First time buyer - seeking opinion on Four Winns

[Powerstroke in a Prius]

I will not dispute what you say, I have experience with an underpowered boat (my first 18' open bow runabout that I bought).

I don't boat the way many power boaters do. I come from sailing, so putt-putt is fine by me. One advantage to the 5.0L is it brings the price of a bigger boat down to my level, without compromising the quality/condition of the boat. I wanted the 5.7L with at least 300 HP on this size boat, but the rest of the deal was an overriding factor. I'm not looking for resale... as you know, "resale" and "boat" are dichotomies. With just the intended use of the boat (retired wife and myself), the boat will not be loaded down or pull a skier. I've had this size engine with the DP before in a 23-foot cuddy (50 fewer ponies), and it went as fast as I care to go (over 40 MPH) with my then family of 5. I pulled skiers, tubers, knee boarders, and wakeboarders - nobody complained. This boat is about as fast as that boat (it cruises on plane at about 3300 RPM)... it's just slower out of the hole. Slather the rear with trim tabs and it punches out just fine. I have the performance graph for the 270 HP 5.0L on my boat (courtesy of boattest.com).

I have a friend who had a boat slightly larger than mine. His rig was underpowered, but it had the Volvo - so he took a chance on swapping from single screw to DP. Just the drive change alone made it a whole different boat - he was finally able to punch out through the planing transition and attain a much higher top speed. He also gained a lot of acceleration.

As a DP owner, I assume you've had single screws before - and once you experienced the difference, you likely don't want to go back.

In road vehicles... I've experienced many gasser 7.4Ls and 7.5Ls, along with just about every gas V8 ever built. I hate, hate, hate, the power to fuel ratio for that sized engine - but maybe I had a few duds... I dunno. I am now a dieselholic.

 

[bruceb58]

I had 2 3/4 T Suburbans back in the 90s. Almost identical vehicles but one with the 7.4L and one with the 5.7L. They got almost identical fuel mileage. In fact when towing, the 7.4L actually did a little better. Same goes for boat engines. My 7.4L engine gets the same MPG as almost the same sized boat that had a 5.0. Both boats were 24' cuddy cabin boats.

Personally, I would never be happy with the performance in that chart above because it is done with an empty boat with 2 people aboard. Real life situations for most people, maybe not you, are completely different. Just like that couple I was talking about before with the 5.7L in the Four Winns Vista, they wish they had the bigger engine.

I have yet to meet one person who complained about their engine being too big but heard many complaints of the opposite.

 

[jkust]

Some people are ok with 'just enough'. The beauty of used boats is that you don't have to settle for that when there is another right around the corner with the bigger engine for the same price. Reminds me of just about ever single newer mid 20's foot Sea ray that comes on the market...the Sundecks and the Bowriders....all have the 5.0 base powerplant. In that case you are going to be waiting a while to get the rare 5.7 or 6.2. Maybe it's a Minnesota thing...I can't figure it out.

 

[boatman37]

I had a 1991 F250 with the 5.8 and then later a 1994 F250 with the 7.5 and it was a world of difference power wise but the 7.5 only got about 1 MPG worse mileage (11 MPG to 10 MPG). I have also found that to be true with smaller engines. Sometimes the 5.7 will actually get better mileage than the 5.0 because it doesn't have to work as hard. For what we do with our boat the 5.7 is good enough but if we cruised on plane all day with a full boat then I would probably have complaints. I remember the first time we went out with guests. My mother and step-father, along with 2 of our full grown kids, went out. I couldn't get on plane at all and couldn't get over about 12 MPH. Turns out I dinged up my prop pretty good when I put the boat in the water. A new prop (same pitch) and it was fine with a full load. I wouldn't want to run it like that every time we were out as it did take awhile to get on plane then once you were up you didn't want to slow down and start over..lol