Opinions??? 99 15hp Johnson 2 stroke

Im thinking about buying a 1999 Johnson 15hp 2 stroke that I found on CL. It appears to be in really good shape from the pictures the owner sent me. He is the original owner. He was asking $1100, but I talked him down to $800. Seems like a pretty good deal to me, but wanted some opinions from some more experienced people on here. In my area motors this size go for a premium because most of the lakes are hp restricted. I have been looking for a while and significantly older motors seem to be selling for close to this price. Also I am looking for some opinions on the motor in general. Anyone on here have a motor similar to this? I will be putting it on a 16' PolarKraft that will have front and rear casting decks. What kind of performance should I expect on a boat this size? Will it put it on plane?

Thanks in advance
Aaron

We have 10 hp restricted lakes around where I fish, I run a 76 evinrude 9.9 with a 15hp carb and it has no problems planing my 1648 Lowe w/wood casting deck. This is with me and a weeks worth of camping supplies. As far as performance I move as fast as everyone else with a little left over to pass the 10hps on the lake. Anytime you spend that amount on a used motor it'd be best to have the seller and you take it out for a test run. As far as the price, having a good running motor is priceless and allows you to get down to the real fun of fishing. So in the scope of things $800 over 10+ years isn't bad. The only thing you need to consider is, depending on where you live a lot of places are starting to ban the old 2stroke motors for cleaner 4 strokes and vtech's.

I have a 2000 15 hp 4stroke Yamaha and on my basstracker 16-v it moves it quite well with 2 batteries and 2 people with gear on board.

My 05 Johnson 15 HP 4 stroke moves my 14 footer really good (front and rear decks). Johnsons are pretty solid. $800 seems fair but if you can test drive it I would.

Just spoke to the seller, told him I wanted him to send me a video of the motor running since I live a little ways from where he is at. He said it started up fine but after running for a little bit stopped pumping water. He said he is going to put a new water pump in it this week and let me know. Said he hasnt run it since last summer. I will obviously want to see it run when I go to purchase it as well.

I paid $999 for the same motor last spring. I purchased it from a Dealer who had replaced the water pump and went through the entire motor. I was also able to watch a video of it running before I made the one hour trip down to see it run in person. I know I paid a little to much but I thought it was worth it based on the condition and the fact that the dealer went through the entire motor.

I have an 05 Johnson 15 2 stroke that I bought back in December. I love it! I paid 1100 for it and it only had about 6 hours on it. I would say 800 is a good price. Johnson/Evinrude are great outboards. It will easily plane your boat. I would say that with a light load you will get around 20 mph. Hope this helps

Thanks for the replies. This is what I wanted to hear. I knew that these motors had a good reputation but always try to do as much research as possible before making a purchase like this. Hopefully he gets a new water pump installed and everything goes well. The motor looks like it is in great shape and has been well taken care of, and the owner seems like he is being up front and honest about everything. Now I just need to finish the boat before spring.

Does anyone know if these motors generally have an alternator? It has electric start and the owner said he thinks it has an alternator but wasn't sure. Anyone know?

If it is electric start then it has an alternator but not much of one. Around 4 amps of output at the most and that is at higher RPMS. Don't expect it to charge a trolling motor battery or even keep your starting battery charged if running a live well or alot of lights. You did well for an electric start and new pump for $800.