Jet skis and waverunners

bh84
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Peterborough , ON CA
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bh84 9/8/2018 8:57am
9/8/2018 8:57am Edited Date/Time 9/8/2018 9:10am
BobPA wrote:
Well yes and no to the Sea Doos. I agree they make great machines, but they also have the most issues....by far. 12 out of the...
Well yes and no to the Sea Doos. I agree they make great machines, but they also have the most issues....by far. 12 out of the 19 four strokes currently at our shop are Sea Doo's. Some issues are inflicted by the user. Most are in for electrical issues, namely the reverse gate hanging up. An '09 Doo came in Tuesday with an exploded rear cylinder, something you do not see every day, as the engines are usually rock solid.

There is no denying the reliability of the Yamaha's on the water, in my experience anyway. Sea Doo brings a bunch of cool features and great engines, but they also bring the most issues.
12 of 19. so 63% of what in your shop. Sea-Doo hovers around 75-80% market share. So they are equivalently more reliable Tongue

I work at a shop that sells 120-140 new Sea-Doo's per year. I can't say I've seen any failures with the brake and reverse system. Its the best thing in the world for docking especially if its a tight situation. 80-90% of the in season service work we do is thanks to people sucking stuff up playing in water thats too shallow.

The 215, 255 and 260 hp models will need the superchargers rebuilt at 150 hrs if they are using the original or 200 hours with the new rebuild kits. If you're doing the new 300 it doesn't need rebuilding.

the 155 is a great motor, 55mph all day and reliable as a TT-R230
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FLmxer
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SouthWest, FL US
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FLmxer 9/8/2018 9:32am
9/8/2018 9:32am
We used to use those big Yamaha ventures for rentals. They had a nice little platform on the back great for fishing. We would set the rentals out in the morning then take turns running the no wake bouys catching cobia and triple tail. I would flyfish for giant snook and tarpon during summer on them.
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Ebs
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MI US
Ebs 9/8/2018 11:00am
9/8/2018 11:00am Edited Date/Time 9/8/2018 11:01am
Oh man, I shouldn't have clicked this thread. I remember the Waveblaster being pretty high on my childhood want list. Off to Craigslist I go...


Those 4-stroke ones are just so big it seems like you might as well just get a jetboat.
chaseodc
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Fort Myers, FL US
chaseodc 9/14/2018 5:36am
9/14/2018 5:36am Edited Date/Time 9/14/2018 5:38am
FLmxer wrote:
Same with me on the Yamaha being the one back 15 to 20 years ago. There was a reason every single jetski rental in Florida only...
Same with me on the Yamaha being the one back 15 to 20 years ago. There was a reason every single jetski rental in Florida only used Yamaha. Probably all good like bikes these days. I worked at a few as a young teen. I used to do the history of the islands tours and dolphin tours guiding up to 25 jet skis out of South Seas Plantation on Captiva. We would marshal the offshore powerboat races and pro national jet ski races when they came. I had a lot of years where I never wanted to see a jetski again. Lol
You work with Jerry Kawatski (sp?) out there? Worked with him at Westcoast Kawasaki in Fort Myers back in the day. I believe he left there to do the guide gig. Small world if so.. Lol

The Shop

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lostboy819
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Somewhere, CO US
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lostboy819 9/14/2018 8:12am
9/14/2018 8:12am
Ebs wrote:
Oh man, I shouldn't have clicked this thread. I remember the Waveblaster being pretty high on my childhood want list. Off to Craigslist I go... Those...
Oh man, I shouldn't have clicked this thread. I remember the Waveblaster being pretty high on my childhood want list. Off to Craigslist I go...


Those 4-stroke ones are just so big it seems like you might as well just get a jetboat.
You can pick them up cheap and parts are still easy to get and they are fun and challenging to ride.
Timo_2824
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Wichita, KS US
Timo_2824 9/15/2018 6:38am
9/15/2018 6:38am
I've had a Yamaha non power valve XL1200 as well as my current Yamaha powervalve XLT1200. I sold the XL to my parents, so have had 10 years with it and 8 on the XLT. I have rebuilt both engines, the XL is one block and pretty darn simple to do. It runs real good right off idle but isn't as fast past 3000 rpm as the XLT.

The PV 1200 is a huge pain in the ass to work on because of the expansion chamber. It's huge and wraps around the engine, you can't even get to the carbs. The next issue is the PV's themselves, if anyone buys one of these I recommend removing them and putting in some HD aftermarket ones. I've had the stock one wear and protrude into the cylinder at 100 hours, so during the rebuild I got some of the clips to keep it from happening again. The next time one of the stems broke at 200 hours and the whole valve dropped into the cylinder. I did a major rebuild after that one with a welded crank and aftermarket power valves and haven't had any issues since, at 350 hours now. Our next one will be a fuel injected 4 stroke. I've seen rental ski's with 1000 hours on the original engines, just change the oil every season and call it good.
c0ncEpT
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Harrison Twp., MI US
c0ncEpT 9/20/2018 12:32pm
9/20/2018 12:32pm Edited Date/Time 9/20/2018 12:34pm
I have a 2015 Seadoo RXPX 260.

Just turned 100 hours and I've only done oil changes and spark plugs. Been dead nuts reliable so far.

I boat on Lake St.Clair here in Michigan and it gets pretty rough with all the boat traffic so ride quality was a huge selling factor for me.

This thing has a great rough water hull. You can't even compare anything older because they aren't even close. This thing rides amazing in the chop and handles like its on rails.

Pit Row

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