Single vs Twins
- Thread starter Crittercountry
- Start date
Offshore style pilot house? Twin 150 or 200 Yamahas
More of an inshore type? Single 250 or 300.
More of an inshore type? Single 250 or 300.
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What guy doesn't dream about twins.
A little more info would help. I have driven the same boat with a single and twins. Its night and day difference. The twins win hands down.
What boat?
Twins offer the added redundancy, but that fails if you have bad fuel.
Spin a prop with twins and you can still limp in on one main. spin a prop on a single and you get to figure out how to remove and reinstall a prop while bouncing around.
Hit a log with twins and you’ll probably whack both lowers.
Twins give you twice the 100 hour service costs, the water pumps, plugs, etc.
Twins without a kicker means you’ll be racking up the hours trolling on your mains, even with swapping back and forth between them.
Twins will cost more up front, but may operate more efficiently day after day... until you pay for maintenance (even just the parts).
in the sound, a single with tow insurance will give you loads of piece of mind. It’s pretty rare to hear about newer motors routinely crapping out.
Twins offer the added redundancy, but that fails if you have bad fuel.
Spin a prop with twins and you can still limp in on one main. spin a prop on a single and you get to figure out how to remove and reinstall a prop while bouncing around.
Hit a log with twins and you’ll probably whack both lowers.
Twins give you twice the 100 hour service costs, the water pumps, plugs, etc.
Twins without a kicker means you’ll be racking up the hours trolling on your mains, even with swapping back and forth between them.
Twins will cost more up front, but may operate more efficiently day after day... until you pay for maintenance (even just the parts).
in the sound, a single with tow insurance will give you loads of piece of mind. It’s pretty rare to hear about newer motors routinely crapping out.
Single. Mechanical shift and throttle. Fuck fly by wire and joysticks.
Going with twin's that have less overall hp than the single your are looking at is pointless.
Go 250 and a 9.9 ht kicker and go fishing.
Go 250 and a 9.9 ht kicker and go fishing.
Well, the U.S. Navy insist most their planes are two engine planes, one engine goes down, you can limp home on another. However, twice the engines is twice the maintenance, the money, and the weight. Also twice something can go wrong. However, limping home on one engine on plane, is better than limping in at 4-5 kts on a kicker. Obviously a cost/benefit ratio you must make. Comes down to how much off-shore you want to do....
Voting single 250/300 and a 9.9 aux for a 24.
No reason to complicate maintenance and rigging with twins on that size a boat. In an emergency a 9.9 will be adequate to get home in most situations.
Imo 24 is the cutoff point though where I like twins above that.
Still I do appreciate the rare rigging of smaller twins ie tein 115 or 100s on smaller rigs but it’s not very practical. Maybe that’s because I grew up on a 16’ Pacific mariner catamaran with twin evinrude “fastwins”
No reason to complicate maintenance and rigging with twins on that size a boat. In an emergency a 9.9 will be adequate to get home in most situations.
Imo 24 is the cutoff point though where I like twins above that.
Still I do appreciate the rare rigging of smaller twins ie tein 115 or 100s on smaller rigs but it’s not very practical. Maybe that’s because I grew up on a 16’ Pacific mariner catamaran with twin evinrude “fastwins”
What’s your max rated hp? Will a 115 get your “plugged” boat on plane? Evinrude or mercury... I’d consider twins. Yamaha 250/300 and for another thousand I’d jump from the 9.9 to the t25. I hear good things about Suzuki and Honda as well, just no experience with them.
Mine rig is a 24ft pilot house I have a 250 Suzuki with a 9.9 kicker and like the set up. I get a little over 2 miles to the gallon at about 4100 ish rpm that will get me about 25 miles per hour depending on water conditions, that's my optimum fuel burn I shoot for if I am running far. I can cruise around the Sound at 30+ and still be pretty efficient top speed is a little over 40 and at that point you are pitching cash off the ass end.
On the sling in Edmonds fully loaded its about 6500 depending on fuel and has 110 gallon tank.
We made a bunch of trips this year from CQ to the SW corner and across the Canyon we would put about 60 to 70 gallons in to top it off once back in and we definitely were not trying to save fuel coming home. Granted we had great water conditions which helps with fuel burn.
I would be lying if there was times when I run out that I haven't thought about twins, I am anal about maintenance and fuel and pick and choose when we run out. For my price point this has been a great set up and haven't regretted it yet.
On the sling in Edmonds fully loaded its about 6500 depending on fuel and has 110 gallon tank.
We made a bunch of trips this year from CQ to the SW corner and across the Canyon we would put about 60 to 70 gallons in to top it off once back in and we definitely were not trying to save fuel coming home. Granted we had great water conditions which helps with fuel burn.
I would be lying if there was times when I run out that I haven't thought about twins, I am anal about maintenance and fuel and pick and choose when we run out. For my price point this has been a great set up and haven't regretted it yet.
I was firmly in the twin camp on mid size boats until I actually ran one. The boat I ran was rated for 400 max and was setup with twin 150's. 3.0 MPG loaded at 30mph cruise. 45MPH when pegged. Handled perfect, smooth riding and agile.
Then I lost a motor- no problem there's 2 here right. Well the problem is that the boat would not plane on a single 150. The prop would cavitate at about 8mph. I figure that in that scenario you might as well have a single and a 25 hp kicker.
Can you guys with twins plane on a single motor? Maybe this boat would have with twin 200's but the performance of the 150 was pretty phenomenal already. What are your thoughts/experiences?
Then I lost a motor- no problem there's 2 here right. Well the problem is that the boat would not plane on a single 150. The prop would cavitate at about 8mph. I figure that in that scenario you might as well have a single and a 25 hp kicker.
Can you guys with twins plane on a single motor? Maybe this boat would have with twin 200's but the performance of the 150 was pretty phenomenal already. What are your thoughts/experiences?
I recently repowered the kicker on my 24' Seasport with the new Yamaha T25 high thrust to be my get home if my F250 was out of action. Since i go offshore, I did this to have a viable get home kicker since a T8 or T9.9 really struggles to push a boat that heavy without a current past 4 mph. I have run the new T25 at what i thought was slack water and hit 9 mph, which in my mind is tolerable in a situation where your main goes down. Yes, at 9 mph you are not on plane, but certainly more than double the traditional kicker speed. I should add, the T25 was redone in 2019 and much lighter weight than prior T25 (150 lbs ish), has a big alternator, and purrs like a kicker should.
Certainly twins will handle much better but at the cost of double maintenance. I also found going to a 4-blade prop greatly improved my performance over a 3-blade on the F250 main with greater stern lift, hole shot, and tracking in turns.
that said, my vote would be F250 or F300 single with 4-blade prop, and T25 high thrust kicker. good luck. DAJ
Certainly twins will handle much better but at the cost of double maintenance. I also found going to a 4-blade prop greatly improved my performance over a 3-blade on the F250 main with greater stern lift, hole shot, and tracking in turns.
that said, my vote would be F250 or F300 single with 4-blade prop, and T25 high thrust kicker. good luck. DAJ
That’s pretty close to my setup, and I’d have to agree with the single and big kicker route. Unless one of your twins alone can plane the boat, all you have is a big kicker back there anyway.
I run a custom F233 with a single Suzuki 300 and Yamaha T25 kicker. Wouldn’t change a thing.
46mph flat out combat loaded, cruises easily between 26 and 30, depending on conditions and load. Can easily hit 9, and will push 10 mph with the kicker.
Yes, but you have to go big. My 28' can plane on a single 250hp, but it is working it.
Trying to plane on a single twin to get home is a really bad idea. You’re risking spinning a hub, overheating, and generally over straining your remaining engine.
To answer your question, some boats can plane on a twin but not comfortably in most situations. I’ve had 3 boats with twins and only one of them with max power could kind of sort of plane barely.
What it can do is give you vastly more thrust when you need it than a kicker.
That said, there’s a cutoff where twins just don’t make sense. I don’t want twins on a standard beam 25 or less but that’s because I’m weighing the pros and cons of maintenance etc but for getting home give me the twins
YES. Even when full of ice & tuna.
with your options of 2x115’s or single 250, I’d go with the 250.. A 250 will perform much better.
But 2x 150’s would be optimal if you want redundancy.
what boat? That would help also.
can you do twins & a kicker?
I ran a Hewescraft for lots of years with a 250/9.9 combo and it was a great combo for that 24' boat. Its bracket was too narrow to run twins + a kicker. But I never felt like it was lacking
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