25hp Mercury

[petefish]

Been looking to replace an old 25 johnson with a new 25 merc.I have questions about the tiller shifting, is this easy to use? how does the motor idle? Does it run slow enough to backtroll well.Any comments would be great

[Enids Hubby]

I have a 2000 25 hp merc with the hand controls and electric start and I love it . It took a little getting used to shifting by hand instead of throwing a lever . I think it does not idle down low enough for back trolling though . I've tried it but ended up going with and electric trolling motor , much better . The best feature is a fast idle cam built into the choke lever , on cold days you can leave it on fast idle while getting the boat loaded . Worst feature if you flood the engine and want to give it full throttle you can't because it would be in gear and can't start it . you have to take the cover of and move the linkage by hand with the hand control in nuetral . But once you learn to start them it's not a problem , they don't need a lot of gas to start . I would definately buy another one.

[#Boater#]

I have a 97 merc 25. Absolutely love it. I have mine on a 14 foot Jon 1448. I can usually idle down to about 1.5 mph going forward but she's barely running. If I lift the motor to shallow setting it will go down to about 1 mph. One nice thing I've found on the motor is I really don't need to use the electric start if I need to conserve Battery for bow mount. Usually 2 pulls when cold and 1/4 pull the rest of the day is all it needs. Would certainly get another one if needed.