suzuki 250 fuel consumption

mike · 31 December 2006, 23:15

hello and happy new year everyone, welcome to 2007!

It is rumoured that our new boat will arrive this month (although I think feb)
she has a 250 suzy 4 stroke and I have lost all the emails you guys and gals sent me last year re actual results achieved on average from this model.
Its a ribcraft 7.8 with 6/seats and mostly will be light.
to be honest details don't matter what i need is some feedback on average results for a hours boating etc at various speeds.

Any help will be appreciated.
also interested inthe best eco v speed rpm to achieve reasonable economy.

have a good year.

Aidan · 01 January 2007, 00:01

Hi Mike,
Happy new year to you too.

THere is a very good write up on 4 x 250 including Suzuki 250 on Rib International mag except for the very thing you are looking for (fuel consumption accuarcey). (suzuki 250 Verado 250 Yamaha 250 and E-tec 250)
Its still worth reading although they got some ripping on this forum over it and rightly so. However if you take the "corrections " into account, it is a good report although far from being "De facto", its a good read.
They came up withsome pretty silly figures for both suzuki and Verado with the former being half the averge and the latter being twice.
They corrected theSuzuki to be more in line but they never questioned the verado (nor did Mercury now that I mention it and if I was mercury, I would have questioned 72 litres per hour unlss it was true.
Anyway check out the report and make your own observations. You could also do a search on this site going back over a year.

Tony Hill · 01 January 2007, 14:32

General use figures
We run a pair of 250 Suzuki's on a 10m Humber/Quinquari wide bodied passenger boat - 12 passengers, 600 litres fuel, running at 4,000 RPM approx, a 24 mile route over 2 hours (plenty of stops but engines never switched off) our total fuel use is 65 litres so 16.25 litres per engine per hour.

Tony Hill

mike · 01 January 2007, 19:53

thanks for that, I used my last boat commercially so the description ph and range of rpm etc is exactly what I wanted!
I think I'll be doing 4500 5000 so have now estimated 24 ph.
Is the reason you run at 4000 purely commercial or is that where she sits happiest?
thanks also re the article, I read it at the time.

regards mike.

Millermob · 02 January 2007, 11:12

Hi Mike

When we went to the Ribcraft demo day back in October, one of the guys might have been from suzuki had a folder which showed fuel consumption on various of the ribcrafts with specific fuel figures at different points in the rev range, might be worth asking about it.

Freddie

Tony Hill · 02 January 2007, 19:56

We run at 4,000 RPM as this gives us around the 24 knots we require. A load of commercial factors - someone over the side at 24 knots (not happend to us) but we consider the customer will be shaken but not hurt. As the spped increases so does the chance of serious injury
Operating on Scotland's west coast we can get some pretty serious seas. In large sea states the RIB sits at around 18 to 20 knots. It is easier to 'catch up time' if the cruising speed for the trip is not set too high.
Wear and tear on the engines- as a company we have put thousands of hours on engines, if they are worked too hard then they tend to be prone to mechanical failure, look after any outboard by not running it too hard and they appear from experience to be more reliable. We put 500 hours on these engines between July and Oct and apart from 1 minor niggle - never stopped us running- the engines have been fine.

Tony Hill

Mollers · 02 January 2007, 21:35

So, what kinda money would one have to part with for one of these things on a deal?

mike · 03 January 2007, 18:11

thanks tony, sounds like my thought process when I was doing it as well.
It is likely that the 7.8 2 up on 4000 will do approx 34knots. I went 250 and not 200 for reason that I fealt it would spend more time at 2/3rds or less when compared to the smaller engine.
I don't know what deals are about as I am doing an all in package but I do feel that if you go package from a dealer who are shifting loads and ribcraft are that you may get a better price.
Ribcraft did advise they are able to supply an engine on its own.
its worth a call but not for a few weeks as they are all at the boat show.

andyxs · 18 January 2007, 19:09

72lph for the 250 verado sounds about right. acording to the lph meter on the smatcraft gauges my rib can do 77lph flat out