Great info on the 60 vs 75. No substitute for experience.
Biggest difference between the 60 and the 75 is the 60 will be a 2 cylinder vs the 3 cylinder 75. As you said, the fuel consumption with the 60 will be better than the 75. However, Most of the 16/17 ft Lunds with console steering are rated for up to a 90 Hp engine !! With 4 people and gear, that poor 60 is going to really be working hard. The 90 at 2/3 throttle and the same load will get pretty much the same fuel, and still have the reserve power if needed. Min hp just does not make sense at our altitude, on big wind swept water’s !!!
I’ve heard that argument before. It does not compute. Look at the gas consumption charts. The 75 horse cannot match the economy. We are talking 2-3 miles per hour faster. Maximum. All engines have thee ideal rpm range. Where they consume the least amount of fuel for a given rpm. The 75 Horse gives you a mild speed increase to a almost 20 percent decrease in economy.
Now about the 90 horse. MUCH more power. That might be worth the increase for power. Prop tuning would be much less significant. However you have now run the cost up 2500 bucks, you can still barely pull a skier (if you have just one person in the boat) and you have gained another 4-5 miles per hour over the mighty 75 horse motor. While do to the increase in weight you now have a butt heavy sitting pig, that has a great hole shot, but now is almost impossible to back troll out of and burns gas at rougy 165% of the rate of the little 60 at it's most efficient rpm.
Might as well move up to the 18 footers with a 125 horse motor, and a 9.5 horse kicker. At that point you can take on some bigger water at least. Look at the weight of the motors. Look at the fuel consumption of the boats. Better yet call Lund. Find out what engine those boats were MADE for. Keep in mind we have a 5 horse kicker motor, 4 adults full fuel tank cooler, and all our gear. The boat can plane from Strawberry Reservoir, Lake powell, Pathfinder, to Alcoa reservoir. It still goes a couple miles per hour less. But the mileage still kicks but, and except for pulling a skier has never lacked for lot power.
The average consumption of fuel is simply to divide the number of horse power by 10 to get your gallons per hour. We burn a touch less then 6 gallons per hour. A 75 horse weighs 140 pounds more, that is like adding a whole extra person. And the extra cylinder eats up more gas. Go to the 90 horse that is fine. That is roughly 9 gallons of fuel per hour with an increase of the same weight. And a whopping 5-6t miles an hour faster then our boat. The fact is smaller motors burn less gas per mile or per hour. And efficiency of hull is designed for a specific motor or weight. You go faster, but the penalty is fuel.
Our tank is 21 gallons and we go 3-4 days on Powell running in twice a day. The 90 horse motors go 2 1/2 days if they are Lucky. The 100+ motors have much larger tanks. So they get by on the Same schedule. On a 7 day trip we usually eat up 40 gallons. The 90 horse don't come close to 70 gallons. You pay for what you get. You pay more for horsepower, and get nothing in return. By the way running at a lower rpm actually decreases fuel economy at about 4500 rpm on the mercs. That means going slower increases the rate of gallons per hour. On top of going slower means more time running there.
Sorry for being long winded but I hate hearing people that use there boat 10 times a year expound on getting a bigger motor and dam the consequences. If you want a faster boat, get a bigger boat made for the higher horse power. Throwing a 150 horse motor on an 18 footer it looks sexy. On a 16 footer it looks like you are over compensating....
Wow Lunds with 115 hp. I got the 1660 classic back in 06 and it only came with a 40 4 cycle and a $100 fish finder. That said here in Ct I use it for my saltwater as well as bass fishing. 40 is way to small for this boat as it tops at 22mph one person. Will go for the 60 when the time is right. I have had no problems with the rivets, and run rough on the saltwater.
12volt is minamum for a day of bass fishing, should be a 24volt system. But that said, you’ll have to drag my dead cold hands from her. Amazing what it can take safely.
We bought our 20 Ft. Crestliner Tournament 202 from Robertson’s Marine and she is on her 13th season on the water. Never had any problem with the dealership, we have her serviced every year. The main motor is 225 HP Evinrude, never had a problem with it other than changing a couple plugs and a couple water pumps which they recommend to change every couple years, I will never run one of the big “Black Anchors” on my boat after running an Evinrude. I like the fully welded hulls with a lifetime warranty. No leaks and she is a good stable ride in rough water. The boat will run 51 MPH at Willard (GPS) with 60 gals. of fuel and two fisherman. [fishin]
Hey all you boat owners that have offered so much great advice. We need your help to show support for our veterans. We need boaters to come up and take a vet or 2 out fishing for few hours on Aug 4th. Please see the DAV Fishing Day sticky post at the top of the page and shoot me a PM if you can help us out. Most of the vets are not severely physically handicapped so please don’t worry about that being a concern.