What RPM's do you cruize at?

[hyper]

I have a 50hp mercury 2 stroke on a 24 foot pontoon. I run it alomost all the time at 4200-4500 rpm's with my family onboard. This is a slow 16 mph. If I open it all the way up it will run 5200 rpm's @ 19 Mph. I notice that it seems to run better at 4200. Is this RPM hard on the motor? I run it this way for about 10 miles one way and then 10 miles back again.
I have drivin it 60 miles one way at this rpm. Just seems like it is turning alot of rpm's for a long time. Maybe it is ok but I just would like to know what you all cruize at.

thanks

Jeff

[jimrs]

Outboards or Marine motors are designed to run at high rpm's. So no your not harming your motor running like you do. I run mine at full throttle most of the time.

[Woody]

Outboards or Marine motors are designed to run at high rpm's. So no your not harming your motor running like you do. I run mine at full throttle most of the time.

Yep. I often run mine WFO for miles...

[Texoma Toon]

My optimal cursing rpms is 3600. It gets the best gas mileage. If I run wot it sucks gas pretty fast.

[Ron Burgundy]

4000-4250...purrs like a baby kitten.

[BiXLL]

I usually run 3500/3600

[Bamaman]

Sure, boats will run the higher rpms, but it's just a penalty for having an engine on the smaller size.

My 115 hp 2 stroke Yamaha planes off the boat at 2500 rpms, and will cruise at that. But, I usually cruise @ 3000 rpms.

I like the larger engines because they'll cruise at lower rpms, and are very quiet doing their job. And, I'm not so certain that their fuel usage is not higher than smaller engines being run to death.

[ROLAND]

just cruisin around we run around 4200 rpm's.... wot is just a hair under 6K... but 4200 or so gives a pleasant ride and seems to be a bit easier on gas consumption.

[wwind3]

4000-4200 for me too. 20 mph and a smooth ride.

[LocoCoco]

Most of my running is on a 3-mile lake so average RPM is 1200-2200 at probably 5-8 mph. Anything faster and your cruise is cut short when you run out of lake.

I find it neat how consistently the size of the water affects the size of motors on pontoons. This 3-mile lake has about 20 pontoons and the motors range from 9.9s/20s on 16/18-footers and 30s-60s on the 20'+ boats. The fastest by a long shot is one guy who put a Johnson 60 on an old 18-footer with little furniture. Woot!

LC.

[guitarbob]

4,000-4,200 Also. Just feels right.

[DonCabo]

Yeah, I agree with Bamaman. Usually I'm "cruising" around 3200RPM and doing about 15mph. I can still hear people talking without shouting and I can clearly hear Jimmy Buffett on the speakers without turning up the volume to a deafening level.

The 115's are still 4 cylinders, so they're super fuel efficient. I'm out at least once weekly and I have a 24 gallon fuel tank. I might refuel once every 2 months. Of course, I'm not pulling tubers around and I'm not cruising 13 miles to my anchoring destination. So I guess it's all in what you define as "cruising" and what you do while cruising.

Either way, 2-stroke outboards are made to run WOT; so you're not harming the engine.

[motorboater]

Generally 3800-4200 rpms, and it can hold 18-19 mph with average load.

[Drago]

Our sweet spot seems to be 2800-3200RPM - 14-16MPH and seems smooth and quiet and well up on plane so I'm suspecting efficient also. The tach reads 6200 at WOT no matter how many folks aboard (up to 25% prop slip).

[martys]

I'm around 3800 - 4200 while cruising. This will get me around 25 to 30 mph depending on my load. This is my best fuel economy but it's nice to have extra punch whenn needed.