Any decent jet skis out there for under $5k?

[Grant Spilsbury]

Hey all,

I'm looking to buy a ski for under $5k that I could use for fishing and long rides in port phillip bay Victoria. Any decent used ones out there for sale?

[gazza2006au]

Grant i don't believe there are any used jetski's in good condition engine wise as they all cop a floggin, jetski engines are direct drive meaning they run at what ever RPM u hold the throttle, my first jetski was back in 2001 a Seadoo SPX little 85 horse power 2 seater i absolutely cained the ass off of it but i never knew any better and it was fun that is untill i tried to water ski behind it and blew it up

i sent the engine off to a Seadoo dealer on the central coast dealers back than were few and far between from memory there were only one dealer in Sydney at the time Andrew Short Marine

i took my engine to the central coast store not ASM i kept calling up about my engine asking if it had been rebuilt back than they never quoted u on a job it was put the engine in let them tear it down and than they'd give u a quote well i put the engine in and said just fix it, 3 weeks went by not a call 6 weeks went by not a call i waited 11 weeks finally i get a call to say my engine is ready $2800 repair bill

i think the big repair bill was when the water police towed me back to the boat ramp they were towing 2 of us on the ski around 70kph it forced the entire engine to fill with salt water

i had the cash for the repair bill from memory over the time they made me wait i saved some extra cash but i ended up buying a second hand Seadoo HX 720 that was a ex race ski

anyhow IMO if u can't learn to rebuild a jetski by your self than your better off not owning one, they cost an absolute fortune to repair even when making the repairs your self but when u get a shop to do the work the price sky rockets

have only ever owned 2 stroke jetski's and any advice i will give u if u go with a older model like the 2 bangers stick to 2 cylinder engines as the 3rd cylinder on some bigger models doubles the rebuild cost if not more than double

[inveratta]

Grant i don't believe there are any used jetski's in good condition engine wise as they all cop a floggin, jetski engines are direct drive meaning they run at what ever RPM u hold the throttle, my first jetski was back in 2001 a Seadoo SPX little 85 horse power 2 seater i absolutely cained the ass off of it but i never knew any better and it was fun that is untill i tried to water ski behind it and blew it up

i sent the engine off to a Seadoo dealer on the central coast dealers back than were few and far between from memory there were only one dealer in Sydney at the time Andrew Short Marine

i took my engine to the central coast store not ASM i kept calling up about my engine asking if it had been rebuilt back than they never quoted u on a job it was put the engine in let them tear it down and than they'd give u a quote well i put the engine in and said just fix it, 3 weeks went by not a call 6 weeks went by not a call i waited 11 weeks finally i get a call to say my engine is ready $2800 repair bill

i think the big repair bill was when the water police towed me back to the boat ramp they were towing 2 of us on the ski around 70kph it forced the entire engine to fill with salt water

i had the cash for the repair bill from memory over the time they made me wait i saved some extra cash but i ended up buying a second hand Seadoo HX 720 that was a ex race ski

anyhow IMO if u can't learn to rebuild a jetski by your self than your better off not owning one, they cost an absolute fortune to repair even when making the repairs your self but when u get a shop to do the work the price sky rockets

have only ever owned 2 stroke jetski's and any advice i will give u if u go with a older model like the 2 bangers stick to 2 cylinder engines as the 3rd cylinder on some bigger models doubles the rebuild cost if not more than double

Read and learn..these are wise words...talking to my local dealer about jet skiis..which he sells a lot of.......his main comment was that many people that buy them have NO idea of the annual service costs to keep them in good nick...and then when they find out ...they dont get them serviced cos its too expensive...as a % of the purchase value of the craft per annum it is right up there with maintaining actually even worse...an all wooden yacht...so second hand unless it has a meticulous service record....???

[Triple]

Plenty on Facebook market place.

[Lucky_Phill]

A few years ago I bought a Yamaha VX sport. Old school, no reverse, no neutral. It now has 250 hours on it. Serviced yearly, whether it needs it or not. Used in fresh and salt water.

Has an esky with rod holders. It has a range of just over 200k's. The thing is you need to maintain it.

I now have a manual bilge pump and stop cock ( for towing ).

Be aware of the size of the duckboard if you want to fit an esky, some brands have very short / small areas and are not suitable.

Mine is about to go up for sale, unfortunately... but would be asking a tad more than 5K.

cheers LP

[Lucky_Phill]

This is now up for sale on another forum, but would consider offers from Ausfishers that are interested.

Currently priced at $6,000. and I have received one offer already, but again , prefer to sell to an Ausfish family member, as it's a good unit.

Located Springwood area, Qld.

cheers

[Getout]

Is there such a thing as a decent jetski?

[Lucky_Phill]

Is there such a thing as a decent jetski?

Not sure where you're heading with this, so I'll take the high road.

The current crop of Jetskis have lots of bells and whistles, like modern cars I suppose. Just more things to go wrong.

I'll call mine a " decent jetski ", based on the owner , the limited hours, over all appearance and the multi purpose facet. 3 seater as well.

It is an old school model... simple EFI, no turbo / supercharger, well built and a duckboard suited to access and or an esky for the fishing fanatic.

OK, so maybe I'll take the low road now and if you're implying that the only decent jetski is a dead jetski, then I can assure you there are many jetski riders that do not tolerate the " knobs " that break the rules and simply give everyone else a bad name. Mine is used for solo fishing expeditions and water skiing and of course, social activities like taking my grand daughters for rides.

Used correctly, these are a great asset to the water sport livery of any Aussie.

Oh, and they make good fire extinguishers for boats on fire..........


cheers LP