Looking to buy a used boat but not real sure on how many hours is too many hours or not enough? Any advice?

I would think 75-100 a year would be normal use for a boat that is actually used.

So that would be 825 hours minimum on an 11 year old boat. Sounds high to me but I’m also no mechanic. Thank you for the input.

On a boat that old 500 would be fine but 800 is awful high.

my motor has a manufacture date of 02/2010 and it has 951 hours on it.

but 60% of them are low RPMs and I'm over the top about maintaining my equipment

Is it a 4 stroke? If so and it has been maintained, some last thousands of hours.

I bought mine when it was 15 yrs old. It had 42 hours on it.

That’s good and bad. I had to spend a few hundred fixing fuel related stuff. I’m still chasing a small fuel gremlin. The boat looked showroom new when I bought it and has cost me a couple thousand in repairing seats and now carpet due to accelerated wear.

I’d recommend buying a newer boat, that has logged more hours, than a boat that sat for 15 yrs... it costs about the same.

Steez is dead on.

These motors are built to run, if maintained properly and good oil along with gas treatment used you should have very little issues.

I don’t have a specific boat or year in mind. I’m wanting something newer then the 2010 I have. I was using that for example. Seeking advice because I’m not sure what to consider regarding hours.

I would say you could barter a really good deal on a boat if it has higher hours. Depending on the boat and how it's equipped, you can get a heck of deal on a higher hour boat. And the kicker is most with high hours take good care of their stuff.

400 or less but nothing under 100 would be my suggestion.

110% Been there... Got my 2008 with a 225 Optimax in 2015.. Had 150hrs. [censored] LOAD of stupid issues just because it sat up. I now have a little over 500hrs on it

OP, the absolute WORST thing you can do to a boat is let it sit. That's why those work boats with outboards have 3000hrs on them and still running today. They run them everyday and run them hard!

That goes for any motor really.. Why do semis get millions and millions of miles on them? Because they are running day in day out 365 days a year.

I would say that 50 hours a year is average unless you fish tournaments out of it. Then, average would be around 80-90hours a year. Prefishing every weekend before the big monthly tournament adds hours pretty quick. At least, this is my experience for the last 35 years.

According to the Yamaha dealer techs that I have been around the last few years, the absolute worst thing you can do to a Yamaha SHO is spend extended time idling at low rpm's. To the point that I had one dealer tell me Yamaha would deny warranty if the idle hours got to high. I have since been told by one of the regional reps that this is completely false. I do lots of offshore fishing so if a boat can't have idle time, it is absolutely worthless to me. Just be aware that high idle time is often sold as a positive when in reality it may be a negative on these newer 4 strokes. All of these relatively new motors can be hooked up to a computer and give you all kinds of data. I would definitely go get that done before you buy a boat.

With all that said my SHO has 500 hours on it now with relatively few problems. From the saltwater guys that run them every day most seem to get about 1000-1200 hours out of an SHO before some major issues pop up. The old grey f series Yamaha can easily get 1500-2000 hours when maintained properly and used regularly. Thus the reason you see very few SHO's in saltwater anymore.

I can't speak to Mercury longevity because I have not owned one in over 20 years.

Not uncommon to see salt water motors get 3-4000 hours or more yet see bass boat motors cr@p out in just a few hundred hours. Reason is SW folks start them and let them run all day and not at WOT. Bass guys start them then while cold go balls to the wall for a few miles the quickly shut down without cooling off.

This is Texas, we fish year round. 75-100hrs per year is nothing.