New engines: Verados or Suzukis

[Tony Hill]

Here at Seafari oban, between our seafari adventures and seafari marine services we operate 5 commercial RIBs and expect them to be reliable providing we undertake a rigorous service routine. Nothing is bombproof. A new set of engines in their first year of operation here are expected to log around 900 hours. Thereafter we try to reduce the hours and log out at around 2500 hours. Anyone looking for a well maintained engine with high hours?
Verados we have no direct experience with
Suzuki, Yamaha an Evinrude have all been put through their paces with varying degrees of success. If you know what to expect then you keep on top of the equipment.
I am happy for you to email me oban@seafari.co.uk but I would not wish to discuss our experiences in public.
Needles to say your engineering support locally is critical. All manufacturers appear to want to reduce the value of their warranty claims in the current climate blaming the operator for the problems.
One manufacturer blamed us with our servicing routine as per service manual. We were told that due to our type of use we should use this special tool to grease. A grease nipple fixed to a length of brake pipe. I asked where this special tool was listed on the official service tool list.
I have also been told wear was due to the quality of the water we operated in. Shame we had been using the manufacturers engines for the previous 10 years without issue. Global warming perhaps.

Tony

[A1an]

Tony, who looks after your Suzuki's?

[Tony Hill]

Seafari undertakes all it's own routine maintenance. Many of the skippers have been away on manufacturer's courses and have the bit of paper. During the close season the agreement is we bring in Philip Beckwith from Yampower to our workshops at Ballachulish where he takes an overall view and ensures we are good for the following year.
Our policy is keep on top of everything and with experience you have a fair idea of what parts are vulnerable and when they are likely to be needed. Controlled maintenance or crisis management when things break. We go for the former. A major breakdown either on contract or the height of summer is costly

[Searider]

Skippermarky on this forum is running a 10m with twin suzukis.

[Trailer Bloke]

Having used the Verado 300 and the Suzuki 300 commercially I would go for the Suzuki, It is alot more economical and more reliable. Also the service and repair back up is fantastic from Suzuki, even though we didnt need to speak to them very often

The verado was nothing but trouble, almost every day we had an some form of fault code come up, if we were lucky this didnt put the engine into 'get you home mode' The engine was serviced as required by a well known marine engineer. To top it all it snapped a drive shaft straight off the gearbox so I had to buy a new gearbox and prop and the boat was out of commission for 3 weeks and no I didnt get a new one under warrentee even though the engine was 6 months old

For leisure Mercs are fine, I think you really have to go Japanese for commercial use

[wbk]

The problem is that everyone is understandably influenced by their own experience and you are going to get people with good and bad from all of them. Personally I have always preferred Yamaha but that is again as it has worked for me. As someone else said, most important is what support there may be locally and how easy it is to get hold of parts. If you are lucky enough to work in developed areas then they are probably all there for you... For that.. I envy you. I am always on remote islands and Yamaha happen to have had the better availability.

Having said that, Suzuki must be doing something right as I think that they are now the most used in commercial setups.. I know they used to be cheaper but that doesn't seem to be the case much any more... Let us know which way you go.