2001 Honda BF50 rev-limiter question

[Walleyehunter4]

Greetings, I just purchased a 2001 Honda BF50, and I’m trying to determine whether I should buy and install a tachometer for it. It was previously on an 18 foot boat and I’m putting it on my 16 foot boat that I allow my kids to use. If it was my primary boat I would spend the money and time to install a tachometer. Should I be worried about my young adult kids operating at wide-open throttle such that they could damage the motor by over revving it without knowing it since there’s not a tachometer? Or, is there and can I trust a rev limiter to protect the motor from over-revving? Am I even thinking about this correctly? Thanks for any advice!

 

[ahicks]

Greetings, I just purchased a 2001 Honda BF50, and I’m trying to determine whether I should buy and install a tachometer for it. It was previously on an 18 foot boat and I’m putting it on my 16 foot boat that I allow my kids to use. If it was my primary boat I would spend the money and time to install a tachometer. Should I be worried about my young adult kids operating at wide-open throttle such that they could damage the motor by over revving it without knowing it since there’s not a tachometer? Or, is there and can I trust a rev limiter to protect the motor from over-revving? Am I even thinking about this correctly? Thanks for any advice!

I was thinking just put a prop on there that's not possible to over rev, but after thinking about this for a second, I think the tach might be a better plan. Consider the price of a tach the cost of a lesson they should learn - AND - the only way to provide assurance the right prop is installed.
Motor is red lined at 6k, but they sound really busy at that rpm. I've found 5500 works better with no loss of top end. 6k will work better if they are towing anything. That 6k prop will have noticeably more zip accelerating from a stop.

 

[MattFL]

You can get an hour meter + tach on Amazon for around $20, you can't watch it while you're driving but afterwards it will remember the max RPM and you can check to see how high it went. That said, you can overrev with a prop in my experience. I've got a 99' 50 on a 17' Boston Whaler Montauk with the original Honda prop, I don't remember the pitch off hand. But anyway, with a light load it will zip right past 6000 rpm, top speed about 32mph. But add 4 or 5 people and it stops around 5600rpm, so it's well rounded this way and I just keep an eye on it with a light load. These things will cruise forever at 5500rpm, they don't seem to mind at all.