New to Mercury

All,

I"ve been an OMC man, all my life. But, we all know what happened to them.

I just bolted a 2012-60 Merc. 4-Stroke-Bigfoot to my Boston Whaler-15' Sport.

I've got just over two hours on it (installed NEW hour meter) and have yet to go-Wide Open. At 4500 RPM, I am doing 22 MPH (GPS). Quiet and smooth.

I like what I've seen/heard so far.

Anything to look/watch for?

I do notice a weird sound at about 1100 RPM, especially on decel. It sounds like a "WHIRR"-pretty loud. All other RPM's-great!

As mentioned, so far, the engine has been great.

I will say this. I was very torn between an Evin. (60-eTec) and the four stroker-Merc. You see where I ended up. The price was right and I just didn't like the sound of the two cyl. Evin. The Evin. had that old two stroke/two cyl. rattle that just unnerved me.

So, again, Welcome me to the "Dark Side". What should I be on the lookout for?

Thanks!

Re: New to Mercury

I'm curious as to why you chose the "Big Foot" rather than the standard leg. The Big Foot leg is normally used on heavy hulls like pontoons and work boats (barges if you will).

Re: New to Mercury

mate well bought i have one on my 16ft heavy hull boat and the bigfoot is great ,the main thing is to make sure she is propped right,you will want to see about 5600rpm at wot if you get that then you are propped right if any less than that you might have to experiment abit with different props,the only other thing i can reccommened is use good quality fuel ,91 ron minimum,no ethanol.and you will have trouble free motoring cheers dunc333 downunder

Re: New to Mercury

Silvertip said:

I'm curious as to why you chose the "Big Foot" rather than the standard leg. The Big Foot leg is normally used on heavy hulls like pontoons and work boats (barges if you will).

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Hey Silvertip, thanks for the reply.

JB said the same thing!

I bought the "Bigfoot" simply because I like heavy duty. Not that it will see that soon but I just liked the stronger look and capability. Plus, I'm NOT a speed freak, I like low end-grunt. The (Merc.) tests I saw, on BW Sport 15's, showed almost identical top speeds (BF v. std.).

Being an ex-OMC guy, I liked OMC gearcases (big) swinging BIG props. I thought the standard gearcase was kind of "wimpy".

This old Whaler will not last forever. I was just thinking ahead. My old (1994 Johnson-Triple-70) is going on a pontoon. This Merc. might end up in a similar situation, a few years down the road!

All in all, going to the "Dark Side" has been painless!

Re: New to Mercury

dunc333 said:

mate well bought i have one on my 16ft heavy hull boat and the bigfoot is great ,the main thing is to make sure she is propped right,you will want to see about 5600rpm at wot if you get that then you are propped right if any less than that you might have to experiment abit with different props,the only other thing i can reccommened is use good quality fuel ,91 ron minimum,no ethanol.and you will have trouble free motoring cheers dunc333 downunder

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Thanks 'dunc".

I believe our octane rating is different. However, rest assured, she will be propped right, once I get to "wring her out".

Ethanol is a challenge here. You simply don't know what you're getting.

I was thinking about naming her: "Mamba". As in Black Mamba-snake. The old Johnson 70 is named: "JoAnn" (long story).

Whatcha think?

Re: New to Mercury

Anybody else?

Re: New to Mercury

DJ said:

Anybody else?

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Well, I run that lower unit on my 90 hp triple and it does a nice job on my boat. I agree on what you said about swinging big props. I remember the OMC "Fat 50" and the cabin cruisers loaded with people it could plane out and then some. If the site "Old OMC" from Germany is still up and running you can "slobber all over yourself" looking through those old sales brochures. Grin

Mark

Re: New to Mercury

Merc 75/90 triples needed the big gearcase because they "had to". The 40/50/60 HP had the 1.83 gearcase and used the smallish 10 inch prop. The Big Foot lower unit was available because those smallish props were not suitable for pontoon/work boat service. There are two ways to prop a boat: 1) high prop speed with small prop 2) lower prop speed with larger prop. Pitch is obviously a factor in either scenario. Light boats got by nicely with with a 1.83 gearcase and had respectable top ends. Case in point was my 50 HP Evinrude vs my buddies 50 HP Merc on essentially identical boats. My Evinrude would eat the Merc for lunch on hole shot but the Merc was a bit faster on the top end. Just two ways to accomplish the same thing.

Re: New to Mercury

Silvertip said:

Merc 75/90 triples needed the big gearcase because they "had to". The 40/50/60 HP had the 1.83 gearcase and used the smallish 10 inch prop. The Big Foot lower unit was available because those smallish props were not suitable for pontoon/work boat service. There are two ways to prop a boat: 1) high prop speed with small prop 2) lower prop speed with larger prop. Pitch is obviously a factor in either scenario. Light boats got by nicely with with a 1.83 gearcase and had respectable top ends. Case in point was my 50 HP Evinrude vs my buddies 50 HP Merc on essentially identical boats. My Evinrude would eat the Merc for lunch on hole shot but the Merc was a bit faster on the top end. Just two ways to accomplish the same thing.

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Yeah sir and that is what turned me off the Merc lower mid range engines. Back then I preferred the OMC lower units, hence engines.

Course my little boat runs right at 50 swinging a 13+ dia prop at 24P SS HP, so the big lower unit taint all that bad. Grin.

Mark