Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

I am still in the deciding phase to order me a toon or take one a dealer already has. I only run Yammies and Suzuki since Y2K. Yamaha taking a road I would not under warranty has removed them from my consideration (putting a crush collar on my damaged Crank shaft twice between 05 to 10). I have noticed doing research that some toons come with the Mercury and it would be a upcharge for to get a Suzuki. I am at a crossroads of Mercury or Suzuki power for oblivious reason $$$$. My question to all of you is given no money difference what so ever which motor would you go with?

Is neither an option? lol

What size class engine? I may be a bit bias (DF140) but here is my take IF you have good support for both brands where you boat.

70-90hp Mercury, that new 2.1L is a monster, Suzuki's 1.6L is pretty anemic
115hp , Both are healthy 115's. Merc is a 2.1L SOHC and 20# lighter and has the Bigfoot option, the Suzuki 2.05L DOHC + lean burn for better mid range economy
150hp Same story as the 115s, both are ~2.9L sohc and dohc + lean burn
200-300 Suzuki, better fuel efficiency and no supercharger to worry about, should be SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper if the dealer is any good
Over 300, Mercury, Zuki ain't got none!

Soonertoon wrote:Is neither an option? lol

Yes, what would you suggest?

I'll take Mercury over Suzuki due to displacement and weight....

rancherlee wrote:What size class engine? I may be a bit bias (DF140) but here is my take IF you have good support for both brands where you boat.

70-90hp Mercury, that new 2.1L is a monster, Suzuki's 1.6L is pretty anemic
115hp , Both are healthy 115's. Merc is a 2.1L SOHC and 20# lighter and has the Bigfoot option, the Suzuki 2.05L DOHC + lean burn for better mid range economy
150hp Same story as the 115s, both are ~2.9L sohc and dohc + lean burn
200-300 Suzuki, better fuel efficiency and no supercharger to worry about, should be SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper if the dealer is any good
Over 300, Mercury, Zuki ain't got none!

I ran a DF140 on a small CC and put on a thousand hours with no failures. The only issue I had was from time to time I would try and start it while it was already running with it being so quiet (lol). Outside of that 1 time I have run only Yamaha (except for my first bayliner with a force motor before I grew up LOL). Yamaha warranty / dealer service ran me away even though I loved the motor performance. The 27CC is the last thing I will own with Yamaha unless I change my mind.

I am trying to decide between 115 or 150 Merc, VS 115 or 140 Zuk. since this is just going to be a family cruising / some tubing type ride .

Tums wrote:

Soonertoon wrote:Is neither an option? lol

Yes, what would you suggest?

Yamaha. The issue you seem to have, if I understand it correctly, is not with the performance and or durability of the product itself but rather the Warranty and dealer service you have encountered.
Lets look at warranties for what they truly are; an insurance policy underwritten by the manufacturer. Piece of mind on a document .Nothing more, nothing less. Did you know that 86% of all warranty claims filed for various product categories were filed within THE FIRST 90 DAYS of ownership? If a product is bad its bad right off the bat or shortly thereafter. Its not going to go bad two days after the coverage expires. In the end, a warranty is only as good as the company that wrote it is. It has NOTHING to do with quality of product.
Dealer service can be a non issue . Don't spend your money at a dealer that doesn't value your business. for example, Bass Pro is a huge Merc dealer but I wouldn't let them change a friggin light bulb on my boat they suck so bad at service. Every dealer network has good and bad.
My point is this; Yamaha makes damned good motors. Always have, always will. Nobody can argue with that point. The rest is just noise that can either be turned up or down.
Whatever you buy...run the hell out of it!!!

Soonertoon wrote:

Tums wrote:

Soonertoon wrote:Is neither an option? lol

Yes, what would you suggest?

Yamaha. The issue you seem to have, if I understand it correctly, is not with the performance and or durability of the product itself but rather the Warranty and dealer service you have encountered.
Lets look at warranties for what they truly are; an insurance policy underwritten by the manufacturer. Piece of mind on a document .Nothing more, nothing less. Did you know that 86% of all warranty claims filed for various product categories were filed within THE FIRST 90 DAYS of ownership? If a product is bad its bad right off the bat or shortly thereafter. Its not going to go bad two days after the coverage expires. In the end, a warranty is only as good as the company that wrote it is. It has NOTHING to do with quality of product.
Dealer service can be a non issue . Don't spend your money at a dealer that doesn't value your business. for example, Bass Pro is a huge Merc dealer but I wouldn't let them change a friggin light bulb on my boat they suck so bad at service. Every dealer network has good and bad.
My point is this; Yamaha makes damned good motors. Always have, always will. Nobody can argue with that point. The rest is just noise that can either be turned up or down.
Whatever you buy...run the hell out of it!!!

I agree .....

Also, keep in mind that boat manufacturers align themselves with the engine companies. When we were looking to buy, Sept 2014 I narrowed it down to Bennington, who is partnered with Yamaha, and Berkshire, who is partnered with with Mercury. For a lot of reasons, we went with the Berkshire, BUT I wanted the Yamaha F200..... no problem. I could have likely done better $$$ had I done the Berkshire with a Merc for a like motor but I was partial to Yamaha. After I had placed my factory special order for the boat and motor, I saw a Yamaha promotion that offered an additional 3 years of full warranty if you took delivery of the motor by Nov 18 (2014)...... I ended up getting a full 6 year warranty for no additional costs !!!! Perhaps the engine companies offer such deals every fall, don't know, but might be worth asking about.

If you are looking at new boats, it is highly likely the boat manufacturer is partnered with one of the big engine companies.

As for your original question, I'd pick the Merc over Suzi.......... at least everywhere I've boated for the past 40 years, Mercury ( and Yamaha) have been the primary choices, and dealer networks. Way fewer Honda, or Suzi dealers at least where I've been... East Coast, FL, and now Smith Mountain Lake.

The Sea Tow boats on our lake have Suzi's on them....... don't know how many choices they have for service.

Thanks for the input.

My Bennie has the F150 Yamaha, and it's great. But as far as I can tell, the Mercury 150 FourStroke puts out about the same performance in every way. The 150 hp also has a great reputation with their owners and Mercury dealers. And the 150 hp motors are a whole lot stronger than a 115 hp 4 stroke motor.

I also like the Suzuki motors for tritoons, especially the 150 hp (over the 140 hp). It's just so much more cubic inches than 10 hp would indicate. My problem with Suzuki's is the lack of a good dealer base, and Suzuki Outboards is simply a very poorly run operation--especially obtaining parts. Suzuki's have a a planetary reduction gear in their driveshaft that makes the motors have to run high pitch, large diameter props that are just not easy to find. And not many dealers have Suzuki mechanical experience.

What I'm saying is go with the Mercury due to lower price and a large dealer base. Propellers are readily available nationwide, and they're easier for mechanics to setup.

I still have a spare SS prop for a Suzuki from the last DF140. I Think it is a 3X13.5X24 but will have to look and see. Mercury , Suzuki, and Yamaha dealers are all the same distance from me.
Thanks

That's quite a pitch on that prop........ 24" WOW....

The deal is that the Suzuki prop shafts turn so slow. No other motor's setup that way. It takes a lot of pitch to push the boats.

I just like the fact that there are so many Yamaha and Mercury mechanics that have setup their more popular motors on pontoons/tritoons. It's so much easier to figure out how to prop their engines, etc.--if just by experience.

Bamaman wrote:The deal is that the Suzuki prop shafts turn so slow. No other motor's setup that way. It takes a lot of pitch to push the boats.

I just like the fact that there are so many Yamaha and Mercury mechanics that have setup their more popular motors on pontoons/tritoons. It's so much easier to figure out how to prop their engines, etc.--if just by experience.

For this reason I wanted a Mercury on our new bow-rider so that even one of my spare pontoon props could be used as a get home spare on the little black bug...

Bamaman wrote:The deal is that the Suzuki prop shafts turn so slow. No other motor's setup that way. It takes a lot of pitch to push the boats.

I just like the fact that there are so many Yamaha and Mercury mechanics that have setup their more popular motors on pontoons/tritoons. It's so much easier to figure out how to prop their engines, etc.--if just by experience.

Yep, hence 17-18p props on my DF140 for my tritoon. Which actually isn't a bad thing, Merc and Yamaha midcase props fit with a little swapping of washers and there are a lot of 17-19p Yamaha and Mercury props on the used market. I'm just glad I have the 2.38 case instead of the 07+ 2.59 case where I'd need a 19-20p prop.