Inboard Diesel or petrol outboard??

[sshakespeare]

Help. I've been looking and comparing both the ARVOR 215 with 100Hp inboard diesel with the QUICKSILVER 540 pilothouse with 100Hp Mercury. I just cant make up my mind which is the best to go for. Obviously economy, maintenance, ease of use, speed all comes in to it. Any advice out there??

 

[sailorman]

inboard gal per hr x cost of fuel per hr x service per hr
outboard-- ditto ----------ditto--------------ditto

take the lower from the highest = answer

 

[Bandit]

Size for size the diesels handle the sea better , i Suppose due to having more weight and further forwardand I expect the fuel consumption to be better as is the resale value.

If you need to put it on a trailer Outboard or Outdrive is better.

 

[Sneds]

Reckon it might be cheaper to service and maintain the outboard, and when you park you can lift it out of the water!
Gotta be good!
Not sure about the fuel consumption though and an inboard, IMHO would probably feel a more "complete" boat.
Go for a blast and see, I for one would be interested in your opion after.

 

[sshakespeare]

Thanks chaps, all good info, it'll be my first boat, I'm assuming that the petrol will be a quicker boat with more grunt? How reliable are the new modern engines? I'm not mechanically minded at all.

 

[Sneds]

serviced to the schedule and I'm sure you'll have no problems.
Might be a good idea to invest in a small "get you home! outboard.
Good luck !

 

[Nick_H]

I'd go for the outboard every time, its a complete "black box" unit, quality assured from the factory, very reliable, and you can lift if off if you need to. Stern drives come in two parts, so there's scope for installation problems, and they're notriously unreliable, though may not be so bad if not left in the water. Or is the inboard on a shaft?

 

[sshakespeare]

Thanks for this, inboard is on a shaft. Does anyone know approx how much fuel a 110Hp Outboard will burn pushing a 1000kg boat?

 

[me2]

I had a QS 580 with outboard and now have a shaftdrive inboard .I have found that the outboard boat had to come out of the water to be serviced this added to the cost of servicing . The inboard is alot cheaper on service cost as there is less to do and can be done on in the water. Plus it cost alot less in fuel.

 

[No Regrets]

The inboard diesel should be cheap and easy to maintain, be far more economical and the shaft drive far nicer for steering and a lack of scary problems.

You also don't have a huge chunk of Black hanging off the stern, thus offering cleaner lines too.

The outboard will have a few advantages mind you.

 

[Chris_d]

If your buying new and only going to keep it a few years, the difference's in running costs will be minimal, although the diesel will obviously use less fuel. However an inboard shaft diesel in a boat of this size and type is really horrible to be on, very noisy (Arvor's etc.. have no soundproofing), likewise vibration is bad and the engine takes up all the cockpit space. I'd go for the outboard if it was me, more room, quieter, super smooth, more responsive handling and better performance.

 

[sshakespeare]

great stuff thanks

 

[No Regrets]

Also, you can buy a tuning chip and add 25bhp for £25 with the VW Diesel /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Chris_d]

I'd really reccomend trying both if you can, on a lot of boats getting the diesel option is no brainer, but on these little peche promenade things the rattley old oil burner never lets you forget its there /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[whisper]

Agree wholeheartedly having tried about half a dozen of these "Peche Promenades"
At this size the diesel boats are far noisier and "rougher running" than the outboard powered ones.
They will also tend to be heavier, which is noticeable if you plan to trailer it around.
Personally I'd go for the outboard option with a small (5-6hp) emergency engine on a variable height bracket. Would have this on the diesel boat as well.

 

[Haven't-a-Clue]

FWIW, I have a Merryfisher with a Suzuki o/b. As far as I can surmise, the advantages of an outboard are 1) you can lift the drive clear of the water, handy for those rope around the prop etc scenarios, 2)once run in you can run them at any load setting without having to worry about 'glazing' 3) at low (pottering) speeds they are quite economical, quiet and largely vibration free. Downside as has been pointed out, you have to lift out for servicing, they are a heavy weight right on the back of the boat and at high speed they are possibly even noisier than an inboard diesel. Oh and for some reason (gyroscopic forces?) at high speed they do take some steering effort!

 

[me2]

I am glad you said that about the noise as I find the inboard is not as noisy as the outboard at speed. Others keep saying that the diesels are noisy I was going to book a hearing test, sadly I can always hear what the SWMBO has to say when the engine is running

 

[No Regrets]

You could always add sound deadening, the modern stuff is very very good, and the VW engine certainly doesn't rattle much!

 

[me2]

The boat comes with sound deadening it is not to noisy, maybe if I remove it I wont be able to hear her.

 

[whisper]

I suspect that at full throttle the outboard boat is doing at least 5kts more than the diesel one.
We found that with the wheelhouse doors closed the outboard versions were quieter. Where there were no doors (or they were open) there was little between them at full throttle, volume wise, but the outboard versions were smoother sounding.