What 60hp outboard engine?

[Rannsachair]

I know there are a few on here into boats, so thought I would ask opinions on buying a new 60 hp outboard as i have not been keeping in touch with recent developments.

I was going to look at a 13 year old 60 hp mercury 4 stroke with my brother and found that for an extra £1600 we could buy a brand new one with 5 year warranty.

I have always tended to buy new Yamaha's in the past, though they are quite pricey, I have also had a few Suzuki's that I thought of as a slight downgrade from the Yamaha though they have been pretty good.

The cheaper option is a new Mercury 60hp EFI, about £1000 cheaper than a Suzuki or a Yamaha, I perhaps wrongly thought all the big manufacturers must be making decent engines now or anyone got any experience of recent engines to the contrary - anything to avoid?

 

[cheb]

Tohatsu seem to be the outboard of choice up here. The ones I've looked at seem to be well made.

Possible conflict of interest: I've a mate that sells them so my stats may be skewed.

 

[TechnicAl]

I had a Honda on a boat I had........never a problem but it was 8hp not 60........I thought Honda were supposed to be the best.....their lawn mower engines are

 

[tom2207]

I had a Honda on a boat I had........never a problem but it was 8hp not 60........I thought Honda were supposed to be the best.....their lawn mower engines are

Were.

 

[TechnicAl]

Were.

why?
whats happened?

 

[Memmeddu]

I've had a Johnson 4HP seahorse ,it was enough reliable but I've ended up scraping it because I wasn't using it and needed to replace electrical
Of course it was a 4ba74(4 HP 1974) 2 strokes.
A friend of mine used to have a Johnson 20HP 2 strokes and later he bought a Johnson 737 2 strokes.
Yamaha are good engines.
Mercury here in Italy have not a great feedback.
Tohatsu are Japanese? Or somewhere nearby .
I would go with Yamaha or Johnson from my experience .
Penta Volvo also make good engines

 

[Hood]

Go with whatever dealer service you can get locally.
For example one boat here had Hondas, he had to go to Clyde Marina for parts/service.
Yamaha is the best to get in this area as there is an agent with excellent service and knowledge.
Some boats use Selvas which are white topped Yamaha but de-rated (cough cough) for commercial licence beating but the dealer is up North a bit and for some reason they seem to have more issues than the Yamaha.

 

[Bullet2012]

What @Hood said. Dealer service and parts availability are the key

 

[Rannsachair]

Go with whatever dealer service you can get locally.
For example one boat here had Hondas, he had to go to Clyde Marina for parts/service.
Yamaha is the best to get in this area as there is an agent with excellent service and knowledge.
Some boats use Selvas which are white topped Yamaha but de-rated (cough cough) for commercial licence beating but the dealer is up North a bit and for some reason they seem to have more issues than the Yamaha.

When i lived on the East Coast I used to buy all my new yamaha's from Davie Anderson at Newport on Tay, he always gave me a good deal. Where I am now i have a Mariner/Mercury dealer 20 minutes away and yamaha 15 minutes away, the much lower cost of the Mercury is an attraction, they do a Command Thrust version for an extra £250 with a heavier duty gearbox that can run a bigger prop to help plane quicker too.

 

[Rannsachair]

Tohatsu seem to be the outboard of choice up here. The ones I've looked at seem to be well made.

Possible conflict of interest: I've a mate that sells them so my stats may be skewed.

I think all the new Tohatsu 4 strokes from 60 hp are rebadged Honda's - the Tohatsu used to be good value but prices appear to have increased a fair bit. Good engines though.

 

[Hood]

Aye Davie is the guy, 100mph at everything but knows his stuff.

No experience of Mercury etc as no agents around here.

 

[Rannsachair]

I had a Honda on a boat I had........never a problem but it was 8hp not 60........I thought Honda were supposed to be the best.....their lawn mower engines are

I had friends with big Honda's in the past good engines, but expensive to buy , service and used to be a lot heavier than the competition from memory. No nearby dealer and price put me off.

I should add that my brother is buying the engine as he has sort of taken over my boat as he uses it 95% more than me, so a win for me whatever I get him to buy

 

[Rannsachair]

I've had a Johnson 4HP seahorse ,it was enough reliable but I've ended up scraping it because I wasn't using it and needed to replace electrical
Of course it was a 4ba74(4 HP 1974) 2 strokes.
A friend of mine used to have a Johnson 20HP 2 strokes and later he bought a Johnson 737 2 strokes.
Yamaha are good engines.
Mercury here in Italy have not a great feedback.
Tohatsu are Japanese? Or somewhere nearby .
I would go with Yamaha or Johnson from my experience .
Penta Volvo also make good engines

I have not had a 2 stroke for about 20 years, much as I liked them on a fast boat, fishing is more relaxing with modern 4 stroke. I think I read that Johnson/Evinrude were pulling out of outboards - certainly no dealer near me or seen any new ones locally.
Tohatsu are Japanese, I think they had a tie up with Nissan and now Honda.

 

[Hood]

I had friends with big Honda's in the past good engines, but expensive to buy , service and used to be a lot heavier than the competition from memory. No nearby dealer and price put me off.

I should add that my brother is buying the engine as he has sort of taken over my boat as he uses it 95% more than me, so a win for me whatever I get him to buy

Another thing with Hondas which may or may not be a concern, is they tend to be shorter shafts than you can get with the Yamahas. The boats here use Extra Long shaft Yamahas on the Cats but I think Hondas only come Long Shaft
Pic here of a Cheetah I heightened the pods on because they were originially made for Hondas.

 

[Rannsachair]

Another thing with Hondas which may or may not be a concern, is they tend to be shorter shafts than you can get with the Yamahas. The boats here use Extra Long shaft Yamahas on the Cats but I think Hondas only come Long Shaft
Pic here of a Cheetah I heightened the pods on because they were originially made for Hondas.

View attachment 256537

Funny you should say that, I used to have a Redbay 6.1 Rib with a F115 yamaha ultra long shaft and had done a trip with friends to Cushendall, they had a 6.5 with a Honda 130 long shaft, we spent the night over there and left the boats on moorings in a bit of chop, the next morning the reduced freeboard at their transom resulted in a flooded boat that held us up half a day to bail out and get the engine started. The delay meant we had to head back across the North channel to Scotland in a Force 9 that was a bit exciting!

 

[Rannsachair]

Another thing with Hondas which may or may not be a concern, is they tend to be shorter shafts than you can get with the Yamahas. The boats here use Extra Long shaft Yamahas on the Cats but I think Hondas only come Long Shaft
Pic here of a Cheetah I heightened the pods on because they were originially made for Hondas.

View attachment 256537

Is that chickens in your workshop?

 

[Hood]

Is that chickens in your workshop?

It is chickens but sadly it is not my workshop.

 

[Migmac]

I’ll look at my pals boat tomorrow, see what make his engine is. It’s very reliable, no problems in the two years he’s had it. He’s the second owner

 

[Memmeddu]

Go with whatever dealer service you can get locally.
For example one boat here had Hondas, he had to go to Clyde Marina for parts/service.
Yamaha is the best to get in this area as there is an agent with excellent service and knowledge.
Some boats use Selvas which are white topped Yamaha but de-rated (cough cough) for commercial licence beating but the dealer is up North a bit and for some reason they seem to have more issues than the Yamaha.

Selva from my knowledge is garbage made in Italy ,sad to say as I'm Italian but everybody here hate them ,one of worst to buy

I have not had a 2 stroke for about 20 years, much as I liked them on a fast boat, fishing is more relaxing with modern 4 stroke. I think I read that Johnson/Evinrude were pulling out of outboards - certainly no dealer near me or seen any new ones locally.
Tohatsu are Japanese, I think they had a tie up with Nissan and now Honda.

Agree about 4 strokes for fishing , maybe with an electric motor for stealth fishing.
But 4 strokes have a big problem , expecially for someone who goes fishing and needs to remove the engine from the boat and travel with it sit on a side in the trunk .
Oil will pass through the piston rings blocking the engine.
And if happens to have the valves opens it will pour out .
Way better two strokes in this case .
Three years ago someone bring a Yamaha 8hp 4 strokes with this kind of problem.
I used to repair those little outboards but I quit because was becoming to much time consuming with my tools so wasn't worth anymore

 

[mm289]

I'm also with @Hood get whatever is serviced locally. Yamaha and Honda tend to be tops, followed by Suzuki and Mariner. Tohatsu and Mariner used it be regarded as the same but that was in the two stroke days

If I was buying today I would probably look at Suzuki from a value for money pov but Yamaha if I wanted the best.
cheers,

MM