2 stroke or 4 stroke, which do you prefer?

[bikerider]

I am in the market for an outboard for my 12 ft tin and am going back on forth on whether to get a 2 stroke or 4 stroke. So I ask all of you, which do you prefer?

 

[MrGiggles]

Hard to beat a 2 stroke. Simple, tough, light, and powerful. 4 strokes are much quieter and smoother, but a good bit heavier.

For a 12ft tin I would try to find an old OMC 5.5 or something like that. They are very cheap, parts are available and they will last practically forever.

 

[bikerider]

Hard to beat a 2 stroke. Simple, tough, light, and powerful. 4 strokes are much quieter and smoother, but a good bit heavier.

For a 12ft tin I would try to find an old OMC 5.5 or something like that. They are very cheap, parts are available and they will last practically forever.

I haven't run across an omc in my searches but I will keep that in mind. Thanks. Do you troll with your 2 stroke?

 

[GYPSY400]

It all depends what your budget is.
If its low budget, 2 stroke for sure. If you want to spend a bit I would do a 4 stroke. I'm guessing you want to troll with a 12ft, so the 4S has a lot less smoke to deal with at idle. A 2 stroke will run smoother, but if it's a few years old it will be finicky.

When your talking 9.9hp and less, the newer 4 strokes are very weight competitive.

 

[GYPSY400]

Hard to beat a 2 stroke. Simple, tough, light, and powerful. 4 strokes are much quieter and smoother, but a good bit heavier.

For a 12ft tin I would try to find an old OMC 5.5 or something like that. They are very cheap, parts are available and they will last practically forever.

I haven't run across an omc in my searches but I will keep that in mind. Thanks. Do you troll with your 2 stroke?

An OMC is a johnson or evinrude.. same motor, different name

 

[maintenanceguy]

Both are good for different reasons. A newer 4 stroke will have less maintenance and repair issues. An older 2 stroke will be easier to work on and will have lower weight. If budget was not an issue, I'd go with a new 4 stroke. As I get older, I'm getting less and less interested in fixing stuff.

 

[bikerider]

It all depends what your budget is.
If its low budget, 2 stroke for sure. If you want to spend a bit I would do a 4 stroke. I'm guessing you want to troll with a 12ft, so the 4S has a lot less smoke to deal with at idle. A 2 stroke will run smoother, but if it's a few years old it will be finicky.

When your talking 9.9hp and less, the newer 4 strokes are very weight competitive.

I have an electric trolling motor but some days when the wind picks up it would be nice to be able to troll with the gas motor. I wondered about the smoke issue with a 2 stroke, whether it would make you nauseous if you weren't going totally into the wind? Reliability would be nice. I've spent about a half dozen days dealing with breakage on my current motor and ideally would like to spend as much time fishing as possible. I've seen quite a few nice looking 4 stroke motors for sale lately but the prices are pretty high being the middle of summer.

 

[bikerider]

Hard to beat a 2 stroke. Simple, tough, light, and powerful. 4 strokes are much quieter and smoother, but a good bit heavier.

For a 12ft tin I would try to find an old OMC 5.5 or something like that. They are very cheap, parts are available and they will last practically forever.

I haven't run across an omc in my searches but I will keep that in mind. Thanks. Do you troll with your 2 stroke?

An OMC is a johnson or evinrude.. same motor, different name

Gotcha. I'm very familiar with those, I had one on an 8ft Olympian when I was a kid.

 

[bikerider]

Both are good for different reasons. A newer 4 stroke will have less maintenance and repair issues. An older 2 stroke will be easier to work on and will have lower weight. If budget was not an issue, I'd go with a new 4 stroke. As I get older, I'm getting less and less interested in fixing stuff.

I know the feeling. It's a tough call right now because prices are high and the motors that are decent deals are selling within a few hours of being listed. I'm hoping to make it through to winter with the current one and buy during the off season for a better deal.

 

[maintenanceguy]

I have an electric trolling motor but some days when the wind picks up it would be nice to be able to troll with the gas motor. I wondered about the smoke issue with a 2 stroke, whether it would make you nauseous if you weren't going totally into the wind? Reliability would be nice. I've spent about a half dozen days dealing with breakage on my current motor and ideally would like to spend as much time fishing as possible. I've seen quite a few nice looking 4 stroke motors for sale lately but the prices are pretty high being the middle of summer.

At idle they make much less smoke and the smoke stays underwater. I have a 40hp 2 stroke and I've never noticed the smoke unless I'm running it on muffs in the driveway.

 

[MrGiggles]

Hard to beat a 2 stroke. Simple, tough, light, and powerful. 4 strokes are much quieter and smoother, but a good bit heavier.

For a 12ft tin I would try to find an old OMC 5.5 or something like that. They are very cheap, parts are available and they will last practically forever.

I haven't run across an omc in my searches but I will keep that in mind. Thanks. Do you troll with your 2 stroke?

My big motor is too fast to troll with. I use electric.

I get a little smoke on startup but any smoke at idle is hardly noticeable.

 

[turbotodd]

used to be the case that all 4 stroke motors were heavier than all 2 stroke motors.

But that's changing.

There are 4 stroke motors now that are lighter than 2 stroke motors of the same hp.

I used to tell everyone that I'd never own a 4 stroke, then I found a deal one a boat/motor/trailer that I couldn't pass up. Figured I'd just flip it. One outing is all it took (testing, so that I wasn't gonna sell junk to anyone). I was hooked. Kept it for many years, even sold the boat/trailer that it came on and then bought a new boat to put the motor on. Really impressed with it and other 4 stroke outboards.

The fuel usage difference alone is worth it. You use roughly half the fuel, if EFI even less than half. You get a better idle. Sometimes not much smoother, but much more confident. It starts and runs rather than crank die crank die about 4 times, then it finally stays running, through all the smoke. no smoke from a 4 stroke-at all. Burns cleaner. Doesn't stink up your outing when you first start it. Doesn't dump raw fuel and oil into the water.

The downside? You gotta change oil once in a while, and maybe a valve adjustment if you use it a lot. The rest of the maintenance is identical to a 2 stroke (impeller, etc).

 

[BlueBlooded]

I'd love to switch to a four stroke, but one concern I have is the crankcase oil. My motor doesn't live on my boat, heck it's practically only attached when it's running. I take it off to transport the boat, when I'm beached for a while, etc. and it's nice to be able to put it down in any position and not worry about oil leaking out. If I turned a four stroke on its side, won't it spill its oil all over itself?

 

[ktoelke54]

I'd love to switch to a four stroke, but one concern I have is the crankcase oil. My motor doesn't live on my boat, heck it's practically only attached when it's running. I take it off to transport the boat, when I'm beached for a while, etc. and it's nice to be able to put it down in any position and not worry about oil leaking out. If I turned a four stroke on its side, won't it spill its oil all over itself?

Portable 4 strokes hold their oil when being transported on their side but, they must be transported in the proper position (eg. tiller up, tiller down etc..) this info is usually located on a sticker on the side of the motor.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Pappy]

The nice thing about powering a 12' Aluminum is that you will have a lot of choices as the engines are smaller in general.
I prefer a 2-stroke. Lightweight, powerful, and they run very well in the category of engines you will be looking at. They will troll all day long as well.
If I had the choice I would look for and purchase a 9.9 hp Johnson or Evinrude. A smaller choice would be the 8 hp Johnson or Evinrude.

 

[wmk0002]

Any more info on the hull? I've had an old Sears 12 ft v-hull which would handle a 100lb motor or up to a 25hp 2cyl 2 stroke easily. But Ive also been in 12 ft flatbottoms which were about as stable as a canoe and would probably only hold a 7.5hp motor or smaller.

I think a Johnson/Evinrude 9.9/15hp 2 stroke pull start is about the best motor you can get factoring in all of cost, reliability, parts availability, and ease of repair. The 9.9 version really seems to be able to be tuned to idle down super low and smooth too. I recently got a 25hp Yamaha 4 stroke but I still held onto my 1992 15hp Johnson for the reasons stated above. Even got an old 1440 flatbottom to drop it on. It hums along nicely at 24mph with a 4 blade 9 pitch and would probably be better suited and a little quicker with the factory 3 blade 10 pitch.

 

[bikerider]

Any more info on the hull? I've had an old Sears 12 ft v-hull which would handle a 100lb motor or up to a 25hp 2cyl 2 stroke easily. But Ive also been in 12 ft flatbottoms which were about as stable as a canoe and would probably only hold a 7.5hp motor or smaller.

I think a Johnson/Evinrude 9.9/15hp 2 stroke pull start is about the best motor you can get factoring in all of cost, reliability, parts availability, and ease of repair. The 9.9 version really seems to be able to be tuned to idle down super low and smooth too. I recently got a 25hp Yamaha 4 stroke but I still held onto my 1992 15hp Johnson for the reasons stated above. Even got an old 1440 flatbottom to drop it on. It hums along nicely at 24mph with a 4 blade 9 pitch and would probably be better suited and a little quicker with the factory 3 blade 10 pitch.

I always assumed the 10 and 15 hp motors wouldn't troll. That's good to know. The boat I have is a starcraft sl-12. It's rated for 10hp at most and I wouldn't push it much beyond that. Maybe a 15hp if it was the same size and weight as the 10hp.

 

[bikerider]

The nice thing about powering a 12' Aluminum is that you will have a lot of choices as the engines are smaller in general.
I prefer a 2-stroke. Lightweight, powerful, and they run very well in the category of engines you will be looking at. They will troll all day long as well.
If I had the choice I would look for and purchase a 9.9 hp Johnson or Evinrude. A smaller choice would be the 8 hp Johnson or Evinrude.

I've run into a few during my searches but they ended up selling.

 

[bikerider]

used to be the case that all 4 stroke motors were heavier than all 2 stroke motors.

But that's changing.

There are 4 stroke motors now that are lighter than 2 stroke motors of the same hp.

I used to tell everyone that I'd never own a 4 stroke, then I found a deal one a boat/motor/trailer that I couldn't pass up. Figured I'd just flip it. One outing is all it took (testing, so that I wasn't gonna sell junk to anyone). I was hooked. Kept it for many years, even sold the boat/trailer that it came on and then bought a new boat to put the motor on. Really impressed with it and other 4 stroke outboards.

The fuel usage difference alone is worth it. You use roughly half the fuel, if EFI even less than half. You get a better idle. Sometimes not much smoother, but much more confident. It starts and runs rather than crank die crank die about 4 times, then it finally stays running, through all the smoke. no smoke from a 4 stroke-at all. Burns cleaner. Doesn't stink up your outing when you first start it. Doesn't dump raw fuel and oil into the water.

The downside? You gotta change oil once in a while, and maybe a valve adjustment if you use it a lot. The rest of the maintenance is identical to a 2 stroke (impeller, etc).

Aren't advancements in technology nice? What hp motor is yours?

 

[Riverdog]

Hard to beat a 2 stroke. Simple, tough, light, and powerful. 4 strokes are much quieter and smoother, but a good bit heavier.

For a 12ft tin I would try to find an old OMC 5.5 or something like that. They are very cheap, parts are available and they will last practically forever.

I haven't run across an omc in my searches but I will keep that in mind. Thanks. Do you troll with your 2 stroke?

Check out eBay. That's where I found my 1964 5.5 fisherman for I think about $450.

https://youtu.be/KM0ZsT6KThg