Thread: Honda, Suzuki, Yamaha any good / 4 stroke okay?

For years I ran johnson/evinrude motors. My bay boat has a 150 yamaha four stroke. I would never buy anything else. Quite, dependable to start in any weather. Extremely fuel efficient and I use only 100% gasoline. No ethanol in my boat if I can help it!

Originally Posted by livemusic

You use the 3 golf cart batteries for trolling motor? Golf cart batteries 'work' for this? Are they cheaper or why do you use them? What are your other 2 batteries dedicated to, both cranking or cranking and electronics or just what? Spare? Thanks, interesting!

The golf cart batteries should deliver 50% more trolling time than a deep cycle series 31 battery. I have a dedicated electronics battery and dedicated crank battery also.

Honda for me. I've had johnson, mercury, nissan/ tohatsu, and none of them compared to my hondas. when i bought my boat new, i had a 50 honda 4 stroke on it and it ran great. Gas milage was really unbelievable. Started fishing a few tourneys with friends and decided to upgrade to a 90 honda 4 stroke. Love it. Gas milage isnt as great as the 50 but it's still great on gas. Up here in PA, we have some restricted HP lakes. These lakes are 20 or smaller HP. I've been using a 20 tohatsu tiller for the last four years after having a merc 9.9 tiller. Got tired of sitting in the back of the boat so this spring i upgraded again to a 20 HP honda with remote and tilt and trim. Haven't run it full yet as i'm gonna break it in slowly. As has been said, everyone here has their favorite. Mine is the quiet running, easy on gas, Honda. And i get them serviced at the dealership i bought them from. 1 hour away from me.

Im sure most of the 4 stroke motors are good but IMO the 115 Yamaha is one of the best outboard motors ever made. I have 2 friends who run them and I have had one for 10 years. Never touched it except to change oil and it has a lot of hard hours on it.

As the story goes, Tohatsu manufactures Mercury and Evinrude motors up to a certain HP. I have heard 30hp and under Mercurys and 15HP and below Evinrudes are rebranded Tohatsus. I don't know how accurate that is or if that is the entire motor or just the powerhead though.

I'm also fairly certain that Tohatsu and Suzuki have the longest standard factory warranty out of all manufacturers, at 5 years.

Me, I think overall I still prefer the older Johnson/Evinrude 2-strokes purely based on the fact that if they have a good lower unit and even compression they can be made to run like new with not a whole lot of work nor money. That is due to the simplicity of a 2-stroke and parts availability. However, if I was buying new and not looking to power a high speed bass boat I would likely go with a 4-stroke for all of the known benefits and knowing that I will take care of it to make it last.

I have heard no issues lately on any of the motors themselves. Biggest issue is finding service on some of them. Lots of Suzuki's and Tohatsu's sold around here and are strong reliable motors as well as the Honda's. Problem with the 3 of them in this area is service. Even a lot of the sales centers do not actually sevice them. Mercury and Yamaha service/repair centers are numerous and Evinrude are not too hard to find. So best bet is to make sure whatever you are buying you can get service if needed. I run a Mercury and have had zero issues at all.

All the brands you listed have been around for a long time. As far as avoiding 4 strokes, I'm hearing and seeing the opposite. As long as you keep clean fresh fuel in them, there are very few issues.

Another thing about your newer 4 strokes. In the last couple of years Mercury and Yamaha have redesigned their motors to be competitive with the 2 strokes. They have reduced the weight, increased the torque and HP where they perform right beside a comparable 2 stroke of any brand. From everything I can read if you buy a Suzuki you don't have much need for a service center. They just don't have warranty failures and I'm sure honda would fall right in there also. I have a 04 Yamaha and it's had one set of plugs and the oil changed.