Who supplies iboats sterndrives?

[Ed Cheek]

Moderator1,<br /><br />I understand your position of not wanting to advertise for the competition and deleting the thread I started about the $1,195 drive. A couple of questions for you. Do you make your drives? If not, who makes your rebuilt sterndrives? Who makes your new drives? Who stands behind the warranty? you or the manufacturer? It seems your prices are a little high -- why's that? How do I know if I get full credit for the core if I buy a rebuilt?

 

[dick]

Re: Who supplies iboats sterndrives?

If there like the outboards listed on this site they drop ship from the dealer who is selling them its the dealer who stands behind them.Iboats is a middle man / broker.

 

[Ed Cheek]

Re: Who supplies iboats sterndrives?

First let me say thanks to all of you that have emailed me with some good advise. This is a great site <br /><br />But why no answers to my questions? I know it's Christmas, but I see other questions and postings being answered by moderator1 yesterday and today. If you need some time to do research on your product, say so. <br /><br />We want to fix this boat next week so we have some decisions to make. Iboats says they want to sell drives and we are in the market to buy -- give us a sales pitch. This boat's coming back to life!

 

[kdmiller8251]

Re: Who supplies iboats sterndrives?

ED:<br /><br />I am no expert but I believe that the moderators do not have knowledge of the parts specifics on this site. They are just here to offer their advice, knowledge and police the boards. They are not salesmen they are just good people giving us their experience for free. <br /><br /> I would go and contact the people on the page for the sterndrives I believe the number is <br /> 1-800-869-1686 for questions. <br /><br />Tallman

 

[moderator1]

Re: Who supplies iboats sterndrives?

Ed, Yes, it is Christmas. Sorry about delay in the answers to your questions.<br /><br />I am not an employee of iboats. I am another long time member of this forum that has been entrusted with watching out for the best interests of our host.<br /><br />Your question has been forwarded to iboats management. I'm sure that they will answer it when they return to business.<br /><br />In the meantime, you could call their 800 number (1-800-869-1686) on the 26th. and inquire.

 

[Ed Cheek]

Re: Who supplies iboats sterndrives?

Tallman,<br /><br />Seems kind of screwy to me. They don't want anyone discussing other suppliers, and they don't want to discuss theirs -- so it seems not much info is being discussed at all. What's the point? <br /><br />(But I guess it is their site and they get to make the rules.)

 

[Ed Cheek]

Re: Who supplies iboats sterndrives?

Moderator1,<br /><br />I thought you worked for them. We'll call in the morning. Thanks.

 

[Walt T]

Re: Who supplies iboats sterndrives?

I am the moderator of another boat repair site and I can say I agree 100% with iboats deleteing the thread. It ticks me off when jerks post their products or services on our forum without asking permission just to try to get something for nothing. Well guess what it's not nothing. We have to pay for the bandwidth. It's EXACTLY like an advertiser sending you an unwanted fax which costs you paper. It's especially annoying when it is a competitor advertising on your site.<br /><br />Let me just say I'd rather pay more for a drive from iboats I know will be warrantied if there is a problem. For those of ya'll that still have the site address for those 1195.00 drives, read that site carefully. You will note they dont use any Merc parts. <br /><br />Never ever forget YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR! <br /><br />Those drives are a lot cheaper than what I can rebuild one for if I count labor. But I use genuine Merc parts. Sorry, I'll stick with my supplier, I simply can't afford to lose my reputation.

 

[Lark40]

Re: Who supplies iboats sterndrives?

If I'm buying a new Sony DVD player for under $150, then I'll order it from any lowest-price no-name internet source. That's usually worth the risk.<br /><br />For a major boating item like an outboard, marine engine, or sterndrive, I will only deal with a local dealer I have a comfortable experience with. Having bought items from iBoats, I will include them in this group.<br /><br />It doesn't bother me if they want 5 or 10 percent more than the lowest price out there. What would bother me much more would be a dead boat in June with the prospect of a long feud with a seller not taking responsibilty to get it fixed ASAP.<br /><br />Learned long ago to pay a little more not to have to worry about being stuck when I most want to be out playing.

 

[Lou C]

Re: Who supplies iboats sterndrives?

Hey Lark!!<br />did you already re-power your OMC boat??<br />Seems like just a month ago we were talking about it.<br />If so, I would love to hear of your experience.<br />I second the idea of only dealing with a local trusted dealer, changing outdrives is not hard but you don't want to be doing it over and over and waiting for some place you have never seen to honor their warr. Just not worth saving a few $$.

 

[Lark40]

Re: Who supplies iboats sterndrives?

Lou,<br /><br />The work order is signed and paid and the package should be arriving from Volvo in a few weeks. Thought I'd go ahead and update my signature now. Starcraft went from OMC to Mercruiser, so my Volvo rig will probably be unique.

 

[Boatist]

Re: Who supplies iboats sterndrives?

Ed Cheek<br />I bought some rebuilt parts for my outdrive. If you click on the parts you want and look around I think you will find they have several groups that supply parts. When I did mine they had three different groups. Each had a different price and a different warranty. Warranty veried greatly, the higher cost one were almost no question ask while the cheaper ones had lots of conditions. The biggest thing I did not like was any question you ask have to go thru Iboat and then they will call the supplier for answers. Useing this format hard to get a lot of info and be exactly sure what you are getting. I think they are all high quality dealers. Any return also had to go thru Iboat.

 

[Ed Cheek]

Re: Who supplies iboats sterndrives?

What's some good questions to ask a sterndrive supplier? Obviously price and warranty, what else? Any big no-no's to watch out for? Who are the big aftermarket parts suppliers? I've heard of GML and Serra, are they OK? Any thoughts on new versus reman?<br /><br />As you can see, we're still trying to make a decision. For our pocket books, this is pretty big money.

 

[Walt T]

Re: Who supplies iboats sterndrives?

find out if they use OEM hard parts. Sierra has good stuff, they've been around awhile.

 

[Bhamil]

Re: Who supplies iboats sterndrives?

To Ed Cheek; DieselWalt's advice is good. OEM is always safe; usually more expensive but like others have said, better to pay more and be safe than risk a failure off-shore!! Sierra parts are first rate and after that, I don't know of anyone else I would use. That's not to say there aren't other suppliers of good, quality parts, I just don't go past OEM and Sierra. Also, never follow advice you can't verify from another source, no matter how well intended it may be. I know mechanic's who are dunces and I know of people like Dieselwalt (whom I don't know at all) who gives good, sound advice and has been right as often as I've cross-checked him. Oh yes, and remanufactured units can be as good as new, it all depends on what they started with and the quality of parts that went in it. Myself, I have bought reman and have had no problems but, there's always a first time!

 

[Ed Cheek]

Re: Who supplies iboats sterndrives?

OK, I here you about OEM (or in this case Mercury) parts but I am trying to think of the last time that I took my car to the dealer. Truth is, I don't remember. Which means I've been maintaining my Toyota and my wifes Buick with non genuine parts for about 10 years. Is marine that different? Is Serra OEM? If we buy a rebuilt drive, will the rebuilder use exclusively Merc parts? I am currently debating this issue with my brother in law and it's hard to justify forking over $2500 for this boat. In fact for that amount, I think it's totaled. Is it possible that an aftermarket drive will get us another 3 or 4 years of use? For less than half the price, that's a bargain.

 

[rodbolt]

Re: Who supplies iboats sterndrives?

hello<br /> yep dont use parts of an unknown quality. aftermarket auto stuff is a rather large market. aftermarket Marine is very limited. parts cost. quality sometimes costs more. ask ben from Va beach about some local places he will tell ya we got some shysters. a cousin of mine bought a "rebuilt" alpha drive from a budjet junk dealer in chesapeake. it leaked from the outset. whne I was finally talked into looking at it it had been rebuilt with bondo and krylon but the warrenty of 30 days had expired. lucky he had not given his original drive back as a core. I rebuilt his original drive and it cost him almost 2200 not counting the 1500 he paid for the junk drive. and 2100 was the original quote I gave him before he found a cheaper one. so look at the warrenty but I always reccommend finding someone local or at least paying with a credit card in case there is a major problem. I have seen some rebuild shops that crank out junk.<br />good luck and keep posting

 

[DJ]

Re: Who supplies iboats sterndrives?

Ed Cheek,<br /><br />If you don't like the OEM stuff, don't buy it.<br /><br />Your choice. Stop kibitzing and buy what you want.<br /><br />Are you buying, or selling? <br /><br />I think, the latter.

 

[Ed Cheek]

Re: Who supplies iboats sterndrives?

Hey Djohns19, I'm neither buying or selling. I'm helping someone else figure out what to do. <br /><br />And correct me if I'm wrong, but a message board is nothing but a "group Kibitz". And since it appears that neither of us geeks have anything better to do on New Years eve, I suggest we just continue kibitzing together. So go ahead and share your thoughts on the subject at hand. I'm all ears.

 

[Walt T]

Re: Who supplies iboats sterndrives?

Hey Djohns, Do ya think Ed was on the grassy knoll too?