Gas Prices And Four Strokes

[ozarkgunner]

We have all been hurting with gas prices so high. I think the introduction of the 4 stoke outboard has really been a blessing. While prompted for enviromental reasons, the 50% (up to) better fuel economy is making the trip to the lake a litte easier. Now if my truck just got 50% more mpg! Four strokes are heavy and require some tune ups, but at $4 per gallon I think they are the only way to go nowadays! Anybody think gas prices will make bass boats return to the size of latter years (150hp 17ft) or are the lakes simply too crowded?

[Trav]

Nope!

Bigger is better no matter the cost. It is the nature of the beast.

The human anthill will continue to consume.

[ozarkgunner]

Nope!

Bigger is better no matter the cost. It is the nature of the beast.

The human anthill will continue to consume.

I'm thinking the 300 hp 2 strokes days are numbered. Who will pay for the gas @ $4 per gal.? I would rather fish more and pay less / go slower!

I bet some the resorts are feeling the pain just in the gas to get there let alone the cost to gas up the fishing rigs.

[Dutch]

A properly tuned DI will get very good mileage when you keep it in the 4000-4500 rpm range and weighs a lot less than the four stroke.

[taxidermist]

We have a 17 ft Lowe aluminum with a 90Hp JOhnson 2 stroke. It does really well on gas, oil injected. Boat is rated for a 120hp motor, we seldom run wide open throttle and it does pretty good. Really cannot guess at the mileage but its got to be close to 10 mpg, we run up Bull Shoals 12 miles by GPS oneway and in three trips it takes 7 gallons or there abouts, give or take 1/2 gallon.

We had a 9.8 2 stroke merc on the river boat and could fish two weekends on 5 gallons , we doe the same with the 15HP 4 stroke but use only 3 gallons, we put in at Wildcat ran to the dam and floated back using 1 1/2 gallons of gas with three people in the boat.

The bad thing is the 4 stroke 15 is 147 lbs and the 9.8 was 87, big difference in the wieght. Where weight is not a factor the 4 stroke is fine, on a river boat the 2 stroke is the way to go.

[Trav]

Miles Per Gallon?

I wouldnt know how to figure that if I tried with my fishing outings.

I do however have it down to Hours ran per gallon. My old '61 18 horse Evinrude gets me about 2 hours every 4 gallons. So thats 30 minutes a gallon.

[Dutch]

Mileage isn't hard to figure. You keep your tach at a certain rpm, use your gps for land speed, look at the onboard computer for the consumption rate and you can get a mpg figure.

For example if at 4500 rpms you have a ground speed of 48 mph and your consumption rate is 6 gph then you'd be getting 8 mph.

You can't use the boat speedo because of too many wind and wave variables.

[Trav]

Haha

If my old 'Rude had a tach, a gps, and an onboard computer.