North Star wrote:
On Jun 7, 7:12 pm, wrote:
On Thu, 7 Jun 2012 04:12:51 -0700 (PDT), North Star









wrote:
On Jun 7, 3:31 am, wrote:
On Wed, 06 Jun 2012 11:21:49 -0600, Canuck57
wrote:
On 05/06/2012 6:44 PM, JustWait wrote:
As a kid my favorite fishing boat on an inland lake was a 9.9 hp Johnson
on a 18 foot aluminum boat rated for something like 40hp.
Sure, it was slow, but that was its advantage. 5 gallons of gas lasted
forever, and you could slow and deep troll in a way a 40 hp never could.
The new 4 strokes will go idle speed all day and not use as much gas
as your old 9,9 2 stroke.
I am still averaging a tad over a gallon an hour 110 hours in on my 70
Yamaha. That is mixed running from 1200 RPM to about 4200.
Once you get over 4200 the fuel consumption increases pretty fast but
there is some of that in the average too.
I do think if I was looking at the 40 Merc I would spend the extra
money for a 60. Same motor with an ECM that lets it develop it's full
potential. If you are running slower, it will user the same amount of
gas as the 40, you just have a little extra kick if you want it..
My 70 Yamaha is also the same basic engine with Yamaha electronics and
a Yamaha lower unit. There are some performance tests that say the 70
HP is really more like 64-65.
According to Mercury Site the 40 hp has a displacement of 45.6 while
the 50 and 60 hp (including the big foot models) displace 60.8. The
bigger motors also weigh quite a bit more than the 40.
BTW. The 40 is mid range for the smaller boat while the 60 is for the
bigger Xcalibur.
I see where I got confused the 40 Big Foot is the same 60 ci motor as
the 50/60.
The regular 40 is smaller.
I agree if you can live with 40HP the 40 EFI is the way to go.
I would still stay away from carbs. If nothing else, there will be
lakes that you can't run without the CARB-3 rating.

http://www.mercurymarine.com/engines...kes/40-60/?mod...
OK I didn't even check the 40 big foot. The little boat doesn't list
that as an upgrade.
It's not an upgrade unless you need it. On a boat like that I don't see
the benefit of the bigfoot.