Hours on a boat

[Arick]

Since I am purchasing my first boat hopefully here in the next month, I figured I should ask a few questions about hours. I tried searching for previous posts but I didn't see any.

What is considered high medium or low hours for a boat?

What is an average amount of hours per year?

What do I need to consider besides the motor on a boat with more hours?

-Arick

[WakingMeHappy]

Depends on the age of the boat. I have a 99 Sunsetter with 600+ hours. I consider that very low. These engines should last at least 3000 hours in my opinion.

[Bradley Thornton]

Boat should be good for 2500 to 3000+ hours IF and a big IF taken care of. Average per year is hard to say some people average 50 some 150. When looking look close at the interior of the boat how good has it been taken care of. If they don't take care of what you can see how good of care do you think they are going to do to what you can't see. Look at the motor is it clean or with good wires or do they need replacing. Does the oil filter look new or old. Do they have any paper work on the boat. If not ask what oil do they run make sure they know what goes in for engine and tranny. Maybe even ask what brand of oil. The best thing to do is take the boat to the dealer and have it checked out.

I would buy a boat with 1000 hours on it that has been taken care of before buying the same boat with 500 that was not taken care of.

[jaciche]

It all depends how the boat is used. IMO, If they sack out their boat for wakeboarding and surfing everytime their on the water, I would stay away from those. That's a lot of stress on the motor and tranny. It often leads to blowing a piston and having to rebuild at under 1000 hours. This is why when I wakeboard, I fill up the stock ballast and put some friends in the boat. The other is maintenance. The oil needs to be changed every 50 hrs if not less than that. There are people that change it every 30 or 40 hours. To me, I would never look at a boat with over 1000 hours even though I have skied behind a couple boats with over 1000 hrs and run like a champ with lots of power...And they were both nautiques....

We only put on about 50-80 hours each season but we ski behind friends' DD's and I am busy with my ski team. For people without towboats (I/O's, deck boats, speed boats), 50 hours is a lot. And I'm sure there are people on the crew that would be happy to put 50 hours on each year. Some people can put up to 300 a year that ride a lot and have longer seasons.

When looking at older boats, obviously the overall condition of the boat. I would stay away from boats with wood construction. Check the oil, and tranny fluids to look for any odd, rusty colors and I would check the compression in each cylinder. I'm not the one to ask about older boats though. Hope this helps.

[tccombs]

Generally i dont worry too much about hours. I have seen boats running just fine with over 2000 hours on them. But I have also seen boats with less than 300 have problems because of neglect. My best advice is ask lots of questions and pay more attention to the maintnance than hours.

I pay more attention to the overall condition of the boat and engine than i do hours. Consider if the previous owner seems to be meticoulous about the boat or not. Do they have service records? Can they talk intellegently about the work that has been done. How does the boat look? This will most likely tell you if it has been well taken care of. As far as hours. What you want to do is consider the age of the boat relitive to the number of hours it has as well as how it has been used. For example a really heavy overloaded wakeboard boat puts a lot of stress on transmission and engine.

I would expect to see about 40 hours per season on average for a normal ski boat. But more for a wakeboard boat because wakeboarders/ surfers tend to ride longer and sometimes they run the engines just to charge the batteries for the big stereos.

Some of the boats hour meters can be disconnected and fooled into showing less hours. I also had a boat years ago that would rack up hours on if the key was in the wrong position without the engine runnning.

Example . My boat is a 2006 Malibu response Lxi When i bought it in 2009 it was 3 years old but had only 50 hours on it. The boat looked like it was brand new and had been stored inside. I asked the previous owner why the boat had such few hours on it. I was told that he put almost all the hours on it the first year but then due to a injury he had sustained at work he was unable to use it the following 2 years. That was a red flag to me because if the engine sits too long without lubrication, then seals can start to go bad. But after further research he was able to show that even though the boat had not been really used. He pulled out a immaculate file folder showing every single receipt and maintnace record since he had purchased it.. these records showed that he had brought it in for service each year and operated for a short time dispite the fact that he had not really used it for the previous 2 years. that put me at ease as far as the engine. But a mistake i made was to ignore the fact that he had towed a tube from the tower. (that puts way too much pressure on the tower if the tube floods. I later had a stress chrack show up on the hull. Luckly this was covered under warentee ... I now have over 300 with no problems

[BlastRlxi]

I recently saw a boat on Ski-it-again.com that was selling with 3900 hours! It might still be there.

[TrickyNicky]

I recently saw a boat on Ski-it-again.com that was selling with 3900 hours! It might still be there.

You must mean on ski-it-again-and-again-and-again.com, that's impressive, probably wouldn't buy it even if it was very well maintained, which I'm sure ti was.

[cbmalibu98]

I agree with tccombs a well maintained boat with high hours would not scare me at all. But you really need to make sure that it is well maintained.

CB

[Arick]

I appreciate the feedback! Now I just need to find a nice VTX! Summer is approaching quick!

[DutchMalibu]

I traded in my 1000 hrs Response (from 2000) a couple of years ago. The boat - and engine - were in perfect condition and I'm pretty confident it will run for another 1000 without any major issues. But as others say, it's all about the maintenance and how people treat their boats.

[Nitrousbird]

Hours are kind of a joke. I'm worried more about 1000 hours on the interior and electronics than on the motor.

Further, a low hour boat can also spell trouble. You can have a 300 hour boat that spent a couple years of heavy use than sat for a number of years.

I personally would have a bit more concern for anything that averaged over 100 hours a year. At that point it just has a lot of use. But at the same time, if a boat is over 5 years old and has less than 100 hours I would also have some concern.

Bottom line is you are better off looking at the overall condition of everything and being much less concerned about the hours.

[electricjohn]

I feel lack of use is as much a detriment as overuse. Age is eventually going to get to everything too, even without use. People always ask me how I keep my 1970 boat running so well? I just tell them that I use it and it keeps running that good. It has been a very good boat.

Edited May 11, 2013 by electricjohn

[85 Barefoot]

I agree its all about condition and not hours. I've had very very high hour boats that ran great and bought a 15 year old boat with just over 200 which also ran great.

[Fman]

Documentation on servicing is huge, you can usually get a pretty good feel for how people maintain there boats by the overall condition of the boat, and there house, car, etc... when you go look at it. I am picky, my first boat was supposed to be a used $20k boat.... I ended up buying a brand new one because I could not find anyone who actually took care of there boats like I do.

When you find one you are interested in you can always take it to your dealer and have them inspect it and do a leak down test on the motor, well worth the $200.... my friend just sold his 2007 MB with 960 hours on it, it ran perfect and he usually puts 150+ hours a year on his boats.

[Baddog]

I traded in my 1000 hrs Response (from 2000) a couple of years ago. The boat - and engine - were in perfect condition and I'm pretty confident it will run for another 1000 without any major issues. But as others say, it's all about the maintenance and how people treat their boats.

But aren't those metric hours?

Plus, how many hours do most cars have on them? And they can run well for many 100's of thousands of miles. 1,000 hours is ~ 60,000 miles, hardly broken in.

[Nitrousbird]

But aren't those metric hours?

Plus, how many hours do most cars have on them? And they can run well for many 100's of thousands of miles. 1,000 hours is ~ 60,000 miles, hardly broken in.

Not quite. A boat engine is ran a LOT harder than your typical automotive engine. The load is always larger, even when doing a light cruise. The only thing in the boat motor's favor is it doesn't see the amount of heat an automotive engine is exposed to.

[electricjohn]

Boat engines have it easy. When was the last time you started your boat in minus 30 degree weather? And they are in first gear all the time, no lugging.

[Steve B.]

Mines got 1000 and I'm convinced it runs as good as new.

Steve B.

[WakingMeHappy]

I'm sitting in my tow vehicle right now looking at the dash. Here are the stats:

2003 Chevy Suburban

150,924 miles

3,554 hours

It would have no concerns in using this car to tow my Bu cross county. Why? Because I take care of it.

[saskicker32]

I bought our new to us VLX late last summer, it had 900 hours on it, but the interior was almost flawless. We ran leak down/compression tests and they ran really solid numbers (161+-5) across the board. apparently some guy had just walked off the lot with the same year boat ('03) for 10k more because it had 400 less hours on it yet the compression tests were worse then ours. Our other boat is a '96 and has 700 hours on it (all our hours) and definitely looks more worn then the new one. I mean I guess that's what 7 years difference will do to you.

[TrickyNicky]

I'll add in that the hours on a boat are most reflective of the engine and to be honest it's really not a lot of work to take care of one of these engines. Oil changes and winterization's mostly than the odd thing here and there. The age of a boat is reflective of the boat itself which personally I think is a lot more difficult to take good care of and is more noticeable.