If you have been looking for new ribs for sale and want to get the best deal, then its often cheaper to buy the boat and engine separately. Most boat builders will keep a higher margin on the outboard engine than a proper outboard engine dealer. So my advice is to look around for the best deal on the engine of your choice. But don’t just choose the engine on price alone, look at spec, reliability and performance. Most boat builders will have tried a lot of different engines on their boats so advice from them as to the most suitable engine should be well received.
So in the 75hp 80hp and 90hp stakes there are quite a few engines to choose from. Probably the biggest decision is that of 2 or 4 stroke. In the 2 stroke category (and we are talking about direct fuel injected 2 strokes) there rate 3 manufacturers to choose from, each with a slightly different way of dealing with the 2 stroke DI system. But inherently you are looking at the 75 and 90hp TLDI engine from tohatsu outboards, the 75 and 90hp OPTIMAX from mercury and mariner outboards, and the 75 / 90hp ETEC outboard engine from evinrude outboards. All are good in their own right, the evinrude gets rave reviews, the mariner / mercury is the biggest CC and has the best torque figures, and the tohatsu is an excellent engine also. Most boat dealers with new ribs for sale will have their own views on what performs best on their hull, so listen to what they have to say, and also call up a few outboard dealers and ask their advice, at bill higham marine we have 5 full time outboard technicians and 2 full time outboard engine sales staff (who are both outboard mechanics of at least 10 years experience), we always pride ourselves on our honest, forthright and un-biased advice which is of course free of charge. So give us a call and we will be happy to point you in the right direction for your next new outboard engine to fit on one of our new ribs for sale.