Best outboard jet? (around 25 HP at the pump)

[fakirone]

Okay, so after all is said and done, I have decided that a jet is in my future. I have had too many issues, too many bent props, prop shafts and banged up lower units and I want the freedom to run my river wherever I want without worrying about smacking something every 10 feet.
So, that being said, who makes the best jet outboard? I was looking at the Mercury 25, I found one new with a 3 year warranty (I would LOVE to have a warranty) for $5200. That sounds like a pretty dang good deal to me. Selling my old boat/motor and my current motor would just about cover that, BUT I want to try and make sure that I am not going to have any issues with it. Does anyone have any experience with the new Mercury's? Is the Yamaha better? Is there another motor that I am missing?
I will be putting it on a 2009 Alumacraft 1442 NCS. I run two Optima big blue tops and a ultra light weight motorcycle battery for the starter and an on board charger. I mostly fly fish so I don't carry a ton of heavy gear, just a big *** ice chest :wink: and the boat will have very little decking outside of the stock front deck. What little extra deck and hatches I will have will be done in aluminum. I also have a pair of the Beavertail pods that we're going to weld on and plan on getting the bottom to the water line sprayed with polyurea. With the light weight, shallow draft and a jet drive I should't have any more real navigation issues, I hope.

So, what outboard?

 

[Captain Ahab]

Yama

and go bigger then a 25 at the foot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[fakirone]

Captain Ahab » 06 Jul 2014, 22:37[/url]"]Yama

and go bigger then a 25 at the foot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The boat's rated for 25 HP and frickin flies with my 1995 Mercury 25 HP 2 stroke. I don't want to go much faster than that on that little boat, especially on my river.

 

[fakirone]

Also, the Yamaha is 41 lbs heavier, don't you think that is a pretty significant difference?

 

[Jeeper]

Check into a evinrude etec thats my opinion but i do have a mercury and love it

 

[fakirone]

Jeeper » 06 Jul 2014, 23:23[/url]"]Check into a evinrude etec thats my opinion but i do have a mercury and love it

Those have a more traditional style lower unit which would pretty much negate my buying one. I have a pretty good prop guard set up, but there are all kinds of hidden submerged obstacles and I'm tired of my lower unit slamming into them. I am even probably going to tunnel the hull I'm so sick of hitting things.

 

[overboard]

Pasch Marine; Rt. 611 just North of Easton Pa., recently had Evinrude e-tec jets advertised. Don't know if they are factory, or if he is installing the jet drives.
I am also looking around for a jet and it seems the Yamaha's are well liked. It would probably be my first choice if buying new.

 

[Backroads]

I had an 07 mercury 25 jet (actual 25hp at pump) and it moved my 1648 good with 2 guys. In your smaller boat it would be a blast. They are heavy pigs though. I could not tilt it up by myself while in the boat. My only concern would be the weight of newer 4 strokes on a smaller boat.

 

[fakirone]

Backroads » 07 Jul 2014, 09:56[/url]"]I had an 07 mercury 25 jet (actual 25hp at pump) and it moved my 1648 good with 2 guys. In your smaller boat it would be a blast. They are heavy pigs though. I could not tilt it up by myself while in the boat. My only concern would be the weight of newer 4 strokes on a smaller boat.

Yeah, that's what I was thinking. The new ones are rated 25 at the jet, I have called half a dozen dealers and shops to confirm this and looked at the displacement specs etc so I feel that it is correct. I currently have a 1995 Merc 25 HP 2 stroke that weighs 112 lbs and the boat rides perfect, I figure I should have no issues with the 186 lbs of the new 4 stroke jet 25 once the pods are welded on. If I were to step it up to the 40/30 Yamaha (227 lbs) or the 40 hp Mercury (267 lbs) I feel I will be pretty dang heavy in the stern. I think the max I would want to go is 200 lbs, especially considering I think I am going to have to step up from my 3 gallon tank and start using my 6 gallon if I am using a jet.
It is good to hear that your 2007 moved your bigger boat well. Like I said, my boat is fairly small and what hatches/decking I am going to do is going to be all aluminum since my best friend is a professional TIG welder. I pretty much never fish with more than two guys, I sometimes have the wife and kids in the boat, but they combined barely make up a big guy (wifey only weighs 115). Plus, if I have everyone in the boat I probably won't be running up river very far and certainly not into anything crazy.

 

[fakirone]

overboard » 07 Jul 2014, 09:44[/url]"]Pasch Marine; Rt. 611 just North of Easton Pa., recently had Evinrude e-tec jets advertised. Don't know if they are factory, or if he is installing the jet drives.
I am also looking around for a jet and it seems the Yamaha's are well liked. It would probably be my first choice if buying new.

I just wish the 40/30 wasn't so dang heavy or I think it would be at the top of my list.

 

[hotshotinn]

if it was me it would be the 40/30 yamaha four stroker.Run it till you are wanting a bigger boat and then you get the bigger boat you will then have the bigger motor for it. :mrgreen:

 

[fakirone]

hotshotinn » 07 Jul 2014, 13:20[/url]"]if it was me it would be the 40/30 yamaha four stroker.Run it till you are wanting a bigger boat and then you get the bigger boat you will then have the bigger motor for it. :mrgreen:

I hear that.

 

[Backroads]

The new Mercs are definately supposed to be 25hp AT THE PUMP. You wont find any solid info on that on forums because everyone wants to just say 'go with a bigger motor' But if you go to NADA value guide on different outboards and look it up, it says on there even that they are 25hp. I compared the specs of it to other 4 stroke mercurys and its a similar spec to the 30HP power head prop motor. I called Mercury when I had it and they confirmed it was supposed to be 25. Now it might end up being like 21-22 actual HP because theres no way to get exactly 25, but its close enough and sure beats a 25/20 or 25/18.

I mostly used my boat on smaller rivers and going more than 20-25mph would just be silly, theres no reason to need to run that fast. Sure it would be fun to blaze 40mph up a river thats only 50' wide, but completely not necessary. I was perfectly happy with the 25hp on my boat, I just wanted to add steering and a forward console, found a good deal on a 2 stroke yamaha and got that instead. I only gained a couple MPH with the new engine, but its fast enough to plane 2 guys, or my wife and kid with me. Gets me to the smallies, and is a blast to drive.

 

[fakirone]

Backroads » 07 Jul 2014, 16:00[/url]"]The new Mercs are definately supposed to be 25hp AT THE PUMP. You wont find any solid info on that on forums because everyone wants to just say 'go with a bigger motor' But if you go to NADA value guide on different outboards and look it up, it says on there even that they are 25hp. I compared the specs of it to other 4 stroke mercurys and its a similar spec to the 30HP power head prop motor. I called Mercury when I had it and they confirmed it was supposed to be 25. Now it might end up being like 21-22 actual HP because theres no way to get exactly 25, but its close enough and sure beats a 25/20 or 25/18.

I mostly used my boat on smaller rivers and going more than 20-25mph would just be silly, theres no reason to need to run that fast. Sure it would be fun to blaze 40mph up a river thats only 50' wide, but completely not necessary. I was perfectly happy with the 25hp on my boat, I just wanted to add steering and a forward console, found a good deal on a 2 stroke yamaha and got that instead. I only gained a couple MPH with the new engine, but its fast enough to plane 2 guys, or my wife and kid with me. Gets me to the smallies, and is a blast to drive.

Yeah, I almost exclusively run the upper Chattahoochee here north of Atlanta and 20 miles an hour on it is bananas. There are countless (shifting) submerged tree, not branches, trees, as well as tons of rock ledges and shoals. Not only do we have a crazy amount of underwater obstacles, but we have an extremely varying water level as well because of the dam releases.

I personally much prefer to fish the low flows, hence the want for a jet.

Thank you for the feedback from your use. It's nice to hear from someone that has actually used the motor. I generally am all for more horsepower, for just about everything, but there is a major trade of with the added weight of the larger outboards in boats and since I fly fish, I mostly drift, like all day, and I am much more concerned about draft adrift than I am top speed, so I need to stay as light as possible.
I need to get over shoals, up chutes and be able to cross gravel bars, while still drafting 6" or less while drifting. What I don't need is to do 30 miles an hour up a rocky river in a riveted .063 aluminum hulled jon. Just saying.

 

[Backroads]

Glad to help. Like I said I scoured the internet like yourself looking for opinions on that motor before I bought it, all I kept finding was 'buy a bigger motor' HA!

Heres a vid from last summer. If you open my chanel theres a couple more as well as some with my new 40/30.

https://youtu.be/s2gBT1qp1n8

 

[airbornemike]

I run a light rig with a 30/20 Johnson 2strk, my hull is 16×51 but it's weight sensitive as it weighs 200lb. I'd like to hang a 50/35 on it but I don't know if the weight to power gain will be worth it. Like you I fly fish so I don't carry a ton of extras but it adds up as I use it more, trolling motor, battery, oars.......well when I get off my little smallmouth river and get on heavier flows guess what? That's right your speed drops, especially if you're caring extra bodies. You might want to look at Tohatsu 50/35, it's a 200lb motor and a 2 stroke. Not many people are running them though so it's hard to find info on them.

 

[semojetman]

My buddy runs a 1442 alumaweld that we put a 40/28 omc 2 stroke on and it runs great.
Not unstable. Floats decently shallow. Runs about 34 mph with 1 guy.

 

[fakirone]

airbornemike » 07 Jul 2014, 23:34[/url]"]I run a light rig with a 30/20 Johnson 2strk, my hull is 16×51 but it's weight sensitive as it weighs 200lb. I'd like to hang a 50/35 on it but I don't know if the weight to power gain will be worth it. Like you I fly fish so I don't carry a ton of extras but it adds up as I use it more, trolling motor, battery, oars.......well when I get off my little smallmouth river and get on heavier flows guess what? That's right your speed drops, especially if you're caring extra bodies. You might want to look at Tohatsu 50/35, it's a 200lb motor and a 2 stroke. Not many people are running them though so it's hard to find info on them.

A 200 lb 50/35 would be amazing.

 

[JL8Jeff]

I have a Mercury 60/45 2 stroke on my 1652 and it's a bit of overkill with just me in the boat but it was the only short shaft jet I could find. I think it shows the weight around 215 lbs and it doesn't have power T&T, but with the piston helping, I can usually tilt it up in 1 try(I weigh 150 lbs). Did you check Aquatong Marine to see if they have any jets leftover? They are closing shop and had some decent prices on some smaller motors.

 

[Wood_Duck]

I'm running a 2013 30/25 Mercury. It is a fantastic motor and mines been ran quite abit in the time I've had it. Fuel consumption is fantastic. I've got it on an all welded Lowe 1546 with 3 batteries and 80lb terrova. With me and a very heavy box of muskie gear I've been able to hit 18. Two people and it's around 12. You should do much better with your hull though.