2002 3.0 Mercruiser...

[chris in va]

I rented a Sea Ray bow rider from a marina here in TX today with the family. To say the least, I was severely underwhelmed with this motor. We had 5 people on board and it refused to get on plane until two of us sat in the bow seats. I was shocked. The max rpm's only topped out at 4000, so I think they put the wrong prop on there. On a positive note, we had the boat out for 4 hours pulling a tube, and it only took about 12 gallons to fill back up. I wish we had used the 4.3 instead...

[Bart Sr.]

CHRIS---Compared to my 3.0L 130Horse I/O 16FT Fiberglass Bowrider that is a LOT of gas for 4 hours.Two years ago on July 4th I pulled tubes and skiers for a total of 10 hours and only used 10 gallons.What type and length was the rental? It sounds like it must have been an 18 or 19 footer(fiberglass maybe?).With the wrong prop and heavier boat more gas consumption would make sense.Just thinking out loud.

[akriverrat]

a lot of wot running? number of peple on board means little. how much weight was on board? rental boats lead a hard and short life.

[chris in va]

It was a nearly new Sea Ray 176. Like I said, we had 5 people aboard, and we weren't running WOT more than 25% of the time. After 4 hours we had 1/4 tank left according to the gauge. Gas was $2.09/gal and he charged us $20.

[Bart Sr.]

Sounds like you had a VERY enjoyable day!!!!

[akriverrat]

2.099 is what i pay for the cheapest 92 octane in town. my 4.3 burns 6 gph. about 1% of the time at wot.did you try any wot runs with 2-3 people in boat? that is probably closer to what its propped for.

[Doug Durako]

Sea Ray is a heavy boat----they are trying to be a "cheaper Cobalt" by sacrificing horespower. Of course, you can always "upgrade" for $4 or $5 k to get the motors they put in the ones they take the pics of for the brochures!

[AggieFX4]

Chris,What did you have the trim set on? That will affect how fast the boat planes substantially. I have a 1996 Sea Ray 175 with the same engine and with five people, a 19 pitch prop and the trim completely down I had no problem planing out. Don't get me wrong, you can definetly tell that there is more weight but it still planes out. Once the boat planes you can then trim up a little to gain speed and reduce drag, thus improving gas consumption. By the way, I found that with my 18 footer and the 3.0L anytime I have more than 2 or 3 people in the boat two can sit directly behind the windows and the others in the bow. Todd