2 stroke vs 4 stroke kickers

[Capct]

What is your preference?

Personally I prefer a two stroke
~easier to maintain and fix
~parts are usually easier to find
~I think they stand up to abuse better
~they are however noisy and smokey and a pain mixing the fuel
~they are even being banned in some jurisdictions in the larger engines

I have a little 1975 Blueband Mercury 4.5 hp on the dinghy and a siezed spare for parts and I have no intention of ever giving them up.Its been working for 33 years.Oh I have changed the impeller and the spark plug.Ive taken apart the carb and cleaned her out...cleaned the fuel bowl and the filter etc but thats it....why change now.I think I just found another old spare.

Does anyone else have a gem of a kicker with years of faithful service to the cause?

Sometimes you just get lucky with motors....this is likely one of those times .... after all... it is a Merc

[CSY Man]

Yeah, I love my 1996 TWO stroke, TWO cylinder Evinrude 4 HP...The thing is light weight and has no vibration. Only weighs 29 lbs.

Would love to have a clean 4-Stroke Honda or some similar "green" thing.

Unfortunately they vibrate and they are heavy (Single cylinder)

Guess I will wait another couple of years utnil the 4 strokes come down in weight.

[SkiprJohn]

Capct,
I have a 4hp Johnson built in Belgium that runs pretty good. I also have a 1955 5hp Saber Supreme built by the Gale Corp in Illinois (long since out of business). Lucky for me a lot of the old Johnson parts help keep it running. I take care of our club's British Seagull which is really primitive but will always run when needed.
I enjoy old 2 stroke outboards. Our club has had two different larger 4-stroke Hondas that seem to be nothing but problems plus they are really heavy.
JohnL

[ssullivan]

Same here! Love the old 2 stroke for simplicity. I don't need another engine to change oil in.

[Hubec]

I'm about to buy a Yamaha 4hp 4 stroke;
- Great fuel economy
- Low noise
- Low emissions
- Only weighs 48lbs

Cruisers often claim to be advocates for the untouched natural world. To me that seems hypocritical if you're running around with a very dirty outboard.

[Intentional Drifter]

I've got the same dilemma. Get a new 4-stroke for the new cat's RIB, or stay with my 1965 18-hp Johnson? That old, crusty-looking thing has never let me down. When cold, it never starts on the first pull, but always on the second. Not the most fuel efficient, but it won't cost me $2K+, either.

ID

[ssullivan]

Originally Posted by Hubec

I'm about to buy a Yamaha 4hp 4 stroke;
- Great fuel economy
- Low noise
- Low emissions
- Only weighs 48lbs

Cruisers often claim to be advocates for the untouched natural world. To me that seems hypocritical if you're running around with a very dirty outboard.

I think this would make a great thread in its own right if someone were to start it. Cruisers are indeed more environmentally benign than any land dwellers (save the ones in the woods that rely on nature) anyway.

You win some, you lose some.

For instance: I use a 2 stroke outboard and use the ocean as my toilet. (Yeah... I have the **** to admit it.) I also pour toxic copper based paint into the water at a rate of 2 gallons per year. That's about where the extent of my pollution ends, except things we all have in common like buying food in containers.

Land people do the following:

*Water Lawns, mow lawns and spray incredibly toxic chemicals on their lawns (and into the rivers and oceans) to keep them free of "weeds"
*Use more than 5 gals of fresh water per day for everything
*Drive to work every single day in a car, then drive all over the place for entertainment or more "stuff" for their house - typically an SUV or truck
*Use energy to create hot water
*Fire up their nice, clean, electric, "energy star" appliances... thinking the electric toaster, electric oven, electric air conditioner, computer etc... don't pollute. All the while they are oblivious to the fact that coal is the way the majority of electricity they waste is produced on land. Electric Power Monthly
*Buy and waste tires and brakes for their car(s)
*Build HUGE houses that are completely unnecessary with wasted room and space they must waste more energy to heat and cool. I don't even want to BEGIN to get into the ones with more than one house...
*I could go on for hours, but I think you get the picture.

Let's look at my environmental footprint - this is for 2(!) people!

*Uses 5 gals fresh water MAX per day for all purposes. With our new saltwater pump and rain cachement system, we are looking at using close to 1 gal for both of us
*Has a car, but uses it 3 days a week to drive 20 mins each way, getting groceries on the way back.
*Heats with wood - a resource that has a 0 carbon footprint, as it's already existing and would be rotting away if I didn't burn it. I use fallen deadwood only... no live trees.
*Runs a diesel genset for 45 mins per day max to produce all power used by both people. This equates to roughly 5 gals of fuel in a week and a half. To produce a normal house's power requirements, I'd need to run the thing all day long.
*Burns all paper/packaging to start fires rather than throws it out to the landfill
*My home was constructed using a comparably tiny amount of the Earth's resources to most homes.
*Doesn't use hot water at all - no wasted energy

I'd like to see anyone living a land based life (save the woodsman) even come CLOSE to having as small of an environmental impact as my wife and I do.

[44'cruisingcat]

For a portable outboard, I like 2 strokes.