maxing the HP on a boat

[1fife]

what do you feel about maxing the HP on a boat.

if a boat is rated for 225, should you go for that?

what about only putting a 200 on it?

i once heard go atleast 80% of the max.

whats your feeling?

[WALLEYE MIKE]

Go for as much as you can afford. Never under power a boat. Mine is rated for 150hp. I put on a 125hp. Normally this boat came "stardard" with a 90hp.

My buddy has a 17 ft. rated for 135hp. His wife bought it for him for his birthday and it was advertised with a 40hp. So that is what she bought. With him and his son it will go 25mph. With 3 or more people it won't get up on plane. He needed at least a 75hp.

200hp would be great. How much more for the extra 25hp. If its alot I wouldn't bother.

[ifish4eyes]

I tried going 66% of my max. hp. and was very disappointed. Then when I maxed it out the boat it truely performed as it was design to handle. The boat was balanced better, handling was improved, also fuel economy was greatly improved. Boats are designed and tested with maxium rated hp, so under powering them would be doing yourself injustice. Never again will I make that mistake again. 80% of max. should be a good, but nothing less. my$.02 :)

[Shoeman]

Here's my thought.

The Max rating is very conservative, but a good guideline.
If a boat is rated for 200, more than likely it's capable of 250.
Kind of the equivalent of towing capacity on a vehicle. When it says 5000 pounds, it means 5000 going up and down mountains.

I would never exceed the 200 but go at least 80% of that.
I had bought a 15 footer once. It was rated for 75 horse. It came with a 40 in a package. I burned the motor. Too much load.
I up-graded and went with a 70. 3800 bucks later.

[Oct.1]

The horsepower of the motor is just like the boat. You always want a bigger one. Put the max on it now.

[ifish4eyes]

Although Shoeman may be correct, but don't get caught with a horsepower above the manufacture reccommendation plate. It's against the law, if the boat is to be operate in waters patroled by the US Coast Guard.

[jpollman]

1fife,
Personally I'd have to say go with AS MUCH horsepower as you can afford. I just wouldn't EXCEED the limit on the rating tag.
You won't regret having the power if (or should I say WHEN) you need it !

[Shoeman]

I never meant to recommend exceeding the rating, I was just implying that the boat is capable of more. I would go the max or slightly under the maximum.

[Getaway]

My theory has always been MAX it! When you buy a boat, buy the biggest motor available, get all the options available and the best equiptment possible. You will not ever regret it. Yes it may mean an extra $20/month on your payment, but you always have to think of resale. You will sell it someday. These extra goodies will keep the value up and make the boat more marketable.

If that boat is rated for 200 hp, then put a 200 hp motor on it. The transom is designed to withstand the load of a larger motor. In engineering it is called a "saftey factor". Chances are the transom is designed with a 2:1 safety factor- this is standard engineering practice. This means it would fail under the load of 400hp at full throttle.

[grizzly]

Put the max on it. My bass boat is rated for a 200hp, and thats what it has on it. When loaded with gear and livewells full you need all of it. Put as much as you can without voiding the warranty.

Good luck.
Grizzly

[mwtroll]

I just up graded my motor to a 75hp it came with a 40 and is rated for and 80hp.
I will never under size a boat again it cost me $4000.00 to do it.
I fish rivers and small lakes with it i also fish the detroit river and when you need it and don`t have it you are not able to do what the boat was made to do. IT cost me a lot of money and a lot of fishing time becuase i didn`t want to spend the money at the time ill never do that again. So if it counts go the max the boat is rated for you won`t regret it a bit.

CAPT DAVE B.

[roger23]

MWTROLL

I am also a MW a.k.a Troll, you are right a under powered boat leads to a lot of problems, just like any thing else, it cost money to go to school, ;)

[1fife]

the boat im lookning at still will go over 50 mph will the 200. how much more power does someone really need?

[mwtroll]

Its not about how fast you go its what motor will perform the best and i belive that if you put on the motor the boat is sized for you will never be SORRY like some of us who learned the hard way.

CAPT. DAVE B.

[gregm]

I tend to agree with everyone else, if you can afford it, go with the maximum the boat is rated for. I won't beat a dead horse here, but there is one more aspect to consider besides being able to get the best top end, and that is gas mileage. Believe it or not, when talking about smaller boats (bass boats, walleye boats, aluminum fishing boats), the larger motors will get better gas milage. They don't have to work as hard getting on plane and you can cruise at the same speed as a smalller motor but at a lower RPM. Case-in-point, my good friend and I used to own almost identical boats, mine was a 191 Champion and his was a ZX190 skeeter. They both were within 100#'s of each other weight-wise. Mine had a 200HP EFI Mariner and his had a 150 EFI Mercury. I could run much faster than him if I wanted to, but many times (especially on big water -- St Clair, Erie, Saginaw, etc...) we ran together. He was maxxed out at about 5500 RPM's and I was running in the mid 4000's. Our fuel tanks were identical and he was always going in for fuel sooner than I was. Now that being said, if I put the hammer down, I would chew up the gas as fast if not faster. In addition, we both had 2.5 liter, 153 cubic inch blocks, I don't know if the same conclusion would hold if you were comparing say a 2.5 liter 200 HP to a 2.8 liter 225. We have both since sold our old boats and he now owns a ZX202c skeeter with a 225 Yamaha and I own a Champion 194 Walleye boat with a 225 Mercury Optimax.

[Hunt4Ever]

I agree. I had a 16' fishing boat with a 40hp on the back. This was the rated max for that boat. I took it up to Canada fishing once and met others with their boats. Some 14's and 16's with 20-30hp on their boats. They had to run full out to get somewhere and in order to stay with them I ran at about 75%. I got great "gas milage" so to speak. They were filling tanks every day and a half. I filled once during the week. We were all using the standard boat gas tanks, I think they were 6 gallons.

I think the motor being under less load, or not working as hard, is better for the motor long term