Inboard cons
Submitted by scotto on Sat, 2022-07-16 07:56
As with probably all of you, I'm always lookin at my next boat. I currently have a 22ft Whittley with a Suzuki outboard, which I service myself. The next step up in boat size starts getting towards a few petrol inboard models, which we all know come with a bad perception on maintenance and dramas. Yes, I'd love to get a trailerable 26footer with twin 300 mercs, but I haven't won lotto yet, and Gina rhinehart keeps refusing my belgium waffle prices
I want to know anyones bad experiences with petrol inboards please. Regular issues, common problems, extra maintenance, etc.
feel free to comment if you have anything good to say about them too.
cheers legends.
redfin
Posts: 96
Date Joined: 07/11/08
hi mate ive run twin
hi mate ive run twin inboard mercs for the last 7 years. serviced myself ect certainly not hard with a small amount of mechanaical knowledge. never had any issues other a few small normal bits and pieces.
redfin
Posts: 96
Date Joined: 07/11/08
hi mate ive run twin
hi mate ive run twin inboard mercs for the last 7 years. serviced myself ect certainly not hard with a small amount of mechanaical knowledge. never had any issues other a few small normal bits and pieces.
SpotHound
Posts: 439
Date Joined: 06/02/14
Boom
My mate was on an inboard whn it exploded, blew him through the roof and his brother in law who had a partially severed leg whilst on fire into the water.
Not for me.
sea-kem
Posts: 14857
Date Joined: 30/11/09
Why did it blow up?
Why did it blow up?
Love the West!
SpotHound
Posts: 439
Date Joined: 06/02/14
Fuel Leak
They stopped the guys doing their own maintennace and they hired a dodgy boat repairman to service the patrol boats.
Rob H
Posts: 5745
Date Joined: 18/01/12
Some of the dangers are
Some of the dangers are minimised by having EFI engines rather than carby and regardless having a bilge blower that is used religiously.
Any petrol leaks inside a hull inboard or outboard are a serious danger, but the difference is that the inboard is the ignition source, spark and heat.
Quote from a fire safety website "1 gallon of petrol vaporised into a 250 gallon space has the explosive power of 83 sticks of dynamite".
All electrical equipment especially in bilge space must be intrinsically safe.
On an outboard boat basically this is just bilge pumps and little else.
With an inboard this extends to distributors, leads, battery systems, starters and alternators etc etc and it is not uncommon for a person lacking knowledge to replace these parts with the much cheaper automotive equivalents without knowing the danger.
Buying a used inboard boat makes this a risk as well.
This is not to say don't do it, but you need to be extra vigilant when buying
Give a man a mask, and he'll show you his true face...
The older you get the more you realize that no one has a f++king clue what they're doing.
Everyone's just winging it.
scotto
Posts: 2470
Date Joined: 21/04/08
Cheers robdog
Good info.
pelagicyachts
Posts: 1301
Date Joined: 23/02/11
i have had a few petrol
i have had a few petrol inboard boats and for peace of mind always installed 2 bilge blowers - i run one before startup and turn off after -the other one was continuous rated and i had wired to ignition switch, keeps the engine room vented and reduces the chance of a problem if there is a fuel leak - this set up if you do it yourself will cost under $200 and thats using Rule blowers - pretty cheap for piece of mind
In terms of the engines, they are basically car engines and will give you no trouble as long as you keep on top of the marinised add ons (heat exchangers, raw water pumps, manifolds, anodes etc)
People bag mercruisers a lot - there was a boat next to me at RPYC which had big block mercs (454's) which were over 20 years old and still going strong - plenty of stories of them failing too - i think it is really down to maintenance