What size outboard 20' wood Tollycraft?

[ashedd]

I have a1966 20' wood Tollycraft cabin cruiser and I need another motor.Data plate "recommends" 110 hp. It came with twin merc 500's in bad shape. I put an evinrude 115hp I had on there and it is a basket case. I just want to get the boat in the water, so I might buy a good used outboard in perfect working condition. What size would be acceptable? I have a 48 spl in storage but I know that won't plane the boat. I'm seeing several 65-90 hp outboards for sale locally that look promising.

 

[Sea Rider]

If you don't plan go boating with full passenger capacity as stated on tech plate you don't need to run a 110 HP OB. Can run underpowered 70-90 HP OB's in that range with maximized props to perform spot on.

Happy Boating

 

[boobie]

I'd put nothing less than a 90 HP on it. JMHO.

 

[Seahawk170]

Just a friendly word of caution. Today's 90hp 4-stroke outboards weigh quite a bit more than a 110hp 2-stroke from the late 60's.
My newer 90hp XL-shaft Yamaha weighs 381 lbs, and seem to remember that my old 1977 2-stroke 70hp Yamaha wieghed in at 190 lbs.
I would definitely make sure that the transom and stringers to transom are in very sound condition before heading out.

 

[ashedd]

Almost forgot about this thread...

I finally, after a lot of work, got the 115 evinrude 2 stroke up to par. I'm still doing some work to the boat itself. It's hard to find info on the boat but I think it weighs around 1200 Ibs. I'd like to put twin 55hp bearcats on there over the winter. I estimate that the bearcats would be 80 lbs heavier than the twin mercs, I'm thinking the twin mercs might have been a little heavier than the manufacturer recommended.

I'm pretty sure I'm going to beef up the transom and add a couple brackets to the stringers. It came from the factory with two small bracket on top of the transom to the splash well. Maybe that was added with the twin mercs. My only concern after the structural upgrades and how low it'll sit in the back. there's about 2 feet of freeboard from the transom to the water line now.