Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Outboard preferences

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And avoid the old run down gas stations. I have all sorts of carb'd small engines here that have been running for years, some for decades, with no trouble.

It’s hard to go wrong with Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki or Mercury. Some friends of mine have switched to Mercury from Yamaha simply because parts came out of the Midwest (Wisconsin iirc) versus Japan. With supply chain issues they couldn’t risk their boats being down for repair so they decided to try Mercury. They’ve all been very pleased with their Mercury outboards.

Just like the big automakers, the main manufacturers of modern outboards are all good and their motors are dependable. It comes down to price, warranty and service centers.

Yamaha is the Toyota of the Outboard world . . .

I have a 1997 25 horse Merc 2 stroke. I have never once had a problem with it except one time I had a fouled plug. Two new plugs and it ran perfect. The 1st water pump lasted 17 years. I have changed the water pump 2 times now . My newer 5 horse merc for trolling is ok, it is a single cylinder so it shakes the boat a little more. I have 148 hrs on it and 3 yrs old now and no problems. However, we shouldnt have any problems at 148 hrs. anyway. An 8 horse is a 2 cyl . and likely a smoother motor. I have a 3.5 merc .I bouth it with a clogged carb, but now it runs very good.

I'm running a couple of 2 stroke Yamahas that have given exceptional service for around 20 years. I've slowed down a bit, but for most of that time I was on the water from ice-out to ice-up, 2 - 5 days a week.

Go down to the water and see what the guides, the crabbers and others are using.

Most of the 3rd world tourist areas I've been in, where parts and service are sketchy and reliability is very appreciated, the majority of the outboards you see are Yamaha.

I wouldn't consider anything but a Yamaha if I were buying a new outboard.

I haven't owned anything less than 200hp in the last 30 years, but I wouldn't consider anything but Yamaha or Suzuki.

The last small motor I had was a Tohatzu (Nissan) 50, and it was a great motor.

I owned a couple of Mercury/Mariners and run a couple of Merc 350's on someone else's boat.

There is no way I would buy one.

Bought a used package a couple years ago with a 40hp Nissan (Tahatsu) at a price i could throw the motor away if i had to. Been running it for a couple years now with an open mind because i didn't know crap about them. Starts and runs great, no problems at all so far. However i am looking for a new 70ish hp 4-stroke and don't know what brand to go with, so any and all opinions are good to hear.

While I'm sure Yamaha mostly makes good outboards, I once got a lemon. It was a 9.9 four stroke.

Now, getting a bad one wasn't what turned me off, it was Yamaha's failure to timely repair and refusal to replace it.

I spent over 20 hours driving it around to repair facilities. Didn't get it fixed.

Yamaha actually sent a factory rep to try to repair it. He worked on it at the dealer and said it was fixed. It wasn't. He came by my home and picked it up and worked on it, more than 2 times.

Finally, after a long time of dealing with a motor that they should have replaced, they did get it fixed.

This was an ongoing problem that resulted in many hours of driving and many trips to the lake, only to be frustrated that the motor didn't work.

Finally I decided I wouldn't own anything that could make me that angry so, once I was convinced they had it repaired, I sold it. Yes, I did give the buyer the full story, including the report from the factory rep.

Yamaha should have replaced the motor but said "We don't do that".

I'll bet that 95% of people that buy a Yamaha never have an issue.

If you are in the group that has problems, I hope they treat you better than they did me.

I doubt I'll ever purchase another Yamaha product.

I have proven that with a couple Mercs I have owned, only one good one out of the bunch. We even had one that had to be rebuilt at 40hrs.

Suzuki has been flawless for me and a Yamaha on the river boat that has gone through a lot and still keeps ticking.

I would have a hard time buying a Merc after what some of the guys that build them told me.

I’ve had 4 Yamahas and 1 Mercury. They’ve all run great. The Mercury is noisy compared to the Yamaha. I prefer the Yamaha tiller arm.

So, when they break down they're complicated to repair and overly expensive?

Go to any Alaska bush village and you'll find mostly Yamahas. Hondas are okay performance wise, but they have weaker lower units compared to the Yamahas and you can see the difference in the diameters of the driveshafts. The major rivers in Alaska are silty, full of sandbars and drift logs under the surface. A whack from a drift log will snap a Honda shaft where a Yamaha will usually survive the encounter as long as the engine isn't locked in place.

Yamaha

Mercury is leading the pack by a good margin. They spent a good deal on r&d and it paid off.

In a new 150-300hp I wouldn’t consider anything but a Merc. Small ob, get whatever you want

Yamaha......in 2001 at the PWT World Walleye Championship, I along with every other competitor, were required to keep our boats after hours at the Bismarck Civic parking lot where they had a fenced compound. We would back our boats in so that the fuel truck could drive down the center and refuel each night for us.

Every outboard maker had a support truck there and every night, when you looked down the row of boat's, it was ALWAYS the black motor hoods that were off, set on the ground, and technicians working on them so that the angler would have it for the next day. In fact, my Yamaha technician, Chad, was usually over helping the Merc techs repair their motors. I had lost my speedometer and went to the Yamaha support trailer to ask Chad to look at it, and had to go search for him. He was working on a Merc with his counterpart....he said to the other guy, " I'll be right back, this won't take long". He was right....I had a high speed strike of a piece of wood apparently and plugged off the tiny hole for the speedo....Chad had it cleared with a tiny drill bit in the drill in about 15 seconds. Talented man.

That being said, the Evinrude E-Tec Saltwater outboard I once owned was unbelievable! Never understood why Merc didn't utilize that technology over keeping the schitt they had.....

I’ve had good service from the Yamaha 4 strokes I’ve ran. I’d first get EFI if available then check the weight and displacement.

Pretty amazing company Yamaha. They make some fine motorcycles, PWCs, musical instruments…they should get into firearms. Everything I’ve ever had Yamaha has been great. Got a couple acoustic guitars I play all the time

You guys need to keep up with stuff. It’s not 2000 or even 2015.

The v8 Merc 300 is better than the Yamaha 300. No contest.

The 200-225 v6 Merc is in a class of its own and has no peer. It will destroy the 200 Yamaha.

The 3.0 merc 150 is one hell of an engine and beats the 150 Yamaha in my opinion.

A number of people on here are offering their opinions on this and relating the experience their opinions are based on. What are you basing your opinion on?

That must be why all the newer offshore boats with 3 and 4 outboards on the back are Mercs. There were 5 or 6 around us last weekend and all of them had Mercs hanging on them.

A guy's gotta ask himself when it comes to those big motors,, what would these guys know?