JoLin
Vice Admiral
- Joined
- Aug 18, 2007
- Messages
- 5,146
I'm boat shopping. I love my Volvo. It's bulletproof and simple to maintain. Most of the boats I'm looking at (28-30 ft. Express Cruisers) for sale locally have twin V-6's or V-8's and are of course, Mercs. That means they're usually equipped with Alpha Gen II's.
The Alpha layout (water pump in the drive leg) bugs me because IMO it's archaic. You can't resolve the most common cooling issues without hauling the boat out of the water. I'm big on maintenance. Impellers would be replaced immediately, and then every 2 years.
That said, are these drives reliable? Do they have any common 'gotchas' or weak points?
Advice appreciated.
The Alpha layout (water pump in the drive leg) bugs me because IMO it's archaic. You can't resolve the most common cooling issues without hauling the boat out of the water. I'm big on maintenance. Impellers would be replaced immediately, and then every 2 years.
That said, are these drives reliable? Do they have any common 'gotchas' or weak points?
Advice appreciated.