Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

I'm thinking of a repower from my Merc 115 to a 200.
What motor do you think is the best choice (Yes, I know this is a religious question, rather than a technical question. Just give me your opinion!)

Not touching this one with a 10' poll other than to say "all good to excellent choices".... and I guarantee my politically correct answer will provoke some hard feelings.

Why not also ask the following as well:

"Since I will be re-powering and adding weight, should I also change my tow vehicle from xxx to Dodge or Chevy/GMC or Ford or Toyota?"

I will stay tuned.

BobL wrote:"Since I will be re-powering and adding weight, should I also change my tow vehicle from xxx to Dodge or Chevy/GMC or Ford or Toyota?"

My 2004 F-250 with the V-10 Triton gas motor and standard transmission is fine to haul the heavier boat, even with the 2100 pound Lance camper in the back.

Honestly I'm a Yamaha fan, but I found a good deal on my pontoon and it came with an Etec 200 HO, 3.3L. I've been very happy with it and the lack of maintenance is very nice, it's very powerful with a great holeshot plus is burns clean and sips gas. My only concern, even though I do all my own work, is the smaller pool of Evinrude dealers and service centers. A Yamaha or a Mercury is like a Toyota Camry-they're everywhere, parts are plentiful, and support is plentiful. If I had to do it over again I'd be hard pressed to choose between a Yamaha and an Etec be it HO or G2.

Suzuki is hard to beat if you have a dealer close by. My DF225 has 140 hours without a hiccup and I'm not gentle with it.
I was a Evinrude 2 stroke guy for many years and my recently aquired new to me pontoon has an Evinrude 50 on it, but when it's time to repower it'll be with a Suzuki DF90.

I love my Yamaha F200. Lightweight, plenty of power, super quiet, and sips fuel!

I'm very impressed with the Yamaha F200. It's essentially the tried and true F150 with a higher compression ratio, larger throttle body and different gear ratio. And it's quite a performer on tritoons. Bennington is the largest purchaser of Yamaha engines, and they're delivering a bunch of boats with this engine.

I like my Verado, something about that super charger whine just gives me a woodie! But, that said, my next will probably be a Yamaha. Why? Because I have owned everything else except a Yamaha! And a HydroTec Phase III kit on a 250 SHO would be KILLER!

I'm a Suzuki guy but since you have a Merc already I'd go V-rod! I really don't care too much about the new Suzuki and Yamaha inline 200 engines as they are pretty low on displacement and are what I'd call "fast 150's" just like my DF140 is a "fast 115". No more 2 smokes for me, my experience with Direct Injection 2 stroke snowmobiles really soured me on the technology, well I should say ALL my experiences with BRP products in general have been pretty ho-hum

rancherlee wrote:I'm a Suzuki guy

Since 1991, I've been a hard-core Suzuki guy. It really pissed me off when they withdrew from the US Auto market because they were getting killed on the exchange rate. Let's see, 6 Sidekicks, 1 Grand Vitara, and my little SX4.

The Admiral is still driving that 99 GV with over 270,000 miles on it. I've only got 88,000 on my 2010 SX-4.