How big is to big

The sky seems to be the limit.  How big are ATV's going to get before someone decides they are big enough?  Not one person I know is EVER going to use the horsepower in those big ATV's but every year they come out with bigger ones.  Soon, they will have enough horsepower to pull any farm implement and 99% of the people who own one this big still will never pull anything over 250 pounds (if that).  I think it is a matter of who can own the biggest motor or ATV.  It has nothing to do with practicality.

yeah i don't really see a reason for a 300 horse on a boat.

just because you can I suppose is the reason most people have them.

When it's flat calm out you can't put enough horses on the back of a boat.  :)

Or fishing a tournament!!!!

permo Said:

That being said, if I could afford one I would have one, but until the vikings win the super bowl, pigs fly and my wife has a huge change of heart their won't be a boat with a 300 at my house!   

LMAO!!!!!!!!

permo Said:

That being said, if I could afford one I would have one, but until the vikings win the super bowl, pigs fly and my wife has a huge change of heart their won't be a boat with a 300 at my house!   

Don't know your wife, or anything about pigs flying, but I do know Favre may have the helm for the Vikings...... don't count it out yet.  

(......if one can't dream, one may as well be dead....)  

(sounds of me clearing my throat)  As DEAD as the.....

LIONS!!   DEAD!!
PACKERS!!  DEAD!!
BEARS!!  DEAD!!

 WE'RE COMING!!!   WE'RE COOOOOMMMMINNNNGGGG!!!   heh heh

i am sure i will catch a ton of flack for this one... but, i think for liability purposes, there has got to be a limit at some point.  imo, eventually it becomes just like making a long rifle without a safety.  at some point, the product, by its nature alone, becomes inherently dangerous. 

ATVs, snowmobiles and boats (to a lesser extent) are one of the best examples of that train of thought.  ATV's these days come with 800, 900 maybe even 1000 cc motors that weigh close to 1000 lbs (or more, not sure exactlly).  if you are an adult, you can buy it off the lot, no training needed, drive it home without a helmet.  they have no roll cages and helmets are optional and are meant to be driven off of pavement.  the 4 wheel drive aspect means they catch anything they come in contact with (especially pavement) and become very prone to rolling.  if you roll one of them and they end up on top of you, you will be in the hurt bag for a while and maybe even a coffin. 

same thing with snowmobiles.  very heavy, lots of HP.  go 100+ right off the show room floor and are meant to be traveled in places where there are not any roads.  a little pillow drift going at 75% throttle can mean you are dead. 

boats going 65 MPH on Devils Lake can have the same result. 

i know we all have personal choices and should be responsible for those choices.  but, at some point, enuff is enuff.  that is why we have governors, airbags and seatbelts, for example, on our automobiles.  that is why no one makes three wheelers anymore.  that is why the cigarette companies were able to be sued.

The reason for the 300 is just this.  Case in point:  Fished the AYA tourney with my daughter this year.....  I have a boat that gets 40MPH tops fully loaded......   Tourney takeoff was Lakewood Ramp SE corner of Creel Bay......  Couldnt run to where I wanted due to losing well over 1 hr of fishing time (closer to 2 actually) in a short 1 day tourney if I made the run both ways.  I had to find much closer contingency spots that produced very well on Thurs and Fri but were spots that dont replenish with waves of fish like my other go to spots.   Weighed 6.89 with 5 fish when I was on an upper teens low 20s bite the 2 days before.  13 MPH plus and some additional boat length makes a huge difference in actual fishing time.....  10 minutes can make or break a tourney. 

DANG stand next to the 300 Verado.....  What a beast


Dream boat Ranger 621, 300 Vrod, hydraulic jackplate, Merc 9.9, extended casting deck, 101 Terrova, etc etc etc.  Baby needs to get a "night" job, I need to rob a bank, or I just need to settle for a much older boat in great shape that still fits my needs.   I prefer option 3.

300HP??? They've already surpassed that  and went up to 350HP, At least Mercury and Yamaha have. the thing that needs to be realized is that these motors are often times hung on 25ft-40ft ocean boats, cabin cuddies, ect...Not just the big sparkly Rangers and such. A single 350HP motor could replace guys hanging twin 150s or 200s on a big rig or even use two 350s to replcace the setups using triples to push the rig.

The other part of this come back to economy and cruise speed, not just top speed. My boat is capable of nearing 60mph in calm water and use 22GPH of fuel. I don't run it open real often but I do run between 35-50mph almost every time out at 10gph. This puts me right in the sweet spot for fuel effieciency and cruise speed without wringing my motor out. I garentee a person with a 250-350hp motor cruising at 45mph  will make nearly double the fuel mileage a person with 125-150hp motor running wide open to maintain the same speed on similar hulls. I know coming from a classic 50 merc on 16.5 alumium boat that topped out at 28mph to what I have now, I can actually go twice as far on the same amount of fuel, of course unless I open it up. The ol 50 was ran wide open from the time it was started to the time it was shut down and never made more than about 3mpg! my new rig gets the same 3mpg but I can now do it at twice the speed of the old rig.

The new larger walleye boats can handle the power supprisingly well, and yet there are still 150hp motors on small tunnel boats that can still out run our ineffiecent Deep Vs on calm water. so although the HP is nice it doesn't alway translate into the fastest rig on the water, becauses there's alot to do with hull design and weight and purpose built rigs.

Lastely, for the Tournament boys, speed is time, and time is money. You can't catch fish while running from spot to spot. For example, if they're making 120mile round trip runs each day on a 3 day tourny, and they have a boat that can run say 60mph instead of 40mph, this traslates into and extra 3hours of fishing time, which is huge. It also gets them to stake claim on a spot before another competitor.

Lots of pros, and very few cons with having more power! the only real con is the intitial price!

I needed a big motor for the DWC.  98 percent of the anglers went west and WAAAAYYYYYY west.  By the time I got there the fish were plucked.  I have a request.  Instead of giving the big motor boys grief how about making the tourney boundaries smaller.  Ha!!!!!!!

Personally, the cost is the problem.  If I could afford a big horse power motor I probably would but I don't want to be that guy paying for his boat for 7 to 10 years.  My biggest motor will be a 135 to 140 on my 18 foot tiller.  You guys with the bigger motors and bigger boats can watch me cruise at a comfy and affordable 45+ mph!!!

A month or two ago George Bush Sr. was interviewed.  In his interview he hit the nail on the nose of why we want such big motors.  He wanted to show the interviewer his nice new boat. He pointed out the 3 300hp (green fuel efficient) Verado's on back to the interviewer.  When she ask why does a person need 900 horses on a boat.  His answer was as simple as it gets.  "So I can go faster than the guy with 800 horses".

I asked one friend of mine why he put Nitrous on his 700 ATV?

His answer, "Because I can..........." 

If I had the money sitting around I would consider a pontoon with at least a 225 , how fun would it be to pass a ranger on a pontoon!!

    OK for the guides and pro guys how much is to much for a boat dollar wise? Can you afford a 45,000 baot and make it work?

bowhunter Said:
    OK for the guides and pro guys how much is to much for a boat dollar wise? Can you afford a 45,000 baot and make it work?

The pro guys make money on their boats annually. They get the boats at a reduced price, maybe even some get them free, and then at the end of each season they sell them and consider the proceeds income. 

An addendum to Permos post. 

I got to now a pro fairly well, he mentioned if he sold his Ranger 619 for fair market value he would make approx 3k each year.  He mentioned Ranger has diffeent tiers with pro boats, so someone higher up the chain may make more per sale.   He also mentioned that Evinrude had a better pro deal than Merc did, adding in the fact the contingency money Evinrude has for the FLW further sealed the purchase for him.  He also mentioned Humingbird also had a better pro deal than Lowrance.

I dont necessarily believe that many, if any, pros get boats for free.  At least anymore.  Some definately get better deals than others.......  Free, not so sure.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UEETjztLqI

just because you can....doesnt always mean you should! 

you can count the number of pro's and guides that get boats for free on one hand.  Most pro's get the boats at the beginning of the season and don't have to pay for them till the end of the season.  That way they can sell them and take the money to pay the mfg'r. 

I said "maybe" some get boats for free. I don't know of any that get them for free, but you never know.  

I still believe that the majority of these monster boat motors and outrageously huge ATV's are nothing more than bragging rights for the owner.  Just the ability to go to the bar and declare "mine is bigger than yours".  I would guess that well over 90% of the people who own them don't come even close to ever using a fraction of the power that is available.