Kurt Douglas
Active Member
Are they still allowing 2 stroke motors on the Lake. I have heard rumor that they either have or are thinking about banning these from Powell. Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks
Thanks
I think every bass boat on the lake is running a 2-stroke!
The only two stroke I would consider would be the Evinrude e-Tec. And, due to weight alone, I would probably prefer that over a 4-stroke.
Seems most of the outboards I saw last year were 4-strokes. Lots of Verados out there.
I admittedly don't follow the outboard market that close. But from what I have seen, Honda is probably the furthest back in innovation (not saying it is a bad motor, but I think it is pretty much the same over the last 10 + years).The only real innovation Evinrude has done over the past 15 or so years has been the injection system. I just don't see how Evinrude can remain sustainable in the future. Mercury and Yamaha own a bunch of boat companies and have power contracts with others which makes them dominate in fresh water power. Honda and Suzuki are big into the off-shore market. It seems Evinrude's primary focus is on the high-performance bass boat industry, and those options are relatively few due to Mercury and Yamaha's dominance. All I know is I only see a handful of newer Evinrude engines on Lake Powell every year, but I see tons of Mercs and Yamahas as well as a few Hondas.
The big advantages 2-strokes enjoyed in the past have been weight and acceleration/top-end performance, but both Yamaha and Mercury 4-strokes are getting lighter and are performing better. Yamaha's big block 4-strokes are now comparable in weight to most DFI 2-strokes. Mercury's 4-strokes are still heavier, but they have gotten a bit lighter as well. The last real 2-stroke holdout in fresh water is the high performance bass boat market, but we're now even seeing 4-strokes making major inroads there.
Ed Gerdemann
@mtnpull , I was all ready to refute your arguments regarding weight, and I did a little research, and it looks like there is actually less of a weight difference than I thought.
Mercury only lists its "lowest weight" while Evinrude lists specifics, but the short story is there is only a 20 pound difference in 60 HP models (which is pretty significant % wise). The 200 HP models are close in weight as well.
I'm very surprised, as the mass of a 60 HP e-tec is much smaller than my Mercury.
So maybe weight isn't a reason to choose one over the other.
I still think that e-tec has advantages on maintenance (virtually none) and performance (the tests I have seen reveal petter hole shot and WOT speed) vs the 4-strokes. I would also argue that 150 pounds is a significant difference in a boat, but since weight difference is all but neutral, I can't even argue about that.
Either way, there are some great options out there for outboards. And I am still very jealous of your new boat.
All the new motors are so much better than the old, smoky, unreliable 2 strokes. I am still running a carbureted, oil injected 3 cylinder Mercury 90 from 2003. This design is all over central and south America, low tech and bulletproof, easy fix if something does break. But they run rough when cold, smoke at idle and are much dirtier and less fuel efficient than the new engines. I look at the new models online...I just cant justify the 10k to replace mine with a new one!