Is 230 hours on an 2018 boat grossly excessive?

[vetplus40]

Would these hours concern you if you were interested in said boat? Seems very high to me, but I don't do much boat "cruising". More of a "hang out" at the local sand bar guy myself. The boat appears to be priced considerably lower than NADA (possibly because of the hours) but wont know much more until I can contact the seller. Thanks.

 

[Silvertip]

What boat, what engine/drive? It could be the hour meter is one that runs anytime the key is on even if the engine is not running. Hours can run up in a hurry if this is the case. If this were a "work boat" or a "guide boat" it may very well have that many hours on it. Considering the boat could now be nearly two years old (built and sold in late 2017)

 

[MTboatguy]

As long as it looks taken care of and it runs good, I would not be worried about it, most likely what Silver said, it is a two year old boat, so if you just figured the hours out and if they used it 8 hours at a time, that is less than 29 total days in two years. I know my wife and I on a 3 day camping trip have put as much as 10-15 hours in the boat over those 3 days..

 

[Scott Danforth]

a 2018 canoe, jon boat, utility boat, run-about, ski-boat, battle cruiser?

what engine/drive package? paddle, sail, outboard, I/O, Inboard?

100 hours a year is less than I normally boat. usually its about 30-40 times on the water with an average of 8-10 hours a day, its an hour boat ride to most where I go and will put about 100 miles on the boat every outing. we average about 200 hours of hour meter time in a year.

I would consider 230 hours in 2 years slightly above average, however nothing to be concerned about.

I would be more concerned about a 2 year old boat with 4 hours on it.

 

[roffey]

I don't think it think it matters much what kind of boat, if it has a hour meter then it has a motor. To answer the OP, I would think 230 hours on a two year old boat is a lot of hours but I also think a boat that is used and loved is better than a boat that just sits and get no use, no oil pumped through the motor. So to chime in with the rest 230 hours would not scare me away.

 

[GA_Boater]

A person buys a boat and uses it - What's wrong with that?

As Scott said a 2 year old boat with 4 hours is more worrisome. The 4 hour boat still has break-in problems to be discovered and the 230 hour boat is broken-in and initial problems have been discovered. A sitting boat has more problems than a boat being used, no matter if she's new or old. We have thousands of threads showing that.

What is this boat? Cruiser, bass boat, offshore or ?

 

[jkust]

Depends on a lot of things. Here in MN where there is an at most 90 day summer, it is expected that boats have state appropriate hours which tend to be very low. A boat with abnormally high hours would then be priced accordingly and have a smaller market of buyers. Back to your sand bar comment, could be that not only does it have that high of engine hours, but the upholstery, etc has even more usage and life used up. If the high hours meant that I could spend 80k to get a 100k boat for which a 100k boat was a step up from what I was anticipating, maybe I'd consider. It may be that by the time I sell it, the hours even themselves up anyway. We have a house on a large lake and even then do we maybe put 20 hours of actual run time on our main boat since the PWC's get most of the usage.

 

[vetplus40]

The boat belonged to a chapter of something called "Freedom Boat Club". To be honest, I had never heard of it and had to "Google" it. The "group use" explained the high hours for one season of use. I decided to keep looking. Thanks for the replies.

 

[harringtondav]

The boat belonged to a chapter of something called "Freedom Boat Club". To be honest, I had never heard of it and had to "Google" it. The "group use" explained the high hours for one season of use. I decided to keep looking. Thanks for the replies.

I think that is a wise move. My wife's family has a boat with many users, none with any skin in the game. It's a sad boat.

230 hrs from an original owner would be no big deal, as mentioned above. I've tried to correlate boat engine hrs to car miles. Adjusting for an estimated ave boat engine rpm of 3200, and an average car speed of 50 mph/1600 rpm, that 230 hrs is less than 6000 car miles.

One of the sage members who replied above stated a well maintained, sanely operated boat engine could last 3000 hrs. That's 75000 car miles using my calcs. That seems reasonable, considering a boat engine revs higher, and is producing high power all of the time. So I guess that 230 hrs is more like 12000 car miles. Ave for one year on a car.

 

[82rude]

One careful owner no problem .Several owners as you state problem.Lets say 20 users .Odds are several are, putting it as best as i know how ,morons..

 

[dingbat]

I would rather have a 2 year old boat with 230 hours than a 5 year old boat with100 hours.

I put my boat in the water on April 12 of this year. I’ve put 112 hours on it since then. Will be close to 200 hours by the end of the year

Have a number of friends (guides) that run 600-700 hours a year. Replace motors on years of service, not the hour meter. Putting 3 - 4K hours out of a motor before replacing is common place anymore

One thing is for sure, boats last longer in the water running than they do as lawn and driveway ornaments..

 

[vetplus40]

I may have to slightly disagree with the thought that more hours of use automatically means a better vehicle. Usage depends on many factors. Cases in point: I have a 2017 Tacoma 4x4 with just over 5k miles. I rarely drive it, but it is mint condition. I also bought an 07 Waverunner in 2015 with 52 hours on it. It was also in mint condition and ran flawlessly until I sold it two months ago.

 

[jkust]

Rental boat, pass.

 

[harringtondav]

Putting 3 - 4K hours out of a motor before replacing is common place anymore

This is now two sage pros that I've heard stating 3K+ hrs is achievable. It makes sense. 40 years ago getting 100K miles from and auto engine was something to brag about. Today's engines will easily go well over 200K miles....if maintained and operated sanely. The same design and mfg improvements in automotive engines are in today's marinized engines.

 

[dingbat]

This is now two sage pros that I've heard stating 3K+ hrs is achievable. It makes sense. 40 years ago getting 100K miles from and auto engine was something to brag about. Today's engines will easily go well over 200K miles....if maintained and operated sanely. The same design and mfg improvements in automotive engines are in today's marinized engines.

Boats powered with automotive engines are few and far between around here (saltwater). The numbers voiced where based solely on mid to high HP outboards.

And as I said, these motor with 3K+ hours are changed out on years of service. I know of a Honda BF250 still in use with over 5K hours on it.

 

[jkust]

This is now two sage pros that I've heard stating 3K+ hrs is achievable. It makes sense. 40 years ago getting 100K miles from and auto engine was something to brag about. Today's engines will easily go well over 200K miles....if maintained and operated sanely. The same design and mfg improvements in automotive engines are in today's marinized engines.

I don't even think twice about 100k out of my cars....well except my new M750. The engine is just one part of the equation.
Everything else is getting worn out as well on a boat. When I drive a rental car, I beat it whenever i am able to. Fun to actually use the autostick without any worry...can't say I do the same with my paddle shifters. Pull my roll on out of the trunk and smacked the bumper...too bad. Same with a rental boat.

 

[harringtondav]

The engine is just one part of the equation.

True. I retired my last car at 21 yrs. The engine and drive train were fine @ 175K miles. East IA rust takes them all eventually. Brake lines rot around 15-16 yrs. My '99 Durango is the same story. 20 yrs old, good engine and drive train, and lots of body rot. I replaced the last brake line this spring. I could diagnose and repair these cars. My '14 and '17 cars...maybe..if my OBD code reader can tell me anything.

 

[Texasmark]

Rental boat was a great suggestion by jkust....or maybe the Boom Boom Box doesn't work without the ignition key in the ON position.....if there is no ACC. position between Off and On could be the reason......on a sand bar having beach parties and a couple of brews and all.

 

[Old Ironmaker]

To me 230 hours is about what I put on my StarCraft in 2 years if I had her out every week for 6 months fishing in a year. I probably put on a bit more weather permitting. 1/2 of that might be trolling to charge up my batteries as I have a 15HP kicker for trolling. Now the biggest and most important question is what kind of boating? Pulling skiers, tubes with 4 kids on it, or pulling 2 fat guys barefooting at wide out throttle, what? I think I have it at WOT once or twice a year to burn any carbon build up, that's what I tell my wife anyway. 3/4 throttle is fast enough to get to where I'm going. However I know a close friend that is always at WOT, the only time he isn't is when he is docking. Actually have seen him hit a beach at almost WOT then asks why his StarCraft is leaking, he's a nutbar.

I don't know if anyone here is old enough to remember Hertz rent a car offered high horsepower Challengers, 340 Dusters, Chargers, Malibu's and Mustangs to name a few. Guys took them from the rental agency straight to the drags and raced them all day Saturday and Sunday. Hertz would sell them every year when the new models came out and had ridiculously low mileage. Guys would buy them and flip them for big bucks because they were low mileage vehicles. No Carfax reports then. Like someone said 100,000 miles was scrap heap for a 60's, 70's and 80's cars. The engines might have been just fine, you couldn't kill a GM 283, Ford 289 or Chryslers slant 6's but the frame along with everything else was rusted, here in Canada at least. My wife's 08' Nissan had over 400,000 KM's (240,000 miles) before the tranny died but no rust and the engine was still strong. So more about how a boat is used and cared for than for how long it was used.

Hope this helps, Johnny D.

 

[jkust]

Luckily since 2002 for smallblocks, you can read the hours and rpm range the engine was operating in from the ECM on an MPI I/O. Having lived in MN my whole life, it was really hard to get a car to not rust away up until may be the late 90's/early 2000's. Didn't matter what you did or how you washed them, they just rusted. Only car I had back in the day that seemed impervious to rusting was an 89 Chevy Beretta.