How Many Hours

[Bay Cruiser]

There has been a thread on what ski to buy and this below question came up by me. Is there anyone out there who can tell me what I am not understanding.


This hour thing gets me. I am new so please bear with me, but I am being told that 150 hours is extremely high for a ski engine and might need major work done to it. That works out to only 6 days solid use or 75 days at 2 hours a day. If your motorbike only run for this period you would not be impressed and probably having a go at the manufacturer. Maybe some one can enlighten me because to me 150 hours use is very very very little I would expect 1000’s of hours from an engine before you have problems. What am I missing and not understanding here ?

 

[JPX]

Hours almost has no meaning to me anymore on a 1996 Seadoo (basically the three craft I "manage"). My HX by far has the most hours on it.....but without a factory hourmeter thanks to BRP, I'll never really know.

But given the HUGE amount of water time (almost 52 outings a year for first 2 years alone even 1 hour each would be 104 hours). So my engine is probably pushing 400-500 hours by now - with plenty of floodings, crazy crap and mostly good maintenance.

150 hours is not bad on a jetski given the large amount of parked time when not is use. But unless poorly maintained, abused, not-winterized, and just run into the ground, 150 hours is not the END of a PWC's life.

 

[Bay Cruiser]

That's what I thought, so why do so many post on this fiorum in numerous threads say otherwise ?

 

[timmyboy76]

if you go by the "formula" as howthe other poster/thread did, then you can make ur own decision....100hrs on a 2yr old ski, then i'd say, yeah, they beat the sh** out of it, but on a ski thats 5yrs +, then no...?

 

[Bay Cruiser]

Hi Timmyboy76 and thanks for the feedback, which is much appreciated especially as you are more experienced then me but I still don’t really understand.

Why would a 2 year old ski with 100-150 hours be considered thrashed. I am always being told that it is like a motorbike engine so 150 hours in 2 years is only 1.5 hours a week. If I was buying a bike that had only been ridden for 1.5 hours a week I wouldn’t say it was thrashed especially if it was serviced regularly. I am sorry to be a pain but I would have thought 2000 hours in 2 years would be well used so what am I not understanding. Also aren’t they built to be ridden hard so only 1.5 hours a week to me is hardly any use. Again what am I missing ? (By the way mine has 160 hours and is 9 years old and runs great - fingers crossed)

 

[seadoosnipe]

Reading a lot into it...!

You are reading a whole lot into this issue.

You might have some people who have a ski, 5 years old with the same amount of hours on one that is 12 years old. It's because the newer one may have belonged to someone with waterfront property and was out everyday. The other guy might live inland and only took the ski to the beach every other weekend or so.

If the ski is a known rental, stay away from it. Rentals are riden by people who coudl care less if they suck up a rock or something. If you own the ski, your more likely to treat it well and maintain it.

If your really intersted in a ski, the tell tale on how well the ski is motor wise is a compression test. If you run a compression test and both cylinders are within a few pounds of each other and somewhere over 125, then you already have a 50/50 chance you have a ski that'll last another few years.

But, dont' expect to buy one and not do anything to it. The un-forseen things like wearing ring, carbs that might need to be rebuilt, battery, impller (knicks and chips) and so much you just can't see till you ride it, will be something you will be maintaining the rest of the time you own it.

Ever hear the saying "a boat is a hole you throw money in"........? Well, it's true. It never stops.

If it's obviously been taken care of, linkages are all in free moving shape, the paint on the engine isn't peeling from a lack of fresh water wash down, from riding in salt water............then buy it. You'll be fine. But, you will be putting money in it in the near future to keep it up........That's even if you buy a 2009. Yeah, it might be fairly maintenance free for a couple years but you'll be thowing the money into it soon enough.........:cheers:

 

[Bay Cruiser]

Yeah I probably am reading too much into it but was just interested. I'm very happy with mine as it runs great and suits my style of riding.

Ever hear the saying "a boat is a hole you throw money in"........? Well, it's true. It never stops.

Another saying I’ve heard is BOAT stands for "Bring Out Another Thousand"

 

[scooper77515]

Bay Cruiser. You have a really good point here.

If I bought a car or truck that had only 150 hours in 10 years, I would think i had a STEAL!!!

But these seadoos run at 7000 rpms. Regardless of the brand or make of motor, 7k is running it pretty hard. I shift my maverick (in avatar) at 6500 BUT ONLY when I am racing. Otherwise, I am shifting at 4500 or so.

I run my two 787 engines at 6500-7000 ALL THE TIME for long periods of time, every time I use them.

That is hard abuse for any rotating assembly.

So, yeah, 150 hours on a seadoo can be a lot. We cannot compare them to bike or car hours.

Then you have to add in the fact that my Maverick doesn't suck up salt water into the engine while I run it...:ack:

 

[Bay Cruiser]

Cheers that helps explain a bit more - just find it hard to get my head around how they can build an engine for this sort of treatment that may not last and we seem to put up with it. But then again that’s the joys of boating I assume and from now on I think I will look at the rev counter instead of the kph.