V-Hull or Tri-Hull? Brands of motors?

[DaveyG]

A buddy and I are going to buy a boat together. Does anyone have an opinion about v-hull vs. tri-hull designs? Is one better? Why?

Also, I don't know anything about motors. We're planning on getting an outboard because I assume it's cheaper to have work done on an outboard that an I/O or inboard. But I don't know what brands are good. My dad had a 150 horsepower Mercury motor when I was a kid and it broke all the time. But I don't know if that's because Mercury makes bad motors or if we just had a bad one. I know there are are other brands like Yamaha, Evinrude, Honda, etc. I used to have a Honda car and it had a great engine, but I don't know if that translates into boat motors.

[CatManLee]

Chances are you'll find a tri-hull boat cheaper because not alot of people like them. If you're out in rough water, that tri-hull will beat you silly. A deep V or V style hull will break the waves much nicer giving you a much smoother ride. Those are the two big differences. But tri-hulls typically don't take much to get and stay on plane though either. If your just fishing small to medium rivers a tri-hull will do fine. If your on rough water all the time, try and get a boat with a V hull. V Hulls also seem to get more money when it's time to sell.

Outboards cheap? It depends. If you know how to work on old car engines, an inboard/outboard is easy to fix with the exception being the outdrive. Make sure you research the outdrive type as well. An OMC out drive can sometimes get spendy when trying to find the right parts for an out drive. A mercruiser is a little easier to find parts and they don't cost as much. Inboard/outboards also weigh more.

Outboards on the other hand are lighter and take up less space. If you don't know how to work on outboards and have to bring it in for every repair, it's going to cost you! Outboards aren't the easiest to work on, but it's not brain surgery either, so if your fairly good around motors and buy yourself a service manual, you should be ok.

Hope this helps. Just get a boat you both like, has enough room and runs good or will run good with a little TLC. Don't get a boat that has a bad or questionable motor, unless it's really cheap. The last thing you want is to be stuck floating down a river or bobbing around a lake.

Hope some of this helps in your decision. Good luck on your new purchase.

P.S. If you're looking at outboards, check the compression. All cylinders should be close to equal compression. I personally like the older model Evinrudes. Mid 80's and up have always been good to me, but that doesn't mean every Evinrude will be good. If your looking at brand new stuff, it doesn't matter much, but I would look at the New Evinrude E Techs.