30 or 40hp Outboard Engine Recomendations

[CJT]

I am after some recommendations for outboard engines.

I am going to purchase a Quintrex Busta 420 later in the year and it is rated to up to 40hp.

I am after a 30 - 40hp outboard for it. I will set it up with a side or small centre console, hydraulic steering and an off road trailer.

So two options;

Best outboard?
Best value outboard?
Thanks in advance.

[Ean Austral]

This topic will be like asking what are the best tyre's. But here's my 2c worth.

We had a boat hire business for 5 yrs and this is what we found.This is based on hours run/ service costs/ breakdowns/ and customer feedback.
We ran 2 x 30 hp pull start,4 x 40 hp electric start, plus 2 x 50 hp electric start.

1. Yamaha, we had a faultless run
2. Suzuki, was as good but more to service
3 Marineer/murcury noisy and very rarely trouble free, lots of fuel issues on the injected models.
4 Honda, heavy , useless piece of #@#@.

Plenty will disagree im sure, but we had engine hour meters on all our outboards,and 5 yrs of running, and thems the facts.

HTH,

Cheers Ean

[CJT]

Currently my thinking is leaning towards these two engines.

F40F | Yamaha Motor Australia (http://www.yamaha-motor.com.au/products/marine-outboard/4-stroke-mid-power/10-f40f)

40-HP | Inline Engines | Evinrude.com (http://www.evinrude.com/en-AU/Engines/ETEC_INLINES/ETEC_40_INLINE)

[Ean Austral]

We had the model before that Yamaha, but its basically the same..

I cant comment on the evenrude, but they get a good write up.

Cheers Ean

[roverrescue]

get the hull replated to 60 horses and bang an f60 yam on it?
Or if you dont deal with big currents and big distances run the yam f40.

See its easy - you only have two choices!


Your real question should be " should i buy a piece of junk quintrex?"
i am still yet to meet a post 1995 quinnie that i havnt been asked to weld up.
Like toyota they are trading on a name.

If your gonna run it off road - like good proper offroad, please consider a hull manufacturer who uses good materials glued together properly?

Steve

[Bowlinelandy]

I own a marine business and would support the others in their recommendations.
We run 3 x F60 yamahas and they are great. Hard to get second hand but we always buy new unless you really know the history of the engine.
We also run a Brooker 5.75m which has been in service 8 years has never needed welding or repair, thats with 3 divers, tanks & petrol water blaster on board. Very happy with that purchase.
If the boat is rated to a 40 bear in mind the age of the hull, 4 strokes only came on the market about 10 years ago and are heavy compared with the 2 strokes. This could be an issue for floatation and transom strength if its an older model.

Good luck

[Aussie]

I've got a stacer 4.2 and have a Johnson 40HP and its been faultless. I use it at least 2-3 times a month and have never had any issues. I got approx 50 kp/h when the boats trimmed correctly and I'd say you would get better fuel consumption than a 30 HP as it doesn't need to run full noise like a 30 would.

[isuzurover]

When I was looking around for an outboard, Steve (Roverrescue) and others recommended Yamaha. Steve said that they are usually the only outboard used by commercial fishermen, fisheries depts, csiro, etc etc... I did some digging as I know quite a few people who work for those organisations, and he was right...

So I bought a new Yamaha 4-stroke (F70A) and haven't regretted it.

[CJT]

Your real question should be " should i buy a piece of junk quintrex?"

Steve,

What about something like these instead?

Blue Fin Aluminium Boats - Barracuda Plate side boats (http://www.bluefinboats.com.au/barracuda.htm)

Aluminium Boats / Boat for Sale / Alloy Boats / Tinnie | Sea Jay Boats - Aluminium Pressed & Plate Alloy Boats (http://www.seajayboats.com.au/models/console/haven-sports)

I am currently getting a price on the Sea Jay, however the hull alone is likely to be at least 3 times the price of a quintrex, I dont mind spending the extra money although it will delay the purchase from late this year to probably mid next year.

Then there is also the extra cost of a 70 - 80hp over the cheaper 40hp.

I realise at the end of the day I would have a slightly bigger and much better boat that should last for years.

[Ean Austral]

I can fully relate to what the others are saying, but you are looking at a 4.2 mtr , not large , but with a 40 hp would be plenty. If you want to go bigger HP the maybe go 4.5 or 4.6 but keep it in perspective.

You seem to feel 4.2 was big enough for your usage so maybe you need to work out what you want / need first then start looking at you brand options.

Of course just my 2c worth

Cheers Ean

[CJT]

Ean,

Basically I am after a boat between the 4.2m - 4.8m mark that is rated for 4 - 5 people.

Both the Blue Fin and the Sea Jay can be had in either a 4.55 or 4.85 which would suit my needs well.

There are a couple of reasons for choosing that size,

It will fit in the garage
It should be relatively easy to tow with the D2 wherever I want to go.

[DeanoH]

Mate of mine bought one of these early march.

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2012/04/396.jpg

We went down to Lake Tyers for the (extra) long weekend. Maiden voyage and all he was pretty impressed with the Suzuki 30 HP electric start. Plenty of power with two big blokes aboard even though he didn't get past 2/3 throttle for most of the weekend whilst running in with a slightly oily mixture.

The weather might have been a bit miserable at times but we did better than this poor bloke :( :wasntme:

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2012/04/397.jpg


Could be a cheap Evinrude here, only used once. Swap you for a couple of bungs!!:o

Deano:)

[Ean Austral]

Ean,

Basically I am after a boat between the 4.2m - 4.8m mark that is rated for 4 - 5 people.

Both the Blue Fin and the Sea Jay can be had in either a 4.55 or 4.85 which would suit my needs well.



There are a couple of reasons for choosing that size,
It will fit in the garage
It should be relatively easy to tow with the D2 wherever I want to go.


We had 2 quintrex 4.55 mtr topenders 1 with 40 hp and 1 with 50 hp both Yamaha's , our D2 towed them easy and were our most sort after tinnies, along with the Burmuda viper at 4.6mtrs, but sadly had a 40 hp injected Mariner outboard.
Our 4.55 mtr sea jay with a 40 hp honda was our worst, but that was more the outboard rather than the tinnie.

As our tinnies were in survey, off the shelf the quintrex were the best according to the surveyors.

Again I am only relating our expierience with our boat hire business, which was mostly top end rivers, sure not rough , but plenty of tide, upto 7 mtrs movement over the spring tides.

All our tinnies over 4.5 mtrs were surveyed for 5 people.

HTH

Cheers Ean

[CJT]

Did you ever have issues with cracking in the Quintrex models after lots of towing etc?

[Ean Austral]

Did you ever have issues with cracking in the Quintrex models after lots of towing etc?

No, but because everyone up here wants to catch barra and wanted cast decks, on all our tinnies we put in a flat plate from the front bench seat thru to the front inside of the hull at the bow.. Cheap to do, so whether that strenghtened them or not I am unsure.

Cheers Ean

[roverrescue]

badly designed trailers and short chop kills the current quinnie sad excuse for ribs.

4.5 is a good size for a proper off road rig. F60 or F70 on the tiller is my preference for space and maneuvering in tight country.
4.8s with big 150kg donks require a fair bit more thought on the trailer. Consider dual axles etc.

Bluefin make solid hulls, as do seajay and stacer. Lots of options. Check out mako craft too. Their 455 or whatever with an F60 will do big rivers but also scoot out to the reef? And really well built.

S

S

[DeanoH]

Basically I am after a boat between the 4.2m - 4.8m mark that is rated for 4 - 5 people...........................................



Down here in the nanny state 4.8's the magic number. Under this it's mandatory for adults to wear life jackets, so size is important for other reasons.

Re my mates 4.2m Busta. Great tinny, comfortable for 2 adults maybe 3 at a pinch, but I reckon a bit too 'friendly' for 4 or 5. Even with kids, as they tend to move around a lot they can need as much room or more than adults. When you add the rods, tackle boxes, clothes, eskys etc I reckon a 4.2m will soon become pretty small with 5 in it.
My old 15' (4.6m) deHavilland tinny is just OK with 5 adults though a bit of a stretch for the equally antique 30 HP Johnson.
As to quality of Quintrex, I've also a (probably) 30+ yo 12' tinny which gets up quite nice with a 8.5 HP merc and 2 adults on board. Tried the same motor on another mates identical length/beam Savage. Couldn't believe the difference. The antique Quintrex absolutely killed the Savage in every respect. I was amazed, only good for a kinder sand pit. Most unstable boat I've ever been on.
But, horses for courses I suppose. Depends what you want to do with it and how deep the pockets are I guess.

Deano:)

[isuzurover]

Steve,

What about something like these instead?

Blue Fin Aluminium Boats - Barracuda Plate side boats (http://www.bluefinboats.com.au/barracuda.htm)

Aluminium Boats / Boat for Sale / Alloy Boats / Tinnie | Sea Jay Boats - Aluminium Pressed & Plate Alloy Boats (http://www.seajayboats.com.au/models/console/haven-sports)

I am currently getting a price on the Sea Jay, however the hull alone is likely to be at least 3 times the price of a quintrex, I dont mind spending the extra money although it will delay the purchase from late this year to probably mid next year.

Then there is also the extra cost of a 70 - 80hp over the cheaper 40hp.

I realise at the end of the day I would have a slightly bigger and much better boat that should last for years.

I bought a BlueFin Viking 5.0 (there is a thread on here). I was going to buy a 4.75 w/F60 yamaha, but at the last minute decided to go for an 5.0 w/F70A.

IME blue fin are extremely well built boats, especially where it counts. I paid the extra for a 4 mm hull bottom (3 mm sides). Compare that to the bottom (sides) of a Quintrex.

IME the only downside of the viking is that it is an allrounder. i.e. pounds more offshore than a really deep V, so cannot go as fast (in comfort), but conversely has a reasonably shallow draft in estuaries. Despite expectations it planes very easily in calm water.

[harlie]

This is interesting… Like others I can only give my experiences.

Between Myself and my Farther we currently have 3 Hondas (6 year old 150 & 30, 9 year old 15) all have been mechanically faultless, have no idea what mech warranty is like none of then have stopped, however they all have paint blistering which is very ordinary and seems to be common, the 150 and 30 have been repainted under warranty. The factory supplied props need to go in the bin but once a decent prop is fitted they are a beautiful machine to use. I have found the dealer support to be very poor especially in Brisbane, Dad’s in Hervey Bay where the local dealer is excellent. Would I buy another Honda – No, but only due to lack of dealer support, My Dad will.

In December last year we sold our 10m cat. It has twin Yamahas and I have never owned a more unreliable anything! We bought it new in 2007 (1600hrs when sold) and was dealer serviced every 100-120 hrs. Both engines failed, prt side 2 times, stb side 4 times, giving us more than one break down / year. The first 2 failures were in warranty period (was only 2 years), when we arrived in closest hbr (Airlie & Gladstone) the respective dealer came down and both times we were told that “Claims must be approved by Yamaha Australia before work is done and that can take 2-3 weeks” WTF! Might be ok if you can park your trailer boat at the dealer during this time but we are stranded some 600nm from home! So IMO Yamaha warranty is not worth anything, to enable us to continue our holiday repair bills had to be paid for. Also, dealers never had parts in stock, every time it was a wait for the failed part to come from Sydney. Only upside was corrosion resistance, this boat was moored and the engines looked like new when sold which is truly remarkable. All I can say from 5 years of Yamaha ownership is lucky I had 2 of them or there would have been some very expensive rescue bills – June 2010 one failed to start 80nm SE of Mackay, Strong wind warning issued for the next day. Would I buy another Yamaha, Jury’s out, dealer support is good, factory is not. I know my engines saw plenty of use and a tinnie scenario would be completely different, but I had no confidence in them and Yamaha Aus just screwed us over forcing it to court both times. Every one keeps telling me how Yamaha never give trouble, But I don’t think I could support the business again, It will be a long time before I forget the feeling of hoping the 2nd engine doesn’t stop on our way in. The stress of birthing in an unfamiliar marina with one engine was bad enough – try stopping a cat with one motor, they just want to spin around, after 6 times I was getting the hang of it.

On the original topic of 4.2 tinnies. Totally agree with Steve on the Quintex issue. No matter what brand you get, if you have a full floor ect fit out, I would recommend 40hp. I have a tiller 30 on the back of a Brooker 410 and its fine for 2, any more and it really wants more herbs, the 30 does it but its working hard. Have a look at Brooker, I bought one because of how they are built, the 410 and above are built with full plate bulkheads under the floor like big platies are built.

Fishing group at our local boat club, guys with E-Tec are very happy with them.

[Chenz]

I had a 40 HP Merc for many years and apart from a couple of impellers it never missed a beat and it went everywhere on an old 16ft Quintrex Fishabout - they don't make Quinnies like that anymore.

I have just bought a Barcrusher with an E-tec and can't fault it. The inline 40 e-tec gets some great right ups and a bloke I know that has one swears by it for power, quietness and economy.

I agree about the new model Quintrex still living on their name. Many features that are destined to fail. May be good for family Fred going out on the bay with the kids once a month but bashing it on off-road tracks is a recipe for many hours with an aluminium welding machine.

[LandyAndy]

Off topic.
The Quintrex models went not so good in what era????
I only ask as my tub Is a quasi Quintrex,5.25m Stacer Seamaster Sports with the EVO hull(Quintrex Milleneum Hull).
Same production line.
Its an impressive sea boat for a tinnie,as my more experienced seafaring mates tell me.
Andrew