New 60hp, is Yamaha 4 sroke the best option

[Jitlands]

Currently setting up a new rig and need a 60hp tiller steer.

Anyone suggest a better option the the new yamaha 4 stroke

[isaac]

Go the Yammie, at 114kg its the lightest 60 4 stroke around, lighter than the 60 e-tec and with the efi, I would imagine the fuel usage would be miserly. Ben

[FNQCairns]

Be warned a 60hp 4stroke will only have the performance of a well propped 40-50hp HP 2 stroke BUT it will have legs once on the plane which can make up for it.

Just something to consider.

cheers fnq

[timddo]

hmmm, interesting, i have a yammie 4 stroke on my 4.85 runabout, It's wot at 28knots with 4 adults on boat and a full tank of petrol + gear. They are cheap to run than 2 strokes but weaker. Etec - is just a modified 2 stroke.

But with petrol prices these days, 4 is the go.

[charleville]

This is a Holden versus Ford sort of question that pops up pretty regularly and most people respond with biassed opinions according to what they own.

My take-out from reading hundreds of responses to such a question over several fishing and boating websites is that the brand of motor is probably not as important these days as how much local support you can get for the motor. That is, what your local dealers sell is probably more important than getting a brand that you might have to travel some distance to get serviced.

There are a couple of reasons for this perspective.

The first is simply that a lot of outboards are rebadged as other brands or use major components of other brands, Thus a Mariner is exactly the same motor as a Mercury but with a grey coloured cowl rather than black. Likewise, my 2002 60HP 4 stroke Merc uses a Yamaha powerhead and a Merc leg. Other people will tell you about Tohatsus being rebadged etc etc etc. So the brand itself does not distinctively tell a story about uniqueness in quality.

The second is that if there were to be a lemon brand or model, there is absolutely no doubt in this millenium that because of the internet, the whole planet would know of it very swiftly. (Likewise for dealers - some pearlers get discussed here from time to time.) I cannot recall any discussion in the past five years about any particular brand or model of outboard that you would not want to touch. Lots of conjecture about the claims of the etec but no actual complaints that I can recall.

So the question, imho, is really about whether you can get good service locally and whether you want 4 stroke or one of the variants of two stroke. If I were crossing bars regularly, I would probably want a HPDI twostroke but for the sort of boating that I do 2 - 4 times each week and sometimes more around Moreton Bay, my 4 stroke is perfect. Cheap on fuel (but dearer to service), quiet, no smells and reliable.

Anyway that is my $0.02 worth... Good luck with your decision.

[fly_1]

I would strongly suggest buying the high thrust 60hp yamaha. You just have to change the prop from the dinner plate that comes with it, and put a standard 15 inch, (or what ever you want to run on it).
I currently have 2 high thrust yamaha (2006) model efi engines on my kevlacat, and they are bloody fantastic. The high thrust version simply has the 80/100 hp gearbox, which gives it great low down grunt / torque, yet is still extremely light.
All the pros on the coast have been running them for years, and they have proven to be bulletproof!!!

[Seahorse]

when i was looking there seemed to be big difference in actual power of 60 2stroke againt 4 stroke, just like FNQ says. hey iam no expert, its just that when i looked at the motor specs there was a difference. less power , more expensive initial cost and serving.
if iam wrong no doubt i will be corrected.


cheers
greg

[25_ponies]

Just out of interest I compared the specs on the Yammy, Merc and Suzuki 60HP 4st EFI's.

Both the Yammy and the Merc are just under 1000cc displacement and weigh around 110kgs. They max out at about 6000RPM. From these similarities, I wouldn't be surprised if they share primary components.

I would have thought that all 60HPs would have been the same basic spec, but the Suzi is quite different - it's based on a 1300cc block, and max RPMs are 5300. It's a lot heavier as well at 162kg (that's 50% more than the other 2).

So it seems that the Yammy & Merc rely on smaller capacity but higher RPMs to get the power, but I can't figure out where all the extra Suzi weight comes from. The Suzi also has a 70HP which is the same hardware but with different mapping etc and has a max 5800 RPM for the extra power. It weighs the same as the 60. The next models up in the Merc (75hp) and Yammy (80hp) ranges are based on a much higher displacement block (>1600cc).

Anyway, here are the spec links incase anyone is interested:
http://www.hainessuzukimarine.com.au...ails.asp?id=33
http://www.yamaha-motor.com.au/marin...p?therange=m4s
http://www.mercurymarine.com.au/MPI/...1?OpenDocument

In the interests of full disclosure, I own the Suzuki model mentioned. I love it.

Cheers,

Alan

EDIT: I just notice that Suzuki are now offering a 5 year warranty on their 4 strokes. Yammy and Merc have 3 (according to their web sites).

[sjp]

suzuki is bringing out a light weight 70 4/s,so i will be looking to trade my 2004 60 efi 4/s tiller in ,presently max speed is 50klm/hr on a 4.8 400kg boat