Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

Trying to decide between Yamaha 150 VMAX or regular 175.it will be going on 22ft tritoon.I believe the V series have more than the rated HP and the paint scheme is to die for

Gov't. regulations don't allow outboards to be more than 110% of their rated horsepower. In other words, a F150 can only have 165 hp maximum at the prop. Some outboards don't even make their rated horsepower on a dyno.

That said, I've yet to hear the difference in motors between the F and SHO motors--below 200 hp--and have not looked at Yamaha specs. I don't know if they have different camshafts for different torque at higher rpm's. Are the gear ratios higher for bass boat operation on the SHO? The SHO's are sure pretty, but is the paint job worth it?

I'd prefer to have a F200--if your boat's rated for that much horsepower. They seem to especially perform very well on pontoons--almost as fast as the larger SHO motors in top speed. The F200 is basically a F150 with a larger throttle body in the fuel injection and a higher compression ratio. Otherwise go with the 175 or even the F150.

My 24SSLX has the F150, and it performs admirally.

Bamaman, thats good to hear about the F200. It seams that some unknowns on the internet were claiming that it had an actual HP less than 200.

I've read on The Hull Truth that the F200 was less than 200 hp. Who knows? I cannot say The Hull Truth is the Whole Truth, however.

I do know they've got 3-4 mph on my F150 on top end. But at $2800 list price difference, that's 3-4 mph that's some expensive mph's I probably would seldom use.

I'd still like to see two identical aluminum bass boats equipped with the F150 and 150 SHO to see what the performance difference is.

I have the Vmax SHO and yes, the paint/decal look is nice. It's a good match for my boat.
Mine is the 115HP and I believe it was on this site, that someone mentioned the SHO's have an increase in
horsepower due to the intake and exhaust flow compared to the non-SHO engines.

My opinion is to get the maximum horsepower for you boat.
Unless you absolutely certain you won't need to "get-up-and-go" when a storm approaches.

The best comparison I could find was a 150 regular vs 150 SHO on identical boats. The top end on both motors is virtually identical and the SHO has a very slight advantage of MPG at WOT. The SHO runs 16.7 mph with 4.51 MPG at 3000 rpm (best cruise) and the regular is running 16.1 mph with 4.24 MPH. It's slightly more efficient but not much...depends on the cost difference it's probably not worth it on the Pontoon. You'll get better performance out of the 175 as well as being more fuel efficient at cruising speed. If it wasn't 5k to go to a 200 Verado from my 150 four stroke I would have done it but the cost of the digital controls, power steering, etc made it cost prohibitive.

[quote="mpilot"]The best comparison I could find was a 150 regular vs 150 SHO on identical boats. The top end on both motors is virtually identical and the SHO has a very slight advantage of MPG at WOT. The SHO runs 16.7 mph with 4.51 MPG at 3000 rpm (best cruise) and the regular is running 16.1 mph with 4.24 MPH. It's slightly more efficient but not much...depends on the cost difference it's probably not worth it on the Pontoon. You'll get better performance out of the 175 as well as being more fuel efficient at cruising speed. If it wasn't 5k to go to a 200 Verado from my 150 four stroke I would have done it but the cost of the digital controls, power steering, etc made it cost prohibitive.[/quote]

Our local Mercury dealer gets about $1500 more for the 200 Verado than my F150 Yamaha. They prefer a boat be factory wired for Verados, however. And from 225 hp and above, Mercury's got to have the electro-hydraulic power steering added, but it's far, far less $ than SeaStar hydraulic steering AND Power Steering Assist.

I was thinking Yamaha's F200 was $2800 list price more than the F150, but you've also got to add Power Steering Assist which is quite expensive ($2K w/installation.) But you can get the F200 cheaper thru Bennington than direct from a dealer.

Yep, when you get above 150 hp, things do get expensive.

Sorry I meant 5k more than my mercury 150. I'm as quick out of the hole as a 200 verado I rode on but that's about it. That's mostly because of how much more displacement I have with the 3.0 litre block. A friend just got a new toon with a 250 pro verado on it and it is unreal how strong it is out of the hole.

We looked at yamaha, Suzuki, mercury, and evinrude when we bought our boat but went with the Mercury because of the 8 year warranty we could get and the cost of ownership being a lot lower than the other four strokes we looked at. The yamaha dealers here are proud of their services and you have to do a little more to it (like valve adjustments) than you have to do to the Mercury to keep the warranty up. We put enough hours on the boat to need services twice a year so the cost of the services were a factor in our decision.

As far as I can tell, the Mercury and the Yamaha probably perform about the same. Maybe 1-2 mph differrence.

I'm still surprised that Merc hasn't put out 175 & 200 hp versions of that motor, as I understand it's a de-tuned motor @ 150 hp. It's worked out to be a very good motor, however.

You're fortunate to be on a great lake so close to the big city of Columbia.