I'm looking for any feedback, good, bad or ugly on the Briggs &
Stratton 5 H.P. outboard. I have a 14 foot medium V hull mirro craft
with a 16 inch transom height. Only manage to get out and fish a few
times a month so I 'm not loking to spend a fortune and wondering if
these motors are any good. I only fish small lakes so I don't need
something big. How fast can these things go? Any info as to quality,
speed,etc. would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

The other option I was looking at was an electric trolling motor.I
have considered using an electric trolling motor to power my 14 ft.
boat, something in the 40 to 50 lb. thrust. As I said I only fish
small lakes so I think this should be adequate. What types of electric
trolling motors are people using the most and are pleased with?
Minn-Kota seems to be popular in my area, how about any others? I'm
new to all of this so any info is helpful.

Very noisy. Same exhaust type that they use on an adverage lawnmower
engine. Would only recommend as a backup if that.

wrote in message
m...
I'm looking for any feedback, good, bad or ugly on the Briggs &
Stratton 5 H.P. outboard. I have a 14 foot medium V hull mirro craft
with a 16 inch transom height. Only manage to get out and fish a few
times a month so I 'm not loking to spend a fortune and wondering if
these motors are any good. I only fish small lakes so I don't need
something big. How fast can these things go? Any info as to quality,
speed,etc. would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

wrote:

As far as loudness, it can't be avoided in this design.

I have not seen an ad for this motor. I was referring strictly to
the video that someone in this newsgroup made and it sounded pretty
damn quiet. Not the lawnmower sound I was expecting.

??? An Electric trolling motor IS an outboard.


Actually, no, I don't believe it is considered that. Yes, it is a
motor, and yes, it is outboard, but I believe the folks producing
electric outboards would take exception to that. :^) When you used
the term electric outboard instead of trolling motor, I looked and was
surprised at the companies that make electric outboards. Looks like
the cheapest 'electric outboard' might be the Minn Kota. It's a 2 hp
electric outboard and they're not calling it a trolling motor. On the
internet,it sells for $2500. Yikes! And, it's 48 volt. This is why I
was questioning this. A trolling motor I can understand, but did not
think one of these 'electric outboards' would be what he had in mind.

I've not seen any complaints on the Briggs motor, admittedly though,
it is fairly new to the market. But for the original poster who is
going to use it in lakes and with the size of his boat, it seems like
it might just be a good matchup.

I admit, I have no use for a motor this small, but if I did I would
seriously consider it. I appreciate the price point that Briggs has
come up with for this motor. Personally I think it's freaking
ridiculous the current prices for outboards...at any horsepower.
Perhaps if Briggs is successful, other manufacturers will have to
reconsier.

-Jim

wrote in message
...
On Sun, 13 Jul 2003 13:57:48 GMT, Jim
wrote:



wrote:

It's a cheaply built outboard with low price being it's only advantage.
It's
very noisy, not especially clean burning and not designed for long term
reliability. Other than that, it's great!

Are you basing this on personal experience? I've not seen one in
operation myself except for the video provided by a poster on this
newsgroup. It certainly didn't sound loud, well, at least compared
to a 2-stroke :^) and didn't appear 'dirty'.

Personal experience, as in "owning" one of these cheapo's is totally
irrelevant. You don't have to buy one to know exactly what it is, and more
importantly, what it IS'NT.

As far as loudness, it can't be avoided in this design. It's air-cooled
and the
exhaust is not under water, either. The sound level in an ad is the LAST
place
to look for this. Ever see a TV ad for a Jet Ski? No noise at all! Just
some
upbeat music, and scenes of girls in bikinis.

The motor is not "marinized" in any way, and is aircooled. Aircooled
engines
(all of them) are built to much looser tolerance specs, due to the
unavoidable
fact that aircooled engines heat up quickly, run hotter, and the heating
is not
evenly dispersed. That means that clearances for things like piston to
cylinder,
and ring end-gaps must be larger. All air cooled engines are by nature
"dirty",
and do not live as long as water cooled engines. What Briggs & Stratton
did was
take an existing (and not especially great) engine designed for powering a
lawn
mower, and splice it onto an outboard engine lower unit.


I mowed many a lawn with the standard 3.5hp Briggs...

That thing ran and ran and ran. (rather loud I do admit)

I would not consider them disposable by any means.

db








For what you describe, I'd recommend a high powered Electric that can
get you to
the fish almost as fast as the Briggs, and then troll silently, all
with one
unit.

Are you suggesting a trolling motor or an electric outboard?

??? An Electric trolling motor IS an outboard.

BB

BB,

What model did you get? How many pounds of thrust does that
translate to? I've been looking at trolling motors as I
don't know that I consider my Motor Guide worth fixing.
Admittedly, I don't tend to troll, but the one I have is
underpowered and cannot overcome the tides. I found
this out the one time I *needed* it. :^(

-Jim


wrote:
I OWN a MinnKota 3 hp. motor. I bought it new for less than $300, and it
operates on 12 volts. It was advertised as an electric outboard that will get
you to the fish, and then troll all day.

BB

Actually no, that was the original poster that fishes lakes. My
fishing is done on the tidal creeks and river, next to open water.
I wouldn't consider any open water with this boat. :^) For the most
part, worst case would be having to drop anchor and waiting for the
tide to change. No real 'danger' if I have a motor problem and no
backup. Just a lot of inconvenience. If it was more than that, it
seems that there's always someone around that can help, even with a
tow. And I do have a radio, 'just in case'.

-Jim

wrote:

In your original post you said you only planned to fish small lakes. If you are
going out in the ocean, or fast rivers, then you need substantially more power
than any electric (other than an old Elco yacht!) is going to provide.

BB

OK! You got a Lawn Mower with a prop. I'd dump it for far to many reasons to
list in this NG.
wrote in message
m...
I'm looking for any feedback, good, bad or ugly on the Briggs &
Stratton 5 H.P. outboard. I have a 14 foot medium V hull mirro craft
with a 16 inch transom height. Only manage to get out and fish a few
times a month so I 'm not loking to spend a fortune and wondering if
these motors are any good. I only fish small lakes so I don't need
something big. How fast can these things go? Any info as to quality,
speed,etc. would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.