shopping for a ski/wb boat

[txbandit44]

I moved this from the general boating questions forum...


Basically I got a bass boat and its just that a bass boat. To small to pull a skier. My wife wants to ski personally i dont care for it much, maybe that will change. I have started to look at ski boats and I dont mind tinkering and doing alittle work here and there. Have discovered that I/O or direct drive motors are mostly fairly easy to work on.

?'s

When looking for an older I/O what are some things to look out for?
Should I steer more towards mercrusier, volvo penta, chevy, ford......?
I am looking for someting in the early 90's and older, what brands should I just flat out avoid?

What is a good horse power rating? I have seem alot of v8 v6 I-4 and I-6 engines in boats, does the block configureation make a difference or should I just look at horse power numbers?

What style boats will make good universal water sport boats?

The big question I/O , Direct drive or Jet?

I have only seen a few jet boats and most where for pissing off fishermen, going fast, and only 2 or 3 people could fit in it. But I have seen online the new seadoo jet boats. Theyt look pretty cool, i like the safety factor it gives haveing no prop. Are there any older versions of these runnabout style jet boats?

Just wanted to get some insight, if there is already a thread on this point me to it. I cant seem to get search working properly. bout all i can do is post and scan post by post in a forum. all my searches come up blank.



thanks for the help

 

[FLWakeRider]

Re: shopping for a ski/wb boat

If you want to do a lot of skiing off of it, jet boats are really tough. Since they have no prop in the water, they skid across the water from the back end when a lot of force is pulling against it (I.E. - A skier cutting outside of the wake), the same way a standard jetski does.

I personally have a MerCruiser I/O on a 17' Open Bow. This motor is simply a Ford I-4 with a few marine components tact on to it (Around 125 HP? - Untested).
Does anything I need it to do (I am intermediate wakeboarder, and an advanced kneeboarder. My dad does a lot of skiing as well.), and it is also a nice boat to just cruise around in when not pulling anyone. It doesn't create a big massive wake for wakeboarding, but...
1) This is the opposite you want for skiing
2) Unless you are getting pretty advanced at wakeboarding, the big wake is not really used.

 

[Uraijit]

Re: shopping for a ski/wb boat

Chevy and Ford, while they make the engines found on boats, do not have a drive package.

Volvos, Yamahas, Mercruiser, and OMC are the common brands of drive systems.

Inboards are generally the best for wakeboarding (that's a true inboard, not an I/O). But generally, those are the newer wakeboarding boats with a V-Drive. The older inboards are probably not going to have very many positives.

Personally, I'd look for a Volvo I/O setup with a Chevy engine. 4.3L if you're looking for decent power with better gas mileage. A 350 if you want more power. I'd stay away from the 305 since it's sorta the worst of both worlds.

Second choice (and what I have) would be a Mercruiser. They're pretty solid drives as well.

Whatever you do, stay away from Yamaha and OMC!

And like the last poster said, don't bother with a jet boat if you're planning to pull anything behind it. Even an I/O can be pulled around if a boarder/skier cuts hard, and you don't have a tower on it. You'd be all over the water in a jet boat.

An I/O is just as safe as a jet, as long as you're shutting off the engine to load/unload (which you're supposed to do anyway to avoid Carbon Monoxide poisoning).

 

[Liquid_force]

Re: shopping for a ski/wb boat

Nice inboards won't come cheap, but that would be ideal if you're looking for a high quality used ski/wake boat. You'd probably be in the 10k range for something nice.

If you're more on the budget side of things 5-8k can get a good I/O. I found a 19.5' 4.3L OMC for <$4K. It was 14 y/o at the time. Needed minor TLC, but was basically lake ready.
I recommend something in the 18-20' range.
There are 10-15 yr old boats out there in great condition with a lot of life left, but on the other hand there are 5 yr old boats that are garbage.

I agree that the 4.3L is a great all around motor for water sports in a boat that size.

I happen to really like my 4.3L OMC/cobra outdrive. They are great set ups when properly maintained, but if you DO have a problem with one parts and service are getting more and more difficult to find as they went out of business several years ago.

Mercruiser stern drives are the most common, and parts/service are readily available.
From an engineering standpoint a lot of experts claim the Volvo/Penta's are the best.

Ford/Chevy doesn't make much difference IMO.

 

[Uraijit]

Re: shopping for a ski/wb boat

Nice inboards won't come cheap, but that would be ideal if you're looking for a high quality used ski/wake boat. You'd probably be in the 10k range for something nice.

If you're more on the budget side of things 5-8k can get a good I/O. I found a 19.5' 4.3L OMC for <$4K. It was 14 y/o at the time. Needed minor TLC, but was basically lake ready.
I recommend something in the 18-20' range.
There are 10-15 yr old boats out there in great condition with a lot of life left, but on the other hand there are 5 yr old boats that are garbage.

I agree that the 4.3L is a great all around motor for water sports in a boat that size.

I happen to really like my 4.3L OMC/cobra outdrive. They are great set ups when properly maintained, but if you DO have a problem with one parts and service are getting more and more difficult to find as they went out of business several years ago.

Mercruiser stern drives are the most common, and parts/service are readily available.
From an engineering standpoint a lot of experts claim the Volvo/Penta's are the best.

Ford/Chevy doesn't make much difference IMO.

The main argument for getting a Chevy VS. Ford engine, is that Chevy's are much more common, and parts are cheaper and easier to find. Things like Manifolds and risers are considerably cheaper.

Even the engines, should he have to replace it (God forbid) are much cheaper and easier to find. Not to mention that the swap between the 5.0 and 5.7 is a simple drop-in. Not so with Fords. One can even buy a different size short block, and bolt their heads, intake, and distro right onto it. Try that with Fords...

 

[txbandit44]

Re: shopping for a ski/wb boat

I am leaning more to chevy just cause I have more experiance with GM poweer plants. Do the volvo penta out drives come with volvo motors? I was looking at a boat awhile back that the owner said it was a volvo 4 cyl. Which would be sweet since my Dad worked on volvo for 20yrs.

Are there any boat BRANDS i should steer clear of?

 

[Uraijit]

Re: shopping for a ski/wb boat

I don't know about the 4-cyls, but the 8 cyls are generally Chevies.

 

[craze1cars]

Re: shopping for a ski/wb boat

Volvo and Mercruiser I/O's are General Motors marine engine blocks. In both you'll find your typical 3.0, 4.3, 5.0, 5.7, 7.4 configurations. They are nearly identical to each other when it comes to the engine part, but quite different from each other in the oudrives. Both are good. Mercruiser is obviously much more common, but if you have a place local for you that services the Volvo drives, there's absolutely nothing wrong with them...many like them better than the Mercruiser 'cause they engage more smoothly into gear with cone clutches.

Beware OMC. These were very popular for a long time. If you're shopping older boats (80's and early 90's) you'll find these very frequently...and probably very inexpensive to buy and therefore attractive. This is the only brand of I/O that I recall ever using Ford engines in the past few decades. Not that there was anything wrong with Ford engines or OMC drives, but the only reason I say stay away is because OMC went out of business sometime in the mid 90's....so parts availability and service locations are becoming more scarce every year. but if that doesn't scare you, they were and are still reliable. A few of the late OMC's are absolutely identical to the Volvo Penta drives, and can be service by Volvo dealers with Volvo parts. Therefore these are probably the best of the OMC batch...I don't know exactly which years fit this description, but it was somewhere in the mid 90's. There's an I/O and Inboard subforum on i-boats with people more knowledgeable than I on this stuff. Ask some questions over there if you're interested in specifics.

You might stumble across a Toyota out there as well. Lexus engines, Toyota outdrives. They were made for a only few years in the late 90's. They were good and reliable, but are very rare. Therefore getting them serviced and repaired CANNOT be easy.

That's all I can think of that you might run into when shopping for an I/O. If you're shopping mid 90's and newer, by and large you'll find mostly Mercruisers and some Volvos. And both are excellent choices.

INBOARDS: I presume you realize these are a TOTALLY different animal from I/O's? Sounded like it from your post. An inboard is a true ski boat with engine mounted dead center in the boat, prop is below the boat in a fixed position and has rudder steering. Inboards have no bow rise on accelleration, and have a much nicer wake for skiing. No tilt/trim option which means shallow water must always be avoided. An I/O can be skiied behind, but is more of a runabout/all purpose boat, with engine and drive mounted way in the back which causes slower planing and more bowrise. Inboards are poor in rough water because the bottom of their hulls are almost perfectly flat toward the rear of the boat...whereas I/O v-hull boats would do much better in the rough. Indmar is an extremely popular name brand in direct drive inboards, often Indmar utilized Ford and GM engine blocks. Nothing wrong with them at all. Easy to find parts and service for.

There's also the V-drive option. They're a newer option. I know little about these but I intend to shop them seriously when I'm getting ready to buy. Sort of like an inboard in terms of prop and rudder positioning, but with the engine mounted in the back, preventing the huge annoying engine cover in the center of your sitting area. Better engine weight balance than an I/O, but not as good as a true Inboard. Sort of a hybrid between the two. These are extremely popular in modern wakeboard boats.

Jetdrives? Plenty of power, extrememly fun to drive and can actually do tricks in them like a big PWC, great shallow water capabilities. I'm told they use more fuel than a prop boat. I'm also told they are less ideal to ski behind due to the jetwash...often requires a longer rope to keep skiiers and tubers out of the annoying wash. But I have no personal experience with them so take this with a grain of salt. Sea Doo is very popular, as is Yamaha. Both are reportedly very reliable and service is easy to get if you have their dealers around.