Engine / Trailer advice !

[Bemused]

Hi Everyone,

I'm looking @ buying my first RIB, & have found a 5.5m with a 90hp Mariner 2 stroke & brake back trailer - all 2001 I believe.

Ideally I would have preffered a 4 stroke, and would welcome anyone's advice as to the 2 stroke in terms of usage & resale in 3-4 years.

I would mainly use the boat on my own or with my kids - pulling a donut !

Not to familiar with brake back trailers - are these any good ?

Many thanks,

Bemused.

[swginn]

Had a 75 Mercury 2-stroke (identical to your engine but in a lower state of tune and different cowling. The block, leg, etc are all the same) It was bombproof. It was my first boat and I really did give that engine some abuse. It will drink petrol and oil when you put the hammer down but will definitely out perform any four stroke of that size. If it doesn't come with a revcounter I would definitely get one fitted as it can help when you're trying to save fuel.

As regards resale (and this is the important bit as it'll never be big enough!!) when I did sell the engine and boat I made a profit (this takes into account my running/servicing costs for the year also!!). My local Mercury dealer said that the profit came down to the engine and not the boat!!

[Bilge Rat]

Hi

Have to agree with SWGINN here, dont be afraid of 2 stroke, like for like they are lighter, faster and have less to service and go wrong, someone posted an equation here ages ago that gave the differences and how many years at 100 hours use a year you'd have to do to make the difference in cost and savings up and it worked out something like 12 years !!

A 90 on a 5.5 metre will be nice a quick

[Alan]

Its not a Humber 5.5m / 90 Mariner rig is it?

[Daniel TD5]

i have a two stroke mariner 40hp its a very good engine as i am very heavy
i went for a two stroke due to weight and cost as four stroke are double the weight of two strokes and cost far more i am very happy with it apart from
the fact i am now deaf what did you say

[Bemused]

Thanks for the advice Guys - I am not put off by the 2 stroke.

Alan - No it's a Ribcraft 545.

Anyone got any views on the brake back trailer ?
My only experience is with the normal multi-roller type.

Price on this set up seems reasonable @ just sub £10k.

All the best,


Bemused.

[Daniel TD5]

brake back type make it very easy to recover from very low water or direct from
the sand you could beach your boat and as the back will roll to the anlge
of the boat it make it very easy i dont have one but if it came with the boat i would not say no

[Ribald]

Had a break-back trailer with my Ribcraft 4.8 but never used it as such although I kept meaning to. Also had a Mariner 60 2-stroke. Brilliant engine if not a little thirsty at high speed/in rough seas.

With regard to the resale value in 3-4 years, you should have no probs with the Ribcraft. They are in high demand now so should still be OK after that time.

The engine though, may be another matter. I was chatting to the Suzuki folk at Ribex and they were saying that, owing to the pollution/noise caused by the older 2-strokes they were likely to be banned by marianas, harbour authorities, etc. in order to meet the anti-pollution reqs of Kyoto (?). This would result in a lot of s/h 2-strokes coming onto the market at once resulting in very low prices (if they can be sold at all) as they can't be legally used. (I would stress that Suzuki were not trying to sell me a new motor as we already have one of their 4-strokes.) Might be worth looking into this further as you don't really want to be stuck with a lump that would only be useful as an anchor.

[Richard B]

Originally Posted by Ribald

Suzuki folk at Ribex... were saying that, owing to the pollution/noise caused by the older 2-strokes they were likely to be banned by marianas, harbour authorities, etc. in order to meet the anti-pollution reqs of Kyoto (?)...

Pete, this sounds a bit like the X-RIB salesman who claimed that the RSR-700 "is an air boat, not a water boat" .

I've read through one of the summaries of the Kyoto agreement and can't see anything about leisure boating pollution, and certainly nothing about noise - the Kyoto Summmit seems to be more concerned with "greenhouse gases" and a high level overview of polution control.

Anyway, imagine if any harbour authority decided to ban carburetted two-stroke motors - there would be a riot! There are so many around, and there would be a dredging problem as most people let them just fall off the transom, solving their disposal problem. And the smarter people would order a set of "Optimax", "HPDI" or "Four Stroke" stickers (and then claim "noisy tappets")!

[Phil Davies]

One of the Suzuki guys at Ribex told me with great conviction that people would only be buying 4-strokes after 2006, although when I mentioned Evinrude ETech he mumbled something into his beard and shuffled rapidly off into the back of his tent Ah bless, but still, you can't blame 'em for trying, can you?