mercury verado Outboard

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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote blackboat Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09 Jan 2011 at 9:37pm
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i wouldnt say they bad having owned one it went smooth was good value and no way would they be like fichts ,theres always a lemon in every brand  ,was it serviced at 20hrs and why did this supercharger blow to bits ,what rpms was the motor doing when it happened for one to blow at 50hrs something in there was not right and yeah i to wondered about that comment of half not working whats the guts there how can that be 
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Boatie25 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09 Jan 2011 at 9:58pm
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See a lot of Verados on the back of boats and never seen one under tow yet.   Had a 150 Verado for 3 years and it never missed a beat - loved that motor - still going strong for the new owner.   We all have our favourites but Verado seems to be getting a bad rap hereOuch
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Moonlighter Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10 Jan 2011 at 4:36pm
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I regularly fish with a mate who has an L4 Verado 200 on his boat, and I'm no Mercury man at all - much prefer the Yammies and Zukes, but I must admit his Verado is one sweet engine, complete with hyd power steering, smartcraft gauges and fly by wire controls. Heaps of grunt, quiet and super smooth.
 
Know a couple of guys here with them and not heard any complaints at all, quite the contrary in fact.
 
As always there can be faulty individual engines in any brand - another mate bought a new Yammy 70 2 stroke 4 months ago, they would have to be one of the most well proven and reliable engines ever made, well it threw a rod when he was doing the running in process, power head replaced under warranty. So it can happen to the best.
 
If Verado's were such a big problem it would be spalshed all over boating websites such as the Hull Truth in the USA - but it is not.  By comparison, look how many problems are reported there re corrosion issues in Yammy 225 4 strokes!
 
Cheers
 
ML
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Bossco Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10 Jan 2011 at 9:00pm
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A Verado 225 is almost 6 grand more expensive than a Honda 225, and Mercury has a checkered past and relatively little time in the 4 stroke game, whereas Honda has the exact opposite and lots of engines that have done crazy hours in charter fleets in the past few decades, same goes for Yamaha. Just can't see the attraction of the verado at all unless your trapped into one with a deal on a boat. Pretty sure our Honda would blow the verado away re fuel consumption as well.

Only had 1 minor fault in almost 400 hours, that was with an 02 sensor that was replaced immediately under warranty no questions asked. Can't rate the Honda highly enough.
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Moki Marko Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10 Jan 2011 at 9:36pm
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I'm right with ya on that one Bossco, be interesting to see what decision Tagit makes. I'd highly recommend anyone who is looking to get big hours out of a big motor call Dave at Bays Boating in Motueka. The Abel Tasman water taxi operators have used and abused all the main brands and Dave will give you some 'straight up' advice. Ok, he's a Honda dealer (etec now as well) so he;s a little biased but it all ads to you knowledge and is worth a phone call.
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Tagit Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 11 Jan 2011 at 8:44am
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The other 50% of our engines are Honda's already, and apart from minor (non-critical) issues like O2 sensors (as per Bossco above) they have been very good. Will hopefully be late 2011 or 2012 before we need the next new outboard, so will keep monitoring the various brands till then.
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Moonlighter Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 11 Jan 2011 at 9:07pm
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Again, I'm not advocating one way or another, but remember you may not be comparing apples with apples price/features wise.
 
As I understand it, the Verado Mercs 200hp and above include power assisted hydraulic steering, fly by wire controls and possibly smart craft gauges as well. That value needs to be factored into the cost comparisons with the Hooondas. I'd suspect that the $6K difference (if that's what it really is without any exageration??) may well be largely accounted for in those extras.
 
And whilst the Varados are relatively new, they have now been around for long enough that we are well past the generation 1 versions. As I suggested, check the Hull Truth and see the lack of complaints there compared to some other brands.
 
Merc have been building 4 stroke marine engines (eg Mercruisers) for a very long time, and they had an alliance with Yamaha for their 4 strokes for some considerable time too. I do think that they know what they are doing equally as much as the others, after all they and Yamaha are the biggest marine engine manufacturers by a fair way.
 
And all of them have had some sort of dramas in their past - you might recall that when they first started out the Honda's were renouned for rust issues. Early Merc Optis gong "bang" too. All sorted out some years ago of course.
 
Cheers
 
ML
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Kings Marine Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 12 Jan 2011 at 12:55pm
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Well......  technically Mercury dont build Mercruisers, it is a G.M. engine that has different exhaust and engine computer fitted.
The technical engineer that they employed to design the Verado came from Porsche (hence the in line configuration, and boost induction system) so the theory of design should be fine and more than strong enough, its just the idea of a belt driven supercharger that gives me the hebbies , like the compressor on the Optis it will need maintenance and that will come at a cost.
The steering system came from BMW which is similar to what they now use in cars so that is well proven.
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote sharpey Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 12 Jan 2011 at 4:37pm
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the motor was serviced at 20hours by a reputable dealer - the majority of the 50 hours was game fishing trawling around 4 knots at 1500rpm
i sure there are alot of happy Verado owners out there but personally i have lost all confidence in them and looking forward to getting back in the water!!!! with a Yammie- Hope there will be no other problems NB these are man made as well!
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote blackboat Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 12 Jan 2011 at 4:54pm
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cant blame for you for losing confidence there sharpey and im sure your yammie will be tops

i personally i dont miss the smartcraft guages etc but i do love the way they fall into gear

well MM i didnt know Dave now doing etec motors thought he wouldnt be a fan of them ??
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote jontashya Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 12 Jan 2011 at 10:26pm
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Looked into repowering last year spoke to the boys at the large merc dealer on the north shore about a verado, none of them would reccommend the motor I felt the distinct impression they were pushing me to rather go with the optimax!
If we knew exactly what we were going to do in life .........what would be the point of doing it.
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Finnigin Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25 Jan 2011 at 5:07pm
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Originally posted by Moki Marko Moki Marko wrote:

I'm right with ya on that one Bossco, be interesting to see what decision Tagit makes. I'd highly recommend anyone who is looking to get big hours out of a big motor call Dave at Bays Boating in Motueka. The Abel Tasman water taxi operators have used and abused all the main brands and Dave will give you some 'straight up' advice. Ok, he's a Honda dealer (etec now as well) so he;s a little biased but it all ads to you knowledge and is worth a phone call.


I think I'd have to agree with you there.  A good mate of mine has driven those water taxi's for 10 years and he says exactly the same thing.  The Honda's are the best by miles.  These guys go hard all day everyday, beach launching and carrying big loads so you can't really argue.  As well as the reliability they are quiet man, we could sit right beside one at 4000rpm and have a semi-normal conversation, no stinky 2 stroke smell either.

I had a bit of experience with a 225hp etec blowing itself to bits last year and the evinrude dealer wasn't flash.  Low hours on the motor but it still had major corrosion issues, not to mention the conrod that had popped out of the block.  I was leaning against the transom when the motor blew up and I think I jumped about 3 feet off the deck!!
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Moonlighter Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25 Jan 2011 at 9:30pm
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Hi Sharpey
 
Interesting to hear that the majority of your VRod's work was done at trolling speeds. 
 
It made me wonder about a phenomenon I heard about referred to in relation to 4 strokes as ''making oil". As I understand it, in lay terms this happens when 4 stokes are run in from new too gently, as can often happen with engines used mostly for trolling. This results in the rings not bedding in correctly and, when the engine is subsequently run for long periods at slow trolling sppeds, unburnt fuel bypasses the rings and gets into the oil, thus diluting it and reducing its effectiveness.  It shows up as excessive oil levels on the dipstick and in extreme cases can even overflow from the dipstick etc.
 
In the Verado this over-level fuel/oil mix can then get up into the supercharger, and in the right set of circumstamces, bang!  Much the same thing can happen (according to the VRod forums in the US) simpoly thru over-filling the engine with oil.
 
Even in non-supercharged engines this can also do quite bad damage as you can imagine.  I have a mate who runs a Yammy dealership and he told me about a customer who used his Yammy 60 4st predominantly to troll on dams who had complained about oil flowing out of the dipstick. "Making oil was id'd as the problem  there too. The advice was to do his last troll of the day to the far end of the dam and then run at high revs at least 20-30 minues back to the ramp, and this should heat up the oil and burn off any fuel.
 
Just something to be aware of.
 
A couple of other interesting facts:
The total Australasian (NZ and Aust) outboard market is dominated by Merc and Yamaha - they have about 70% of total sales according to an OEDA submission to the Aust govt regarding the proposal to phase out the import of new high-emission 2 strokes from 2012 or 2013. 
 
In Australia, Yamaha and Suzuki dominate VMR and volunteer Coastguard vessels, I suspect mainly due to sponsorship deals.
 
Cheers
 
ML
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote the angler Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28 Mar 2015 at 9:52pm
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Any updates on this topic ?
Have the super chargers proven to be reliable ?
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Black Max Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 Mar 2015 at 4:08pm
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The Verado engines were first released in 2004. They have recently released a 350hp consumer and 400hp racing model. I'd suggest they must be pretty reliable if Mercury are sticking with team and developing the range.
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote 237 billfisher Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 Mar 2015 at 6:54pm
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I have a early one .one of the first in the country 1200 hours never missed a beat .i have heard of commercial boats up north doing 3500 hours
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote kaveman Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 Mar 2015 at 8:26pm
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Mate has got big problems with his 175 Verado, been towed back in a few times lately. he wont accept it back until problem is fixedOuch
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Obsession Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30 Mar 2015 at 5:58pm
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My 2006 175 Verado is still going strong (thankfully). I did have a problem with it two years ago resulting in a tow from Coastguard. It had nothing to do with the Supercharger, it was a fuel float issue. Apparently a known issue soon after I purchased it, I was never contacted by Mercury or the boat dealer at any time; to add insult to injury- it cost me $800 to get it repaired as it was out of warranty Disapprove
Apart from that I'm happy with it.
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Catchelot Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30 Mar 2015 at 7:20pm
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Big Verado owners... Chaps I heard to service/tune these engines is very expensive due to complicated; cams and valve trains and fuel management computers. hi-tech fuel injection and so on... and when they go bad they cost a small fortune to repair.

Is this true with your experience with services?
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Bossco Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 31 Mar 2015 at 11:10am
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Yep. Very very expensive motors to own out of warranty.

They are like etec's, why would you bother to buy one when there are so many far better alternatives.
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