Thinking of going from a 150 to a 250 Yamaha

Jimmy Vick

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Have a 24 SSRX and my local marine dealer says the boat will handle it. He is not a Bennington or Yamaha dealer and tried to talk me into a Mercury. Would like second opinions from owners of like equipment. (no financial gain)
 
What does your capacity label say ? Do you have an SPS or ESP ?

I went through the same thing a few years back with a 150 . Dealer offered a good price on a trade and the new . Problem was my controls were manual and needed to be converted to digital which made it cost prohibitive .
 
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Have a 24 SSRX and my local marine dealer says the boat will handle it. He is not a Bennington or Yamaha dealer and tried to talk me into a Mercury. Would like second opinions from owners of like equipment. (no financial gain)
My Dealer sells both Yamaha and Mercury.Has very good results with both! What year is your Benny ? Wait a year and trade it for bigger people are saying all of the recreational toys bought this year will be selling cheap soon.
 
What hull and motor (manufacture) do you have now? Is your hull an SPS (most likelly), SPS+ or ESP (both more rare on an s-series) with your current 150 motor? And is your current 150 a Yamaha or Mercury?

If you have an SPS hull, you are only engineered and rated for 200HP. I would not exceed it.

If you have the SPS+ (which came out in 2017 as an option) or an ESP hull, you can go to 250, and the boat is built to handle it. You’d be fine.

If you have a 150 Mercury now, you should have Mercury’s digital control system already (required), so moving up a Mercury 200 or 250 can be done IF you have the right hull/transom to handle the weight and power (see above two points).

If you have a 150 Yamaha right now, you don’t have the required Mercury digital controls. To move up in HP in a Mercury you will need to add those PLUS the motor. The digital control system is something like 3k or more by itself, and then you’d have the motor cost.
 
Dont forget the labor .On mine , the wave shield needed to be removed to change the controls .
 
Thanks for the reply's. Guess I will have to investigate as I don't know what kind of hull (is it on the title?) I have. It is a 2017 24ft SSRX with a 150 Yamaha and I am going to stay Yamaha so I can use my controls, would just love more ump as I grew up as a 60's hot rodder. Is it a weight thing? I e-mailed Bennington but suspect they are going to line up with Vikingstaff as he seems to do homework.
 
Thanks for the reply's. Guess I will have to investigate as I don't know what kind of hull (is it on the title?) I have. It is a 2017 24ft SSRX with a 150 Yamaha and I am going to stay Yamaha so I can use my controls, would just love more ump as I grew up as a 60's hot rodder. Is it a weight thing? I e-mailed Bennington but suspect they are going to line up with Vikingstaff as he seems to do homework.

Is your 24SSRX a tritoon with three round 25" pontoons?
 
Yes sir, all round. If its a power thing, I would rarely if ever be WOT
 
Thought I had found a deal, then I saw the company was located in Indonesia. The hair on the back of my neck stood up. Web page looks professional but my thoughts are if it sounds to good to be true................
 
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With you sticking with Yamaha, that should eliminate any issues with controls. That is nice!

If all three tubes are the round 25”, same size, and length, then you either have SPS or SPS+. The more common by far is the normal SPS. Your spec sheet should also have the hull type listed somewhere on it (honestly, forgot where on the sheet it is listed) or dealership you bought it from can probably just look it up quickly too with a phone call).

It should also be listed on your capacity plate which should be right next to your throttle. Big plate/sticker that lists maximum weight, number of people, and motor size. My capacity plate lists all that as well as the Hull type.

Finally, if you provide Bennington with your Hull ID number they can provide you ALL details on your specific build and boat directly - perhaps via the email you sent them.

My guess is you are an SPS and are limited to a 200. There would have been no reason for the boat to be purchased as an SPS+ with a 150 motor on it as the ONLY reason for getting the SPS+ hull is to go beyond the 200 HP limit and up to the 250HP.

It is both a weight thing, but also a stress on hull and transom thing with speed. The normal SPS hull and transom/structure are not built for stresses and weight that are created by a motor in excess of 200 HP.

Thus, to go above the hull limit and exceeding the capacity plate would make the boat illegal (problem if pulled over and inspected) and void insurance coverage on it if you filed a claim for some reason. That is all besides the safety implications that exceeding the hull engineering creates.

No matter what, good luck. One way or another, I hope it works out for you. The performance number you already have is very nice with that boat.
 
Yes sir, all round. If its a power thing, I would rarely if ever be WOT

If you have the SPS standard, then your max rating should be 200HP.
If you have the SPS Plus, then your max rating should be 250HP.

It will be listed on your capacity label near the helm.




Thought I had found a deal, then I saw the company was located in Indonesia. The hair on the back of my neck stood up. Web page looks professional but my thoughts are if it sounds to good to be true................

Those are scammers - there is a huge network of websites that are run by these same unscrupulous conglomerates, usually based out of Indonesia and Singapore...so be sure to keep checking the "about us" info on the websites (like you already did - kudos for your due diligence) to verify for the dead-giveaway signs that they are scammers.

There are some legit outboard resellers out there that sell at a favorable discount, whether they be web-based or brick & mortar places.
Unfortunately, it's a grueling task to find one that actually has stock ready to ship instead of putting you on a wait list for months before they have enough buyers to place a large quantity order for themselves and can discount enough to meet the advertised low price.


Since you are already able to attain (and slightly pass) that magical 40 MPH mark with a 4cyl outboard, then you may want to strongly consider bumping up to the Yamaha 4.2L V6 VF200, 225, or 250 (depending on your boat's capacity) so you can spin a bigger prop.
The F200 2.8L isn't going to provide much more in terms of hole shot or top speed than the lesser 150 or 175 HP rated 2.8L offerings, especially since Yamaha recommends the exact same Reliance 14.5x15 stainless steel prop for them all. Moving up to the 4.2L V6 will make a difference, especially with hole shot and higher speeds with low to mid RPM cruising. Top speed may be a bit negligible, but getting towards upper 40s to low 50s may be attainable. It just depends on your operating conditions. Just something to strongly consider...I wouldn't wish it upon anyone to take on the monstrous monetary burden of repowering to the same 2.8L family and it resulting with an expensive bout of buyers remorse after that first post-break-in WOT run.
 
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With you sticking with Yamaha, that should eliminate any issues with controls. That is nice!

If all three tubes are the round 25”, same size, and length, then you either have SPS or SPS+. The more common by far is the normal SPS. Your spec sheet should also have the hull type listed somewhere on it (honestly, forgot where on the sheet it is listed) or dealership you bought it from can probably just look it up quickly too with a phone call).

It should also be listed on your capacity plate which should be right next to your throttle. Big plate/sticker that lists maximum weight, number of people, and motor size. My capacity plate lists all that as well as the Hull type.

Finally, if you provide Bennington with your Hull ID number they can provide you ALL details on your specific build and boat directly - perhaps via the email you sent them.

My guess is you are an SPS and are limited to a 200. There would have been no reason for the boat to be purchased as an SPS+ with a 150 motor on it as the ONLY reason for getting the SPS+ hull is to go beyond the 200 HP limit and up to the 250HP.

It is both a weight thing, but also a stress on hull and transom thing with speed. The normal SPS hull and transom/structure are not built for stresses and weight that are created by a motor in excess of 200 HP.

Thus, to go above the hull limit and exceeding the capacity plate would make the boat illegal (problem if pulled over and inspected) and void insurance coverage on it if you filed a claim for some reason. That is all besides the safety implications that exceeding the hull engineering creates.

No matter what, good luck. One way or another, I hope it works out for you. The performance number you already have is very nice with that boat.
I agree 42 mph is great speed for a 150, unless there is an issue with your current motor you will probably not gain as much as you would like for the cost it will be. How often do you need to go over 40mph realistically? With that said sometimes being over 45 mph is nice too!!
 
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I agree 42 mph is great speed for a 150, unless there is an issue with your current motor you will probably not gain as much as you would like for the cost it will be. How often do you need to go over 40mph realistically? With that said sometimes being over 45 mph is nice too!!
You are spot on. Have had the boat over 2yrs and have been WOT 2 times(for extended time). Usually cruise around 3500 rpm. Thanks to everybody for all the great responses. This site has some cool members
 
You are spot on. Have had the boat over 2yrs and have been WOT 2 times(for extended time). Usually cruise around 3500 rpm. Thanks to everybody for all the great responses. This site has some cool members
Just a note for all boat owners. You all need to go WOT more often. If not, you get compression issues. My dealer recommend 5 minutes of WOT every time the boat is used to burn up the carbon.
 
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I'm not a jerk, although this probably sounds that way. Does your dealer also sell fuel? When WFO I can almost watch my gas needle move. Just sayin's all'
 
Just a note for all boat owners. You all need to go WOT more often. If not, you get compression issues. My dealer recommend 5 minutes of WOT every time the boot is used to burn up the carbon.
Absolutely .After I moved I was fouling spark plugs every season . Service department asked what I was doing different .I told them I had moved from a lake marina to a marina that is on a river and a 40 minute ride in either direction in No Wake Zones to get to one of those lakes . He told me to open it up for 5-10 minutes once I got on the lake . I've never had an issue with plugs once I started doing that .
 
I'm not a jerk, although this probably sounds that way. Does your dealer also sell fuel? When WFO I can almost watch my gas needle move. Just sayin's all'
I am not a-jerk either but my motto is if you can’t afford the gas don’t buy the boat.
 
I am not a-jerk either but my motto is if you can’t afford the gas don’t buy the boat.

Lol that’s why I have a $40k boat ... I have $3500 motor ... :p:p
 
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