This is for the 4 stroke guys

How far is your average run when you go to your normal fishing spots?

What size motor are you running?

How many miles to the gallon are you averaging?


You here a lot of "this thing sips gas", " can't seem to run out of gas" and such, I'm just curious

Mercury 60EFI on a 17'Tracker

Most of my local lake fishing is around 6-8 miles/trip. Coastal trips and Caddo Lake trips I regularly put 25-30 miles/trip for a full day on the water.

My combination fully loaded with the wife, two kids under 80 lbs, and myself with two full ice chest and the canopy up I see 6-6.2 mpg at wot (29/30mph).

My goal this next year is to figure out how to squeeze more mileage/speed out of the combination before gas prices start their normal climb to $4 gallon.

Rob

I've got a alumacraft classic cs 165 with 60, top speed is just over 30 w/o messing with the trim much, distance from the ramp might be 200 yrds or 10 miles depending on which lake I'm on and where I'm going on that lake. I have not figured my mpg for lack of interest. Usual load is me at 210#, amount of gas varies as I seldom fill it up, 50# of fishing gear, I pull cranks for crappie during the summer months using the 60 and a drift bag to slow the boat down to trolling speeds. The 60 is usually idling in gear for hours at a time and the gas gauge might move a little, but since I don't monitor the mileage/distance I troll, no way to compute it. I guess I can get 3 or 4 trips in pulling cranks before I feel like I should put some gas in the boat. I bought the 4s for this particular reason as I've got a 12v TM system and it won't get the job done during the summer. I use the TM for trolling when not pulling cranks.

2003 Yamaha 25 4 stroke electric start. Boat site on a small lake all summer long after Memorial Day. Probably gets ran 3 miles a week. And I filled the 3 gallon tank up 3 times last summer I believe. It will idle for days on end you actually can forget it's running. I'll never buy anything that isn't a 4 stroke again.


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Depends on where I fish...I fish a lot of different areas. Local lake, run about 3 miles to the "hole". If they're slow there, I'll run about 4.5 miles further. Then of course back to the ramp when I'm done. 2000 Yamaha 4 stroke 25hp on a war eagle 548. I fish every weekend sometimes 2 times (sunday & monday) and last year I think I went through maybe 5 gallons of fuel if that.

Another area I fish (bigger river), I found a honey hole, but it's a 9.3 mile trip upriver. Wide open most of the way if the river is at normal level. If it's low I don't go that far (need a jet). Best I have figured, I'm seeing about 13 mpg on average based on the few times I've calculated anything.

turbotodd said:

Depends on where I fish...I fish a lot of different areas. Local lake, run about 3 miles to the "hole". If they're slow there, I'll run about 4.5 miles further. Then of course back to the ramp when I'm done. 2000 Yamaha 4 stroke 25hp on a war eagle 548. I fish every weekend sometimes 2 times (sunday & monday) and last year I think I went through maybe 5 gallons of fuel if that.

Another area I fish (bigger river), I found a honey hole, but it's a 9.3 mile trip upriver. Wide open most of the way if the river is at normal level. If it's low I don't go that far (need a jet). Best I have figured, I'm seeing about 13 mpg on average based on the few times I've calculated anything.

Click to expand...

Man, 13 mpg if true is dang impressive. That's about what my truck gets while towing my boat lol!

I have a 6 gallon tank with my 1448 and I am running a 20 hp 4s. the 6 gallon tank is plenty, usually never use more than 1/2 so there is plenty of reserve. not sure how many miles I get but I do move around a lot.

06 yammy 40hp and I get 30+ miles out of a 6 gallon tank but I only run it down to around a 1/4 before I switch out tanks.

This thread motivated me to do a little research into fuel mileage on my boat. Since I have a Mercury engine I started on their website.

There is some real good fuel economy data there for their engines and a variety of hulls. I found it interesting and enlightening. For starters my boat is a tank...at least it weighs as much as one. There are some very light hulls out there that get really great mileage. Some as much as 2x of mine for similar size but less weight. I also noticed they have fuel economy info for different rpms/mph. For my combination it looks like running my engine at 4200rpm versus 5800rpm will net me an additional 2mpgs. The only sacrifice is getting to the party a couple of minutes later.

Anyhow...here is their website info....

https://www.mercurymarine.com/en/us/performance-tests/outboard/?family[]=fourstroke

I did not look into other engine manufacturers but would hope they would have similar information.

Rob

i gps most of my trips. less than 10 miles most times. on a camping trip of 4 days i can go up to 60 miles. that includes moving with the tm though.

Mercury 25hp EFI 2011

Most my trips are idling speed / maybe a little more and for a couple miles up river to my spots. I go 6-7 trips before refilling. I do not know the exact MPG but it is up there.

On the lower part of the river where you can run WOT in which the trip is 5-6 miles I can go 3-4 trips without refilling.

wmk0002 said:

turbotodd said:

Depends on where I fish...I fish a lot of different areas. Local lake, run about 3 miles to the "hole". If they're slow there, I'll run about 4.5 miles further. Then of course back to the ramp when I'm done. 2000 Yamaha 4 stroke 25hp on a war eagle 548. I fish every weekend sometimes 2 times (sunday & monday) and last year I think I went through maybe 5 gallons of fuel if that.

Another area I fish (bigger river), I found a honey hole, but it's a 9.3 mile trip upriver. Wide open most of the way if the river is at normal level. If it's low I don't go that far (need a jet). Best I have figured, I'm seeing about 13 mpg on average based on the few times I've calculated anything.

Click to expand...

Man, 13 mpg if true is dang impressive. That's about what my truck gets while towing my boat lol!

Click to expand...

I feel your pain. My old truck wouldn't get that either. 10 at best. Just odd to me as well that the boat gets better fuel economy than the truck did. Check out Yamaha's performance bulletins on their website. I haven't been into it in a while but a couple guides that run the rivers have told me about their fuel usage, and I've compared it to the performance bulletins. For the most part, they were pretty close. Jet outboard MPG will not go anywhere near the prop-driven motors though, for obvious reasons.

IMO, the correct prop makes a huge difference, and I'm going to guess that 1/2 of all boats are not propped correctly. I see it all the time in the shop. The thought of putting a higher pitch wheel should theoretically make it go faster right? Theoretically yes....theory and real world are 2 different things.

1542 with a '01 yami f25. I run about 7-8 miles round trip on a normal day. I have no idea of the mileage, but it's so good that I'm getting rid of my 6 gal tank for a 3 gal.