Mercury 40 HP (2 CYL)

Abused all year round for years and ran like a dream! – In 2012 I bought an old 80s 14.5ft runabout that had a 2003 40hp Merc 2-stroke on the back. Didn't have an hour meter or any other info so unknown hours on it when I bought it. Had that boat for 5 years, most of which was spent towing adults around on ski's, kneeboards etc on the Murray River aswell as Lake Eildon and Lake Narracan, aswell as a… Read more

bit of fishing in Westernport bay and days out cruising Port Phillip bay. Well what a motor that punched way above it's weight!!! I'm 110kg and it pulled me out of the water and planed (after about 40-50 meters) on dual ski's and once I was up I'd kick a ski off would tow me single Ski all day long. One Australia Day long weekend a few mates and i camped up the murray and the family camping next to us couldn't believe it was a 40hp towing all of us around for 4 days straight all day! The self mixing function worked a treat and aslong as you looked after the motor and maintained it properly and thoroughly, it would look after you by providing many many many days of trouble free running. When I sold the boat I kept the motor for another project hopefully one day down the track.

Bad experience – I recently got a new 4.3m tinny and a put a new 40hp 2 stroke on it and I am not sure if it is the motor or the dealer but here is the story. From the first time I took it out it struggled to get up on a plane, holding it flat out it would bog down for more then 100m before it would get up on a plane. This was with 1 man & 2 small kids in it and… Read more

also the max hp for my hull. I called the mercury dealer to try & explain the lack of performance without telling him where I got it from. He told me it was under powered and treated me like a moron, so I said we have a problem then cause you fitted it. So I took it it for first service & asked them to address the performance issue, they said it had the wrong prop on it & put a less aggressive one on for a quick fix. I took it out on the weekend with my kids in it & it was no better but actually went 10km/h slower. It could originally do 37km/h when finally on a plane, now only does 28km/h and still takes more then 100m to get up. And they had the hide to say to me when I asked if they found the problemand I quote( Well we are happy with it). The colour No power Poor service