New Crappie Boat

[M R Dux]

I wonder why? I know there is a huge demand for the new Mercury 200 and 250 ProXS. Wonder if same block maker.

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I got word from a Suzuki dealer yesterday who said Johnny Morris at Bass Pro/Ranger/Triton/? is getting nearly every Mercury made right now.He said lots of pontoon manufacturers/dealers switched from Merc to Suzuki. That's whats caused the shortage and backorder. When I bought my Suzuki in 16, you rarely saw one around here. Now they are everywhere.

[huntinslabs]

I got word from a Suzuki dealer yesterday who said Johnny Morris at Bass Pro/Ranger/Triton/? is getting nearly every Mercury made right now.He said lots of pontoon manufacturers/dealers switched from Merc to Suzuki. That's whats caused the shortage and backorder. When I bought my Suzuki in 16, you rarely saw one around here. Now they are everywhere.

Suzuki was very big down here for years but no service centers so seeing fewer of them lately. Yamaha and Mercury are most popular.

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[M R Dux]

Suzuki's don't need service centers.

[huntinslabs]

Suzuki's don't need service centers.

Well, lotta guys down here might disagree with that. They are good motors. But not needing service centers is a stretch. Some people can't do annual service themselves and 3 hour trip 1 way for service ain't very fun. Or just when life happens on the water and you need repair.

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[Javelin 180]

I pretty much do the same fishing as you do and was fishing from a mid size bass boat which I thought I really liked. I got to looking at new boats last year and ended up buying a new Ranger RB190 bay boat and really like it. It does exactly what I want and has plenty of room for my family to fish comfortably I also looked at the Xpress bay boats which I thought was nice but I didn’t have a dealer close by. My aluminum Ranger is 19’ and has a 115 Mercury which like I said does everything I need it to do but you can get the Xpress in bigger models but I think if you look at a center console you would like it.


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[cwright]

Very nice boat. Love the setup.

[Ketchn]

the Excell is a fine specimen for sure , my bud has one and its right friendly to ketch fish out of .
he does crappie ,sand bass and blue cat out of his …
my 2 cents

[Ketchn]

and I really like that there ranger for sure …...like really really
and then....thou shall no covet ketchn …..repeat as needed

[wicklundrh]

I got word from a Suzuki dealer yesterday who said Johnny Morris at Bass Pro/Ranger/Triton/? is getting nearly every Mercury made right now.He said lots of pontoon manufacturers/dealers switched from Merc to Suzuki. That's whats caused the shortage and backorder. When I bought my Suzuki in 16, you rarely saw one around here. Now they are everywhere.

Oh geez, now you have gone and done it Doug....... I was already in one of those moods and then BOOM! You hit me with my favorite topic (sarcasm).

I don't even know where to begin without saying something that "might" get me in to trouble! That said, I'm going to do my best here.

A few years ago Mercury was basically the first company to come out with a 350 (the Verado) It was explosive in the industry (literally and figuratively)! Yes, it blew up a lot!
Someone (Doug mentioned) basically has a deal with Mercury. Might even own stock in the company. Knowing that the 350 was coming, they produced their latest boats to be able to support it. So, when it came out, the ONLY boats on the market (bass and walleye) that you could put one on where those boats. So, if you wanted a 350 (because we are fisherman and we get the biggest we can) you had to purchase from that company. Of course, it only lasted a year but the damage was done for some boat manufacturers. The Verado had it's share of problems (especially for the walleye community). The biggest being that it is electronic steering. What that would mean is that, if you wanted to have your motor toggled to a kicker motor to be able to steer from the helm, you had to have the power on to the big motor (the key) in order to steer the kicker. The kicker motors do not have an electrical generator (alternator) so, you ended up needing two batteries just for your rear engines. One for the big motor and one for the kicker.

Last year Yamaha and Suzuki both came out with 350 models. Although Mercury paved the way for the boating industry to build boats that could put a 350 on, everybody was waiting for the better players (yes, I said better) to be come to the table. The reason they took so long was they were actually testing and fine tuning and not just brining a piece of junk out to apease the masses. When the Yamaha and Suzuki 350 hit the market, they were flooded with orders!

Because of this, Yamaha and Suzuki had to start building MORE which in turn caused a shortage of other motors. If you go back to early last spring, Suzuki was already on a waiting list just to get anything bigger than a 150hp! Dealerships would order 10 different motors at a time and were lucky if they received one of them.

If you are not aware, Tracker and Nitro have an exlusive deal with Mercury. You cannot purchase a motor delete boat. It has to come with a Mercury. Also, they own Ranger, Triton, and Stratus. Although you CAN get those boats with other motors, they are marketed with Mercury. With one holdings company having so many irons in the fire with an engine manufacturer, you could see where the allegences are at. This is the reason that you are starting to see boat companies and Marinas go with other brands. Simply because there isn't enough supply from Mercury as they are being sucked up from the above mentioned names.

Evinrude has it's own following but it is small compared to the other companies. Yamaha has a big and loyal following and, because of the above mentioned, as Doug said, many are also jumping to Suzuki. There used to be zero dealers in Michigan. Now there are at least 10. This is leading to the shortfall (at the moment). These companies were used to a certain demand and now the demand has increased due in large part to the lack of supply on the part of Mercury.

I tried to keep my personal opinions and inside knowledge out of it. BUT, it was really hard!

[wicklundrh]

Anothing thing that ads to a shortage of a specific HP or HP range of motors is that many of the companies utilize the same power head (block) for multiple applications. With Suzuki, the 90,115, and 140 hp motors all have the same block. The 150, 175, and 200 all have the same block. When you see a shortage, it usually isn't just for one HP rating, it is for all the HP motors that use that block. I beleive that other companies (like Yamaha) have the exact same thing going on.