Why do boats break?
 

:boat:This is something we have been discussing all summer. Our area of Texas has had a long spell of heat and humidity. It seems like almost all of the boats that run regularly have broken this summer. From water pumps and electrical gremlins to full blown motors and drives. Why? I have run high performance bikes and cars most of my life, not racing, but owning and driving and they rarely break. Every time one of us takes out our boat, someone gets towed back in. We all do the proper preventative maintenance, oil changes, drive service, etc. So it's not like we don't take care of our boats. What is it about boat engines and drives that make them so easy to break. Is it the environment that they run in? Or the stress of plowing thru the water?All of us talk about having extra parts, engines, and drives around just in case. Why is it so difficult to build a reliable boat/engine/drive combination that is affordable. Is it money. Would a 496 mag ho with a #6 drive keep you out of the shop? Wouldn't be very fast but would be reliable. Just curious if anyone has some input into this. I have owned boats most of my adult life and never had the problems that we have all experienced lately. We all wait for the latest and greatest but they all seem to disappoint. Kind of thinking out loud.

I think it's all of the above, environment we run them in, pounding waves, etc. I had real bad luck when I first purchased my boat but now it's all dialed in. Maybe do 525's with #6's.

Boat = Environment, always under a load, most of the time the rpm's are high.

High performance Car's dont have that salt water to deal with, not as much load and you never hold your hot rod car at 4K rpm's cruising around unlike our boats.

Iam sure there is more to it but thats what I can think about.
Erik

That's a big one...we run our cars at 1800-2000 rpms on the highway with little stress on the engine. Boats run minimum 3500 with high loads.

B - Break
O - Out
A - Another
T - Ten Thousand

Or if you prefer

Bend
Over
And
Take it

Hope this helps.

We are planning another casino run in Sept. You guys in for another grueling run??

Oil and Water don't mix....... that's the basic problem, just on a larger scale.

i know this all too well lets see bought boat in march trouble in may and now its going to be august and should have it back just in time to go to destin for emarald coast run jeff when in sept are yall thinking of going

I am trying to set t up for the weekend of the 11th.

Who is this? We've met before havn't we?

I realize that boats use Chevy, Ford, Dodge (Ilmor) engines, but boats themselves are built by tiny companies in comparison to cars. What do you suppose the price and reliability of boats would be if Honda, Toyota, Ford, etc, built boats? I suppose maint and breakage would be decreased dramatically. Just imagine the engineering budget Toyota would have for drives. F1 cars run at constant super high RPM's with big hp and small cu's and they do not break nearly as often as the high hp race boats. Just my 2 rupes.

I feel ya too... bought the boat, broke a starter and smoked an impeller first time out. Broke a hose the next time out. Took out another 5 times with no parts breakage. Hurricane came... fast forward to this year. First time out, no issues except a little rain and having issues with one drive not going up and down consistently. Next trip out locked a motor up... So basically I have owned the boat for 13 months, and had 5 trips with no issues.... and three with parts breakage. Hoping to have the new motors done in the next week and in the boat so we can have a little boating this summer.

Gerrit... I agree. I have never seen such mass destruction in any form of motorsports before. Everything is stupid expensive and nothing lasts. But it sure is fun when it doesn't break. :evilb: