Best 50HP outboard

Magnum

Magnum

RIP
Joined
14 Jan 2004
Messages
2,706
Location
Jersey
Visit site
Mounted on 3.8m RIB with remote steering and power tilt/trim.

I quite like the Honda 50, mainly because it has 3 cylinders, looks nice and is a touch lighter than the competition. But apart from that there doesn't seem much between it and the competition.

Are there any compelling reasons why a Yamaha, Evinrude, Mercury or Suzuki would be a better choice?
 
You have touched on some of your criteria for choosing a Honda, and it seems you are relying on a mix of extensive experience and intuition. Are there any other quantitative ones, e.g. MTBF, fuel consumption, service intervals, standard service costs, typical spares costs, etc that would enable a more rigorous comparison ? Would you go for the make that came top in a points-based analysis ? Or would you look at the choice made by e.g. RNLI, or Coastguard and think "If it is good enough for them...." ?

Perhaps somewhere based in the States where they sell far more than in EU, there's a site that does a side by side comparison, but it's reasonable to give weight to recommendations based on forum experience.

Not an easy decision, as reputation between all of them is pretty even.
 
I always buy Honda, I believe it to be the most reliable brand and if you only have one motor that is the most important consideration
 
Personally I would go for the Evinrude.
No messing around with oil changes or servicing for 3 years, accelerates well, lower profile, and sounds good.
 
I had the Honda 30, also 3 cylinder, used it for a few years, it never missed a beat, a totally reliable, smooth running motor. Moored next to me was an old tourist hire boat, it had the old 45 hp Honda, the engine was in use every day, abused by tourists for years, again completely reliable. 6 year warranty, I would buy Honda again. Second choice would be Yamaha, used on the tourist hire boats because of low running costs and reliability.
 
The Honda looks good, it's obviously a new model that wasn't available when I was choosing a 50hp outboard a year ago, although I dislike the Honda dealer in Antibes so wouldn't have bought one anyway just for that reason.

I'd also be nervous about the relatively small displacement. Engine manufacturers know that buyers look at the power rating and the weight, so they design engines with small cylinders and squeeze more power out of them, but that can result in a lack of torque at low to mid RPM.

I went for the Suzuki, which is a few kgs heavier than the new Honda at 104 instead of 98 kgs, but it has a substantially bigger displacement at 941cc vs 808cc for the Honda. AOTBE that means more torque at lower rpm, which is important if you want to pull adult skiers. The Honda does claim to have a feature which boosts low speed torque, but it's electronic trickery and not quantified (is it 1% more or 20% more??) and I don't know how you'd check it without trying it, and it's important to check it, as my previous Honda 30hp was a reliable engine, but boy was it gutless!

The Suzuki is also 3 cylinders, DOHC, with 12 valves and usefully has a maintenance free timing chain, which means servicing is easy with just plugs, filters and oils to change.

My view would be:

If weight is most important, and you don't want to pull adult skiers, go for the Honda.
If torque and power is most important, go for the Evinrude
For a compromise between the two, go for the Suzuki.
 
Nick_H said:
My view would be:

If weight is most important, and you don't want to pull adult skiers, go for the Honda.
If torque and power is most important, go for the Evinrude
For a compromise between the two, go for the Suzuki.
Click to expand...
Nicely summed up Nick_H.
 
Magnum said:
Not aiming for any speed, but sea trial the other day showed the 50 to have bags in reserve, which was nice.
Click to expand...

We usually mooch around at 15 or so kts but the Yam 20hp will easily push us to 25+ kts with two onboard (total 125kg + fuel). That gives us a comfortable reserve but with a different RIB and regularly carrying more self-loading cargo more HP might be needed. What I'm trying to say is, I wouldn't personally go OTT with HP for only occasional heavy load performance, but if regularly asking more of the RIB/outboard then more HP might be beneficial. Even so, 50HP on a 3.8m RIB sounds like an awful lot of ponies to buy and feed.
 
The RIB that Magnum is looking at has the transom pushed aft, the bow pushed forward under the tube, and the hull extended either side of the outboard, so is equivalent to other RIBS over 4m. There's no weight penalty for a 50 over a 40, and cost differences are minimal, so no reason not to choose the 50 imho.
 
Check your engine limit for a 3.8m rib. Not too many can take 50 hp. What is it?

My Honda 50 is something I have mixed feelings about. Runs beautifully, smooth and quiet. Starts easily always. The problem is there are too many failures. Split fuel hose, cracked lower gear unit, seized pivot tube, corroded fittings all over the place.

I think all modern Jap engines are brilliant. They learnt to build fantastic engines by building for decades millions of the world's best bikes, so next time I'd focus more on marine suitability. I'd probably look at Yam first. I believe they are the most serious about the marine reliability issues. They are the go-to motor of third world fishermen. I like Suzuki too as their new motors have quite a few nice technical features. Really quiet too.
 
Last edited:
That looks nice. A lot like the AB range. It's the first time I have seen anything made in the Ukraine except for wheat, and radiation.
 
Magnum said:
Not made a final decision yet but the Brig E380 is favourite so far - http://www.brig-ribs.com/ribs/eagles/e380/
Click to expand...

I know that fibreglass seems to be the way to go but have you looked at the aluminium RIBs
AB make a good range of both.
If you are out in Mallorca any time, the Megastore in Santa Ponsa has a good stock of both fg and aluminium AB boats.
I was very tempted to build a spec around the AB aluminium boat.
SWMBO liked the Zar
 
I think it's much of a muchness. They're all pretty good. I had the yam 50 on last boat and have the 70 (same basic engine) on current boat and like it. They've made so many it is uber reliable. Very quiet. Not sure I care about timing belt Vs chain because you never do enough hours to test the belt's endurance- I'm less than 100 hours after 3.5 seasons. And belts are quieter.

If you're looking for stand out features to distinguish the 50 hp motors from each other then in my book mercury, Suz, Honda have none (though they're fine, and mercury uses the yam power head). evinrude have 2stroke performance while yam have Ycop. Ycop is enough to swing it for me because it is dead easy to hotwire an outboard (like doing a 1970s car) and having it nicked would be very inconvenient, but Ycop gives you auto-style immobiliser.

There might be instrumentation differences but I haven't researched it. With yam you have fuel level sender easily integrated into the yam displays- no need for separate gauge, for example. And you get stw, trim angle, volts, fuel burn rate and other stuff all viewable on their two-gauge package (available round or square). Might be worth checking the others but I hope they would be similar.

But there's definitely no wrong answer here IMHO

Thr brig eagles are v nice but if you want to install a touchscreen colour plotter flush you'll need a grp artisan to re-model the dash. Suggest you insist the supplier gives you 2litres of factory gel coat as part of the deal. They also do custom builds- a friend had one with grey gel and black tubes (like your pred72). And as mentioned elsewhere if you want teak deck I strongly recommend marine deck 2000 (the Dutch stuff, cork like) in a tender because it looks ok and is incredibly grippy when wet
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top