BGIII

iTrader: (3)

Is there an age or number of hours when trim pumps, K-planes, alternators, starters ect start to go bad and generally the boat begins to require a lot of expensive maintenance? I'm talking fresh water boat w/ 1000 hours. Looking for a comparison to a car, I think they start to become time bombs at about 120,000-150,000 miles. Does a well cared for boat have these same issues or does the stuff other than drivetrain live a long long time? Would you freak if if you called on a boat and the owner told you their boat had 1,000 + hours or would you just figure they are one of the honest people out there and base your decision on condition? Thanks for any input.

Downtown42

1000 hrs on orginal performance boat engines and drives is alot. Express cruisers/Flybridge boats with gas motors can go 1500-2000 hrs without major repairs. I would equate 1000 hrs on performance boat to 120-150k mi on an auto. If the boat is clean and well maintained, then build in cost for new drive train cause you're gettin close.

Macklin

I have seen written more than once that 100 hours on a boat roughly equates to 10,000 miles on a car. That is less than Downtown's equation above. What do others think?

Ofcourse, overall maintenance is key....especially with a boat. Regardless, 1000 hours is alot!

CustomRigger101

boat problem normally start around 5 hrs,,, LOL

mopower

Actually , I've found troubles start shortlty after you purchase it . Of course if they didn't , it probably wouldn't be a boat

FunHome

I agree!! Day 1 and the first hour!!!

mcollinstn

My 1991 Formula with 502's has 400ish hours. I normally cruise 4000rpm, but will run WOT for five minute at a time very regularly. I've taken a handfull of 200 mile trips where I ran 4400rpm consistently. I don't personally consider my boat usage to be out of the norm for a performance boat. My boat has stockers in it (410/390hp) and burns the same quart of oil every 15 hours as it did the first year. Compression is within 7psi across the board. Never had the valve covers off. I'd have no qualms expecting it to run another 200 hours without turning a bolt. 1000 hours? I'd be truly amazed.

It's difficult to correllate that to automotive usage. Take a Vette. Don't normally see a Vette cruise at 125 mph. Might be a better comparison to judge a performance boat against an early 90's Mustang LX with a 5 speed and a trunk, owned by a 19 year old kid who lives close to the dragstrip. You KNOW that Stang has seen its share of street racing and grudge night at the strip, along with a pretty steady diet of powershifting and generally "spirited" driving.

With that in mind, I would say I feel comfortable comparing 100 hours on a performance boat with 10,000 miles on a streetracer Stang.

I'd say that 100 hours on a 30 foot express cruiser equates to 10,000 miles on a Chevy Impala.

A houseboat? Depends. If it's underpowered, then the motors could have either spent their life at 2000 rpm and 10 knots. OR they could have spent their life WOT at 16 knots. Hard call there. Kind of like a 4 cylinder 4x4 Ranger. It's either driven as a slow, utility truck OR on the mat 100% of the time...

It's easy to try to stamp a comparison value on boat hours but quite certainly it is not that easy. To do so, you have to compare it against a similarly treated classification of car.

With that said, do you really want to trust that 100,000 mile Mustang to have all that much life left in it??

*hint* my 1989 5.0 Saleen 5 speed had crumpled axle link mount boxes (torque boxes), wrinkles in the sheetmetal over the rear side windows (put wrinkle wall slicks on it one weekend), wallowed out input shaft support bearing, and was down on compression. It got driven pretty darn hard. It had 47,000 original miles on it when I sold it. It still ran perfectly. Felt strong. Drove and showed well. Interior was perfect. Keep that in mind when you look at your next potential boat purchase. A proper drivetrain survey is a must, unless you have (as others have suggested) already budgeted for a complete freshening up of the entire drivetrain...

mopower

[QUOTE=mcollinstn]My 1991 Formula with 502's has 400ish hours. I normally cruise 4000rpm, but will run WOT for five minute at a time very regularly. I've taken a handfull of 200 mile trips where I ran 4400rpm consistently. I don't personally consider my boat usage to be out of the norm for a performance boat. QUOTE]


Now there's a difference in performance boats. My 1989 Formula with 625hp/540s normally gets run 3000 to 3300 rpm 50/55 mph with short blasts of WOT if somebody wants to play Like the two jet skis last weekend

BTW my last engines where stock 330/454 with over 700 hrs and ran perfectly and used a quart of oil a season (50 hr) each. I'd have not doubt they could see 1000 hrs

JC

I think day 1 or hour 1 is correct, but I think maint. and how it was ran and stored are more important. I have a freind who is a maint. freak who owns a 1993 which is in better shape boat, engine and drive then some boats after 40 hour and one season.

Downtown42

JC, where do you boat at?