Subject: Yamaha F300 outboards robustness
Since I will be having the Yamaha F300 engine on my new 2018 R-27 I wanted to get a sense for how robust the engine is. To this end, yesterday I went to my local Yamaha service shop that happens to be located at my marina.
The first thing was to setup a schedule for the F300's 1st 20 hr maintenance in advance as they get very booked up. This schedule will then be advanced for the annual service which I'll make for September each year. The servicing is made easy as all I have to do is give them the boat key the day before the scheduled service date along with my slip number and they take it from there. They go get the boat, haul it out and trailer it all of 1000 feet to their enclosed shop to perform the maintenance, and then return the boat to its slip.... Easy peasee. 😀
While chatting and getting the schedule setup we talked about how robust the F300 is likely to be over time. I asked if the F300 had its annual checkup done, how would its longevity compare to an inboard diesel. They said it should last just as long as the diesel engines.
The F300 has been in production for over 6 years now, so a good amount of real world statistics are available. To make the point I was taken back to their shop for a tour. The shop was littered with boats and outboard engines of all sizes and age. In particular I was shown two F300s that appeared to me to be in terrible state and really dirty looking. One had its prop broken with half of one blade snapped off and another with the bottom half of the shaft and bullet torn away. They simply looked in awful shape. I asked where had these engines come from, and was told, from Alaska. Apparently these folks in Alaska (fishing companies presumably) just throw these engine mules onto their boats and end up beating the heck out of them and really abusing them without a second thought. The service technician said they get these repairs in at least once a year and amazingly enough the engine itself is simply in good running condition... it's just the that the Alaskans simply view the engine as a workhorse without regards to baby-sitting or giving any TLC to them.
This visit to the Yamaha maintenance shop gives me some comfort that no matter how hard I may use the F300 it should survive any unintended mistreatment I may bestow on it. 😱
Since I will be having the Yamaha F300 engine on my new 2018 R-27 I wanted to get a sense for how robust the engine is. To this end, yesterday I went to my local Yamaha service shop that happens to be located at my marina.
The first thing was to setup a schedule for the F300's 1st 20 hr maintenance in advance as they get very booked up. This schedule will then be advanced for the annual service which I'll make for September each year. The servicing is made easy as all I have to do is give them the boat key the day before the scheduled service date along with my slip number and they take it from there. They go get the boat, haul it out and trailer it all of 1000 feet to their enclosed shop to perform the maintenance, and then return the boat to its slip.... Easy peasee. 😀
While chatting and getting the schedule setup we talked about how robust the F300 is likely to be over time. I asked if the F300 had its annual checkup done, how would its longevity compare to an inboard diesel. They said it should last just as long as the diesel engines.
The F300 has been in production for over 6 years now, so a good amount of real world statistics are available. To make the point I was taken back to their shop for a tour. The shop was littered with boats and outboard engines of all sizes and age. In particular I was shown two F300s that appeared to me to be in terrible state and really dirty looking. One had its prop broken with half of one blade snapped off and another with the bottom half of the shaft and bullet torn away. They simply looked in awful shape. I asked where had these engines come from, and was told, from Alaska. Apparently these folks in Alaska (fishing companies presumably) just throw these engine mules onto their boats and end up beating the heck out of them and really abusing them without a second thought. The service technician said they get these repairs in at least once a year and amazingly enough the engine itself is simply in good running condition... it's just the that the Alaskans simply view the engine as a workhorse without regards to baby-sitting or giving any TLC to them.
This visit to the Yamaha maintenance shop gives me some comfort that no matter how hard I may use the F300 it should survive any unintended mistreatment I may bestow on it. 😱
