Hours on a boat..... what is too much?

Hello all i was curious about the hours on boats. From what i have been told is that boat motors go for 4-5k hours. If that is true then a boat with 400-600 hours isn't bad at all. Would you buy a boat with 400-600 hours on it? What about resale in 5 years and i put on another 400-600 so the boat with have a total of 800-1200hrs on it. Will it be hard to sell in the future with this many hours on it? I have found a couple nice MC prostars 205's with 400+hrs. I also found a few nautiques with 500+hrs on them. One last question. Do you have an opinion on Calabria boats? I found a nice 97' blue/white for a good price. It has 426hrs on it. It looks nice from the pics and i don't have to drive very far to look at it. Thanks Josh

There was just a thread on this a little while ago, try and use the search function and if that does not yield any results then post again on this thread.

If they were cared for and properly serviced 500 hours is not that many. IMO.

My Nautique has 900 hours on it, and runs flawlessly. It even runs better than my last boat (not naming Manufacturer) which had 300 when I sold it.

IMO, a new buyer will be looking more at how it runs compared to what the hour meter is reading. If well cared for, 400-500 is nothing.

I bought a boat with 690 hrs. on it. I did my research on how it was cared for by contacting the servicing dealer and asking questions. I also had them perform a compression and leak down test. The boat runs awesome. Just like the above posts say, if well cared for hours are just a number.

As I said on the last post, I have a friend with over 1600 hours on TWO of his Hydrodynes, both run like new. Its all in the way you take care of them....500 well taken care for hours are way different than 500 hours of abuse and neglect.


www.midwestwakeboarder.com

I put over 800 hours a year on my boat(X-Star) with little to no problems at all. I do all of the scheduled maintenence though. Oil changes, impeller, transmission, etc. If you stay on top of that stuff, they will last forever.

I'd be more worried about low hours-means to me it was a weekend warrior with little boat knowledge.

Its all in how you take care of your boat, Theres 400 hours on mine and it still looks almost brand new

If you have 500 hours on a boat and say you average 30 mph in the boat thats 15,000 miles which is pretty new for an engine in a car or truck........... I have 1300 hours on my Mastercraft and its a 2000. It runs good.

These guys are right. It's all in how it's taken care of. I have a 96 Nautique with 1600+ hrs on it and it runs like the day we bought it and it hasn't seen the dealership in years. All we really did was change the oil about every 500 hrs. I wouldn't go with anything but Nautiques or Master Craft, but thats just my opinion from the boats I've been in.

Oil change every 500 hours! Now that would be something!

Austin, I think you mean 50 hours, right?

We've got above 1400 hrs on our 2001 tige 21v re. And it's still going strong. If compared to a car at an average of 40 mph, 1400 hrs are an equal of 56.000 miles. Not that much.

I had 1700 hours on my 96 mastercraft 205 and it ran like a champ. We would load that bad boy down with like 3000 pounds and it would go for ever. My mastercraft Kleenex-2 has seven hundred and forty hours on it and I still consider it new. Later, Mike

wakemark.... Not to discount what you are saying, but I'd hardly consider it like an average of 40mph. My boat resides between full and 1/2 throttle all the time as I would expect most fully loaded wake boats to do. I would equate the hours on my boat more similarly to running around at 100mph all the time. I go by oil changes more than anything. 50hours on the boat or about 3000 on the car, so I'd equate your hours to more like 84,000 miles. Still not bad if you maintain your equipment. That said, there definitely isn't a direct way of comparing hours to miles and people make a much bigger deal of hours than they have to. I've rarely, if ever, heard of a motor or tranny on a wakeboat wearing out. Usually damage is a result of neglect, punishment or negligence.

Hey Evan, over here in Germany the cars run 100 to 120 mph on the freeways, but the cars still only run an overall average of 40-45 mph because of city traffic, red lights, jams etc.. I consider the use of the boat engine about the same with trailering/harbour, no wake zones , picking up fallen riders etc..
Our boat is at 2900 to 3200 rpm when pulling. My car is at 3500 to 4200 rpm when travelling on a freeway and when there is no traffic it's like that for hours sometimes.
In my opinion comparing an boat hour to 40 miles on a car is reasonable. The big difference is maintenance an handling of the engine.

wakemark,I can cruise down the freeway going a 100mph at no more then 2,500rpm in my truck yet pulling a rider behind my boat is 3,200rpm's after my boat planed out.

I'm definitely not bagging you, but I'm sticking with what I said. My boat is working a lot harder to achieve 25 mph than my car is to achieve 100. My car will run 100 for hours without going through a full tank of gas (16 gallons), but my boat will only do 25 for 3-4 hours before burning 30 gallons. If that's not an idicator of load, then I don't know what is. The V8 in my boat is working hard all the time.

Hey C.I.E that isn't good milage for your boat. My boat which is an older glastron (for now until i get my newer boat) and it has a 18gallon tank and i went boarding for 4+ hrs and i only used a half of a tank. Now i did pull one newbie wakeboarder so i did do alot of stop and go instead of all go. Now i don't know about newer boats but my old glastron has a 302 v8 carburated motor. I am really curious on finding exactly how many hours is equal to miles. Thanks for chiming in everyone!!!!!!!

@ Big Ed: I can go with my car up to 143 mph. But 100 to 120 mph is the usual speed, not max speed, on our freeways.
When You can go 100 mph with 2500 rpm on Your truck, where is your max rpm and your max speed with Your truck?

@ Evan: Not a bad comparisson. Our boat needs 4 to 5 gallons an hour. The Grand Cherooke V8 for pulling the boat is doing 10 to 13 mpg. It' pretty much the same at 40 to 50 mph average.

Anyways I would rather buy a used boat with high hours from someone that maintained and used it properly than a boat with low hours from a weekend warrior.

max RPM is at 5500 and max speed 100....it cuts off after a 100mph.Getting to a 100 depends how lead foot I feel but I assure you I can reach top speed without exceeding 2,500RPM.