What is considered low hours?

[rossc23]

Hey guys,

I'm looking at buying a 2008 speedster 155. I have a couple of questions from you guys that know way more about this than I do. First, the boat has 142 hours which the dealer is telling me is very low hours. Is that low or salesman talk? Second, what would be a reasonable price on this boat. Boat and trailer only, no extras. Pretty good condition. any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[renomaan]

Ive got an 05 with 160 hrs, I'm second maybe 3rd owner and cosmetically it looks great. I get out on it about 5-7 times a yr and thats usually with 4-5 hrs run time ea day so each yr I put about 35 hrs on it? that's casual use as we trailer it, one sitting in a slip or boat lift would probably rack more time.

Not sure how that compares to other owners?

 

[Coastiejoe]

The 4-tec engine can easily go for many hundreds of hours. Realistically, 500 is an easy milestone when things are done as they should be during ownership. I think something near 1000 hours is very realistic if you maintain it properly. These engines are very similar to a standard car engine...

 

[go_panthers]

I bought my boat 15 months ago used. in 3 years, the prior oner had put 27 hours on the engines.in 15 months, I'm up to 98 after this evenings run down the lake for pizza.

 

[Dr Honda]

"Low Hours" is a relevant term.

As Joe said... 500 hr's is common, and 1000 hr's is possible. BUT....

1) It depends where that engine has lived so far. What I mean is... has it been towing a wake board, or just cruising around? (so low RPM's) Or was it owned by someone that held the throttle open all the time??

2) Since it's a used boat... it's almost irrelevant. Especially if you are buying it from a dealer. I don't mind buying used toys... but when you buy it from the last owner... then you get a feel if they last owner knew what he was doing, and you get the stories along with it. A dealer has no idea how it was used.


But to directly answer your question... yes... that's low(ish) hours for that boat.

 

[Nosnibor]

Hey guys,

I'm looking at buying a 2008 speedster 155. I have a couple of questions from you guys that know way more about this than I do. First, the boat has 142 hours which the dealer is telling me is very low hours. Is that low or salesman talk? Second, what would be a reasonable price on this boat. Boat and trailer only, no extras. Pretty good condition. any help is greatly appreciated.

Good question and I can't really help you because I am a new boat owner as well. I can give you my experience though. I bought mine with 76 hours in May and now it has 108 but that is going out literally every weekend since I got it.

 

[SeaDoo Fan]

Hi rossc23, I have a 2008 Speedster 150 that I bought new in 2010 from a dealer. My boat has about 145 hours on it and it's been running great. I do all my own winterizing and maintenance. I run Amsoil full synthetic marine oil, change my coolant every two years with Seadoo brand coolant, change plugs etc. I pull my kids on wakeboards and tubes and also cruise with it. I think 142 hours is fairly low. Like mentioned above, has the previous owner mistreated it? Done proper maintenance? Mine has the original wear ring and impeller. This winter I'm probably going to change the wear ring and carbon seal to "zero" them out and inspect the impeller closely. Does the boat your buying have the original wear ring? Check into that.

 

[Premix]

The ECU logs, by percentage, what engine RPMs have seen the greatest amount of operating time. You can get a feel for how much wide open throttle the engine has experienced during its lifetime.

 

[James.Moon]

It is hard to say what number of hours are put on boats annually on average. I have 145 hours on my 2009 180 Challenger bought new in 2010. Very similar to Kentucky above - this is about 25 hours annually. I expect this may be a fairly low average - for those that get out every weekend and burn a tank every day it will be much much higher. The dealer is probably correct in saying the 2008 has low hours.

 

[rcguy]

It really not the hours but how it was run and maintained. You will never know if the oil was changed at proper times or used the proper oil and how hard it was run or even if the engine was broken in properly. That will always happen when you buy a used boat. You roll the dice, make an educated guess and hope all is well.

I bought my Seadoo 2008 Challenge in December of 2013 and it had 44 hours on the engine. I checked the oil and it was very clean and the boat was immaculate but it still was a gamble on my part. It was 6 years old and since then in less then two years I put on another 44 hours on the Seadoo. The first thing I did was pull the supercharger and have it rebuilt by Jet Trendz. Since the Challenger only had 44 hours on it (the manual calls for a 100 hour rebuild) I'm happy I did the rebuild because it had the ceramic washers inside the supercharger. I do most of my own maintenance and I got lucky. Here's hoping you get lucky too.

 

[Wing Luong]

It's not a lot of hour.. It is if it's not normally maintain with oil change and all since it's a 8 yr old boat.. Sorry to say but I have a 2014 Yamaha 242 limited S and it have 102 hours on it

 

[pete63]

The ECU logs, by percentage, what engine RPMs have seen the greatest amount of operating time. You can get a feel for how much wide open throttle the engine has experienced during its lifetime.

dont trust any one selling! ask to see the ecu print out of the hrs, you can also see the history log ofhrs at what rpm

 

[Mike Barton]

I purchased a 2009 Challenger 180 this past spring with 30 Hrs on it. I have since put 12 hours on it as I have a busy work schedule, BUT... As I found out, make sure to check all your connections in the engine bay; especially the hoses as my intercooler hose had a large crack in it just from sitting around. Additionally, the little rubber boot the protects the driveshaft/impeller was dry rotted from sitting and broke down after a few hours in the water. A $12 fix but a pain in the butt none the less. One of my friends that's had boats his whole life has said 20-40hrs/year is typical if you have access to a dock space and the free time to use it. As with anything, the prior user is as important as the number of hours. A wel taken care of boat will last long into the hundreds of hours without issue.

Good luck with the boat!