Tohatsu/Merc/Nissan 6hp

[mikehoyt]

There has been dicussion on this forum about this motor. They now have the Sailpro version (25" shaft/charger/hi thrust prop) made specifically for sailboats.

Our J27 at 3800 lbs seems to have adopted as a class the 5hp or 6hp version of this outboard as the most common one for the model. It is about as light as you can find these days (approx 60 lbs) and about as much engine as this boat is capable of using.

We changed from a 4.5 hp 20in long shaft 2 stroke Johnson Seahrose to a Tohatsu 4hp 20in shaft with carb upgrade to 6hp, optional charging system and hi thrust prop upgrade. All previous outboards I have used on all previous boats did not have Hi Thrust prop

On this forum there was discussion that the hp at the prop seems not great and that the top half of the throttle range does not do a lot. I will have to state that compared to the Honda 7.5 4 stroke I used for years, the Johnson 2 stroke 9.9 I tried for a bit, the Johnson 4.5 and Evinrude 6 2 strokes this engine behaves completely differently. All the other engines sounded like they had more power and in a confined marina when changing gears I would always have to apply a lot of throttle initially. With this prop I cannot do that or I will crash. I leave at lowest end of the throttle and occasionally give a little push by throttling up for a second or so. This prop really bites!

On the water the motor does not sound like it is running wide open or producing much power. However the boat is tracvelling at 6.8 knots over the water and has even hit 7 knots. At mid throttle moves along at 6.2 knots. Also is no louder than the 2 stroke it replaced - maybe a little quieter. The reports of vibration also not noticable.

If anyone is considering this outboard I cannot stress enough how much power it has with the hi thrust prop. Our old 4.5 2 stroke would push the boat over flat water at 5.7 knots max. Against wind/waves/current it did not have enough power to go over 4 knots and against 30 knots of wind in gusts would drop down below 2 knots.

This is a great outboard and a great configuration. I do not really care what the HP rating at the prop is but I can say that it really pushes the boat well. Hull speed is only 6 and a bit so the outboard exceeds this.

Mike

[tommays]

I would agree in all but the vibratrion issue as even my 2005 last of the two strokes version of the motor has the single cylinder vibration issue

The 5.99 prop at 100 something dollars is the best money i ever spent

[ColinJ]

I had a thread going last week about getting a new motor. I ended up getting the Sail Pro Nissan 6hp and installed it on Sunday. While I haven't had the motor for long I must say so far I love it.

I personally didn't find any vibration problems wither. It was vibrating at the start but I found my mount was loose so I tighten it and things are fine. Now I'm comparing it to my 34 year old 9.9 evinrude which ran horrible.. I also haven't ran at full speed but at half speed the boat was going fast enough.