for the hull. Try to get as close as you can to the max HP that the hull is rated for. It will give you better overall control and flexibility with the boat and not be laboring when you really need some performance and will get better fuel economy when you're on plane.

Many people will say "well I'll never need to go that fast"... well, on the Great Lakes no matter how well you watch the weather there will be a time where you need to get off the water as fast as you can. Maybe it is when the waves start to get too big, maybe it is when someone gets hurt, or maybe you need to out run that thunderstorm. Better to have the HP to be able to go "fast" than not.

[E-FISH-N-SEA]

Fun how one question can lead to more...I'll try to keep them on this thread instead of starting a bunch of new ones.

The purchase is probably 2-3 years away.

What is the best way to tell if the transom is rotten?

What are the implications of having a kicker and a main on the transom? Is there an issue of weight?

Thanks again for the help.

Brian