RotaryRacer wrote:
LouC wrote:
Boat looks nice but not for me till they lose that pain in the azz molded in fiberglass all round the back of the engine, guaranteed to make a horror show and tool throwing match out of a starter change, exhaust manifold change, or getting at anything on the back of the engine. My old 88 is wide open, I see no reason for restricting the access to things that have to get serviced sooner or later. And to all who don't do your own work, well then you pay a lot more because it takes longer. Some of these "boat designers" should not release a design, till they themselves wrestle with a starter, manifolds, etc.
Swim platform, yeah it looks nice, till one day you bend a prop out there somewhere and you can't replace it without pulling the boat out of the water. Running even slow with a damaged prop is bad for expensive outdrives. With the old style Horizon swim platform, tilt up the drive, be careful not to drop stuff in the water and you can change a prop in 15 min if you are slow. I prefer designs that work in terms of mechanical access and ease of repair. Too bad modern boat designers don't agree...
Which is why God created outboards.
True true, but there is no reason why an I/O has to be as difficult to work on as some of these modern boats. All it takes is leaving some room around the engine, all that fiberglass, that is part of the top cap, is just NOT needed, my boat has none of it, and when you remove the side panels and rear seat, you can get at everything, even the hidden power steering cooler. This is one reason why I kept my old 98 Jeep with the inline 4.0 Six, there's nothing easier in the 4x4 world to repair....just like an old Mercruiser 165 with the inline Chevy 250 six, I'd love one of those, even though they are longer than a V-6, very very easy to keep going....
OBs are nice, I will probably get one next, but no reason why I/O owners need to suffer, or pay more....