What is your hour comfort level when buying used?
 

Long time caller, first time listener... or something like that.

Anyway, I am looking to purchase my first boat. I’ve been around boats and wakeboarding/surfing through friends pretty much all my life. My family wasn’t all that interested/ financially capable growing up, but now I’m in a position where I can buy for my own little family.

I’m looking an solid surf boat in the $30k - 40k range. I’ve narrowed it down based on many hours spent reading other posts on here. My biggest question at this point though is how many hours is too many?

Assuming the maintenance has been done properly on all the boats equally, what are everyone’s thought on how many is too many to actually consider buying the boat?

Thanks for the help. Seems like a lot of great people on here.

IMO hours are just on part of the equation. A high hour boat that has been regularly ridden, properly maintained and stored indoors can easily be a better buy than a low hours boat that has been just sitting for seasons on end deteriorating on the side of the house.

I agree with what Shawn says above. However I always consider resale. The boats seem to lose much higher value after 600 hrs and it seems to grow exponentially at 800 - 1000. If you are going to keep the boat for years and years, then it's not as big of a deal.

Resale is a factor but otherwise i think engine hours is a really overblown worry. Engines are very very available and not terribly expensive. I can still easily get a 351w marine long block and they haven’t used those in over 15 years now. Have you tried to find a windshield on a boat that old? And vinyl skins for the interior can be just as expensive as an engine. At worst case I’ll just offer less for a boat with high hours.

I appreciate the help. It definitely is only one part of the equation. I’m just not familiar with the longevity of these motors. I’m not sure 800+ hours is pushing the end of its life or if they will go to 1500 hours+. I have found a couple 05-07 wakesetter LSV’s or VLX’s that are over 800 hours but I really don’t want to buy a boat that will most likely need a new motor in 2 years or possibly sooner.

So, supporting hal2814's comment, I own a 2002 Sanger V210 with Mercruiser 350 engine I bought used 15 years ago with 450 hours on it. Now has 1130 hours and still running like a champ. I'm not likely to buy another boat so I'll be taking this one to 1700+ or whatever. I do all my own maintenance and keep the boat up very well. People can't believe there's 1100 hours on the boat (hey, I like to use it). I wouldn't let hours hold you back unless you're definately planning to re- sell in a couple years. With attentive, good maintenance, motors will last a couple thousand hours.

Buy the 900 hour boat that was babied and pass on the 300 hour boat that was neglected

I’m looking at an 07 Tige RZ2 right now. It looks clean overall. The driveshaft seal and water pump both leak, any idea what the cost would be to fix those?

I’d call your local Tige dealer and ask. The water pump isn’t a big deal. The driveshaft leaking isn’t either but it’s a pain to get to.

What is everyone’s opinion between a 07 tige rz2 and an Axis a22? Both have just over 400 hours and seem to be in solid conditions Axis is about $8k more. Not sure if the extra price on the axis is worth it.

If you’re primarily a wakeboarder, the A22 all day. If you value a nice interior over having the best wake, the RZ2. Anything else is kind of a toss up. The rz2 will probably surf better but it depends on what year A22 you’re comparing it to. And even then that’s largely a matter of opinion.

More hours on the boat = more likely there was a soup kitchen on it

You can find a below 500 hour beautiful surf boat and with winter approaching I would start looking now.

winter might actually bring some normalcy to these prices. but doubt it!

if you ride, 4 hours a day, 2 days a week over june july aug sept its pretty easy to see, its aprox 130 hours a year. so a 10yr old boat should have 1300 hours. but they never do. so most boats are under 600 hours or even less. I have 5 yrs on our latest boat, and live on a lake, and have 200 hours on it. so we may play for 2 hours in the day, and float etc etc. We put far more hours on our other boats, when we did not live on the lake. far more. like triple the time. weird, but we dont feel we have to spend the entire day on the boat. so we come and go more frequently when you are not trapped all day.

Here is my anecdotal experience, mostly copied from a comment I made on a similar thread some time back.

The Black Scorpion in the family's 97 Sanger V210 is sitting at 2360ish hours currently. The majority of those hours over the years are wakeboarding or surfing, not a whole lot of idling and cruising time. None of those hours are sitting with the key on to play the stereo. The maintenance routine has been oil change, fuel/water separator, and new impeller every year. Distributor cap/rotor and spark plugs as needed. The only issue we've had was a leaky fuel line that was covered under warranty.

In my experience the engine is the easy part. Keeping everything else on a boat maintained requires a lot more effort and upkeep. Of course you should take a careful look at the engine, and of course less hours on a boat is desirable, but how many threads or comments have you ever seen where someone straight up wore out an engine? They're not time bombs waiting to blow up at 1000 or even 1500 hours. Hell ours has lived its life on 87 non E gas from the farm and it's supposed to take 91. I'm not proud of that, but dad's a farmer and never saw the need to "Pamper" it....

The one thing about this specific case that should be mentioned is that many newer, bigger boats I've been in turn significantly higher RPM at wakesurfing and wakeboard speed, so that would accelerate wear on an engine.

^ Wow! Word.