Looking for opinions and advice

[Jeanninect]

Hello all!

We bought a 90 Four Winns Freedom 150 15' boat with the stock 60hp Johnson. Found out soon after the 60 was junk - low compression - center cyl 20 lbs less.
We found a 93 Johnson V4 115 hp. We were told the largest motor this boat was designed to hold is a Johnson 90 hp which is also a V4. The dry weight on the 90 is 300# and the 115 is 315#. The 60 was 250#. Would you put that motor (115) on this boat? We don't plan to open it up. Mostly use on a local pond pulling tubes/fishing or crossing a river to dig steamers. Do you think the transom will be under water? I saw people say that on other posts. Thanks for your input!

 

[Tnstratofam]

It's not so much of if the extra 15lbs is gonna matter so much as exceeding your max hp on your boats rating plate. That can get you in trouble with your local law enforcement, and or the us coast guard. Not to mention if you are in an accident with the larger motor on your boat your insurance may not cover any costs associated with the accident.

 

[Jeanninect]

Thank you for the good information.

 

[southkogs]

Welcome aboard Jeanninect:

Capacity plate should be up by the helm. It's usually got some yellow on it like a caution sticker, and it'll have max number of people you can have on board, max weight and max HP.

According to THIS your boat is rated for 60HP. You can contact FOUR WINNS directly if you can't find the plate and wanna' double check.

Local laws and insurance deal with overpowering a boat differently, so you want to understand how your area deals with it before you opt to overpower it. You also get different results from different hulls when you juice up the power ... some of 'em don't really deliver any noticeable difference except adding a few knots to the speed. Others get downright scary to drive.

If it's legal to do in your area, and your insurance isn't negatively affected - then the added weight won't be a problem. How will the boat react to having almost twice the recommended HP on it? No tellin' 'till you try it.

That said - a 60HP Johson/Evinrude on a 15' boat will do quite a bit. We used to have one when I was growing up. We could pretty easily pull two skiers, and with a bit of a struggle even get three up. I don't know how the newer ones are, but the older (eighties and nineties) 3 cylinder Johnson/Evinrude motors are great motors.