Small outboard advice please

Matt B

Matt B

RAMONES
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I’ve been running this gem, a 12’ smokercraft “modified v-hull” with oars or an electric trolling motor. I’m interested in getting a small outboard for it, and am looking for advice on what to look for and/or avoid.

I’m not interested in a 2 stroke. I’ve used a 9.9 mercury “Bigfoot” for work and it’s okay. Pretty heavy and probably more motor than I need though I bet my boat would fly with that 9.9 on there.

What’s the best running most reliable small 4 stroke outboard these days? Should I suck it up and buy something like a new tohatsu?
 
The Tohatsu motors are actually a great bang for buck. They actually make Mercury's small outboards. Otherwise it's hard to go wrong. The newer Honda, suzuki and yamahas are all excellent engines. I'd go based on what you can find since it's slim pickins.
 
Personally I wouldn't touch a Honda of that size. While their larger motors are incredible, their kickers are pretty much garbage IMO. Not sure why there would be a difference between their larger and smaller motors but man I couldn't begin to list the issues I've had with Honda kickers over the years. And the same goes for many people I know.

As Evan mentioned its definitely slim pickins out there, so probably can't afford to be too picky. I have no personal experience with those Tohatsu motors but I've heard good things. If I had my choice I'd probably go Yamaha. Take a walk thru any marina and you'll see more Yamaha kickers hanging off the back of fishing boats than any other for a reason. They just flat work.

Not much experience with Suzuki 4 strokes personally but I wouldn't hesitate to go that route if you found one. Same with Merc. Those Bigfoot motors are their high thrust models. Definitely not needed on your setup but it would sure make that baby pop up on step in a heartbeat.

Can't say if they still have it but I'm pretty sure I saw Kitsap Marine post a used Yamaha for sale within this last week. Might be worth a call.

Good luck! Not the easiest time to try to buy an outboard that's for sure!
 
Nick Clayton said:
Personally I wouldn't touch a Honda of that size. While their larger motors are incredible, their kickers are pretty much garbage IMO. Not sure why there would be a difference between their larger and smaller motors but man I couldn't begin to list the issues I've had with Honda kickers over the years. And the same goes for many people I know.

As Evan mentioned its definitely slim pickins out there, so probably can't afford to be too picky. I have no personal experience with those Tohatsu motors but I've heard good things. If I had my choice I'd probably go Yamaha. Take a walk thru any marina and you'll see more Yamaha kickers hanging off the back of fishing boats than any other for a reason. They just flat work.

Not much experience with Suzuki 4 strokes personally but I wouldn't hesitate to go that route if you found one. Same with Merc. Those Bigfoot motors are their high thrust models. Definitely not needed on your setup but it would sure make that baby pop up on step in a heartbeat.

Can't say if they still have it but I'm pretty sure I saw Kitsap Marine post a used Yamaha for sale within this last week. Might be worth a call.

Good luck! Not the easiest time to try to buy an outboard that's for sure!
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Hmmm I haven't heard the same honda kicker stories. My current boat has a Honda 225 and Yamaha kicker. One before that was two yamahas, and before that a Yamaha main and Honda kicker. Only the Yamahas (big and small) ever gave me any grief, but they were minor annoyances.

Haven't heard good about Honda kickers either. But I've heard plenty good about the others.
 
Company I work for is sponsored by Honda and as such I've had a ton of experience with them. We ran 225s for years before upgrading to the 250s. Both were absolutely incredible. The kickers on the other hand were nothing but grief. We probably went thru 12-15 of them before we finally just removed them from all our boats completely. Don't need a kicker anyhow and I much prefer my boat without one.

I know first hand of two other popular charters who experienced the same thing, as well as a handful of die hard sport boat owners.

Anecdotal no doubt, but enough to make my opinion anyway. I wouldn't spend money on one, but that's just me.
 
x2 for Tohatsu's...their new models are all EFI..once inventory catch's up will be ordering a 20 hp for my skiff.
I've bought from Tohatsudirect,com in the past, local dealers would not meet their price.
And btw, any Mercury 30hp and under is made by Tohatsu
 
Evan B said:
Well I sure as shit love my Honda 225
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Those things are incredible. We put thousands and thousands of ours on ours. Routine maintenance and they just keep going. Some of them have a tendency to burn thru coils, but that's a super easy fix even on the water so no biggie at all. Mark upgraded the last boat that still had 225s on it midway through last season. Those two motors had close to 4k hours on them on rebuilt power heads no less, and easily had 4-5k more prior to the rebuild. Only even rebuilt them just to stay ahead of the curve. No telling how many hours one could get out of them if just kept going. Never once saw one fail. Never once had to limp in on one motor. Absolutely incredible motors. When the 250s came out they had some pretty major issues with the cowl and air intake, allowing saltwater inside, but once they got that worked out they are every bit as fantastic. I have put right at 2k hours on the pair on the boat I run since new two seasons ago, and other than a coil replacement and one issue due to the pee hose coming loose inside the cowl and filling the cowl with saltwater that caused the fuel pump to fail a week or so later, zero issues. The pee hole issue was known to Honda who released a service bulletin for how to fix it. The fix? Put a zip tie on it lol.

Nothing but glowing things to say about those motors.
 
Nick Clayton said:
Those things are incredible. We put thousands and thousands of ours on ours. Routine maintenance and they just keep going. Some of them have a tendency to burn thru coils, but that's a super easy fix even on the water so no biggie at all. Mark upgraded the last boat that still had 225s on it midway through last season. Those two motors had close to 4k hours on them on rebuilt power heads no less, and easily had 4-5k more prior to the rebuild. Only even rebuilt them just to stay ahead of the curve. No telling how many hours one could get out of them if just kept going. Never once saw one fail. Never once had to limp in on one motor. Absolutely incredible motors. When the 250s came out they had some pretty major issues with the cowl and air intake, allowing saltwater inside, but once they got that worked out they are every bit as fantastic. I have put right at 2k hours on the pair on the boat I run since new two seasons ago, and other than a coil replacement and one issue due to the pee hose coming loose inside the cowl and filling the cowl with saltwater that caused the fuel pump to fail a week or so later, zero issues. The pee hole issue was known to Honda who released a service bulletin for how to fix it. The fix? Put a zip tie on it lol.

Nothing but glowing things to say about those motors.
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Yup there's a reason the coast guard uses them. They're strangely the least hyped major brand of the big motors for whatever reason though. Fine by me as I know mine will get me there every time.
 
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How do you decide what prop to put on an outboard?
 
Matt B said:
How do you decide what prop to put on an outboard?
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Lots of research. Get a few cheap props in the pitch ranges you think will be right then start testing. You want whichever one gets you in the right rpm range at wide open throttle. If you don't have a tach, it's a bit tougher.

There's plenty of sites online that have prop suggestions. Honestly on a little boat like that it may not be too tough.

Most kickers have a standard extremely low pitch prop ideal for trolling speeds. If you want to have a hope of getting on plane, then you'll need to pitch up.
 
Matt B said:
How do you decide what prop to put on an outboard?
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Depends on a few factors and the use you will need to get out of it, but in a nut shell you want a prop that will allow your motor to achieve max RPM, or close to it, at full throttle, at the type of weight load you would typically have on the boat.

By that I mean, if you generally run your boat with one other adult and fishing gear, you'd be best served by a prop that allows you to achieve max rpm at full throttle with that type of load onboard. If you put a prop on that achieved max rpm with just you onboard then when you add more weight you're going to be missing out on some rpm, or power. Conversely, if you typically go solo, but prop your boat with a heavy load, then when you go out solo you're likely to overspin the motor and hit the rev limiter.

There's other factors such as stainless vs aluminum, 3 blade vs 4, things like that. But with a motor of that size this stuff really isn't crucial.

Just having a prop that will allow you to get the full range of rpm out of that motor is the most important aspect, especially when first getting dialed in. With small motors it's really not a huge deal overall and you'd likely be just fine with whatever prop came on it. Not having a tach could make the process of really dialing it in pretty difficult anyway.
 
Probably the least expensive will be the Tohatsu. You can find them online and shipped to your door free with a little bit of searching and not pay sales tax, or if close in Washington go to Oregon. 2 big men and fishing gear takes more horsepower to get somewhere.
 
The used boat that I bought came with a Tohatsu 40 HP. I thought that I would replace it after a couple of years, but it keeps running strong. Mine is a 2-stroke. If I get to the point of replacing it, I will take a strong look at another Tohatsu.
 
x4 on Tohatsu. I used to have one on a tender to a bigger boat. This was years ago and I don’t remember the size of it, but it was less than 10HP. It gave me zero trouble.
 
Matt,

I have a 4 hp 4-stroke Yamaha kicker on my 16' Lund, so a bit heavier boat than yours. It's plenty for my use, but won't get the Lund on plane - it's not intended to. You might prefer a 6 horse, but Yamaha discontinued its unique 2-cly 6 horse motor and now sells a single cyl. 6 hp that, like the 4, doesn't run nearly as smooth. So if you want something around 6 hp, I'd concur with the suggestions for a Tohatsu. The local Tohatsu dealer told me a while back now, that Tohatsu makes the small 4-storke motors for Mercury, Suzuki, Evenrude, and Nissan/Mariner (if they're still around). The upshot is that when 2-strokes were being discontinued to to emission standards, most manufacturers didn't want to bother designing unique small hp 4-strokes, so they use re-badged Tohatsus. Yamaha and Honda might be the only manufacturers making their own small hp outboards.
 
Salmo_g said:
Yamaha discontinued its unique 2-cly 6 horse motor and now sells a single cyl. 6 hp that, like the 4, doesn't run nearly as smooth.
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This point bears some emphasis. All of the smaller 4 strokes (6 hp and less) are single cylinder. They’ll get you there, but the single cylinder thump can be a bit rough on the hand/arm if you plan to hold the tiller for hours, as when trolling. Some single cylinder models also have a reputation for being a bit hard to pull start cold, worth doing an internet search on that topic for any specific motor you are considering.
 
My wife and I rented a boat at Netarts Bay to set crab traps, the boat had an 8 Hp Tohatsu. It fired on half a pull, ran so quiet it was hard to hear (I wear hearing aids so maybe my impression is flawed). The outfit I rented the boat/motor from ran Tohatsu's almost exclusively.
 
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