5HP Briggs & Stratton

[dxg68]

I made a decision not to buy the kicker motor this year . The season is almost over anyway. I need to do more research and do my home work. 5HP Briggs & Stratton looked very attractive, but reading all the comments I realized that I am not ready to buy it yet. Good thing that I don’t need the kicker motor today or even this season and have plenty of time to make up my mind. Thanks!

[SkiDeep2001]

Nice. And it has "Pointless Electronic Ignition".

Whenever any of my modern ignition systems fails I usually call them 'pointless' too.

Kevin, don't 'dwell' on it too much. Rob

[Kelly Hanson East]

eeerrrghhhh...good one.

I really need to read the condensed version of these jokes..

[Russ]

I made a decision not to buy the kicker motor this year . The season is almost over anyway. I need to do more research and do my home work. 5HP Briggs & Stratton looked very attractive, but reading all the comments I realized that I am not ready to buy it yet. Good thing that I don’t need the kicker motor today or even this season and have plenty of time to make up my mind. Thanks!

That's probably wise.

I don't know much about B & S other than they make a lot of noisy lawnmower engines. The fact that it's not even rated for saltwater throws up the "poor quality flag" to me. It may be a fine motor, but at 75 pounds, that's a heavy beast to hang off your transom. I bet it's noisy too and would scare off the fish.
Now if I had $650 to spend on an outboard I'd look for good used one like a Honda. I've seen them on Craigslist.com for that much. If it were well kept, a quality motor should have a lot of life. In fact, that's what I'm probably going to do for our dinghy.

--Russ

[DaveB]

I bought this 2.5 hp Suzuki for $586 2 mo. ago. I had to wait 3 mo. for it to come in and drove 65 miles to a Suzuki dealer to pick it up. I used it on my last 4 day trip and liked the motor. Started 1st pull.
Dave

Sorry, forgot to add the link. http://www.newoutboards.com/Suzuki-2-5- ... -5SK9.html

[Herschel]

I have not seen, nor read about the Briggs and Stratton outboard engine, but every Briggs and Stratton engine I have had on lawn equipment has been very reliable. My 10 hp lawnmower Briggs and Stratton engine is a 1994 model and still going strong. But, I did bite on an unusual outboard engine for my 10-ft O'Day Sprite that doubles as my dinghy. I bought a 2 hp 4-stroke Island Hopper. The company is in St. Petersburg, Florida; handy for a Central Floridian. The engine is air cooled so you can test it, and run it with boat on the trailer as needed. I have used it once, in fresh water, and was, generally very pleased. It weighs just 23 lbs, so it doesn't weigh a small boat down at the transom. It moved the boat nicely with mast and sails, gear, myself, my brother, and his two kids, ages 14 and 7. Yes, I know it was a little overloaded, but we had our life jackets and the lake was calm. Basically, it looks like a somewhat larger weed-eater, but with a prop instead of the spool of plastic string at the end. Here is a link if anyone else is looking for a relatively inexpensive and very light, small engine for a small boat.
http://www.smalloutboardengines.com/20h ... troke.html

[DaveB]

Herschel, thats the same company I posted here. The 2.5 hp is 18 lbs. They are just 100 miles N. of me and plan to have a WCTSS member ck out the factory.
Is the motor loud like a weed eater and does it smoke like the 2 cycle lawn type engines.
I recent bought a 9.5 Solstice inflatable thru West Marine for $400, it doesn't have a wood transum but a outboard bracket. With my new 2.5 hp Suzuki 30 lb 4 stroke I cannot go beyound 1/2 throttle as the transum wants to dip causeing the motor to lean aft and closer to the water. I can do about 4 -5 knots (450lbs people and gear) at 1/2 throttle and is fine with me.
The boat has inflatable keel and floor and weighs 32 lbs. the construction appears almost as good as the $1000 boats except for it could use better oar locks. It is easy to inflate and deflate with the foot pump but is faster with the coleman 12V pump. It says not to tow but I towed it for 28 miles labor day weekend and towed very well with only about 15 lb pressure or less felt when bringing in the painter at 6 knots.
I wanted a dingy I could store down below in a small size and easy to handle and carry 4 persons.
Dave

[rowdy]

The 5HP Briggs & Stratton is a terrible moter. I owned one. It is a cheap dinasaur compared to other outboards. It is extremely noisy. I constantly had problems with it. In the first year, the lower unit broke and I was left me high and dry when cruising around Isle Royale in Lake Superior.

~Mark

[johnnyonspot]

I can't really base this on any empirical evidence, but when I read "Briggs and Stratton outboard" I thought "NO!" Sure, they are good at making lawn mower engines, but that's a totally different application. Better to go with an OB made by a company with a long and reliable history of making OBs. Just my opinion. Yours will be different.

[kmclemore]

The 5HP Briggs & Stratton is a terrible moter. I owned one. It is a cheap dinasaur compared to other outboards. It is extremely noisy. I constantly had problems with it. In the first year, the lower unit broke and I was left me high and dry when cruising around Isle Royale in Lake Superior.

~Mark

Mark, I hate to say it, but I've heard the same thing from quite a few owners. Not sure if it's a 'not a marine engine therefore it sucks' attitude problem (not unlike the anti-Mac folks out there) or if it's really a lousy motor, but I will say I've heard from more than one owner that they were less than happy with the B&S.

[Kelly Hanson East]

I have never owned the marine version, of course, have owned many of the lawn versions.

Ive never heard any air cooled marine motor at working rpm that I would call acceptable in terms of noise level - granted, Im the kind of guy who plugs his ears when the make the plane announcement at 80 dB

I think a lot of the perceived noise has to do with the noise reflection properties of water - unlike on land/grass, all the noise from the motor comes back to your ears.

[Herschel]

Concerning the Island Hopper 2-HP 4-stroke, no, there is not a lot of noise, certainly not the same as a 2-stroke weed-eater. Also, no smoke. The exhaust is on the starboard side rather than aft, however, which makes a starboard side placement on the transome preferred, otherwise it blows at you in a starboard turn. I found the 180 degrees reverse concept requires a little bit of a learning curve. The biggest drawback I can find at this point is the metal clamps for securing it to the transom. My transom is "starboard" and very smooth, and the engine will slip when you catch the starting mechanism just right and resist your pulling causing it to slip out of position. I used a rubber mouse pad (thanks Dell) and it did the trick of allowing a firm lock down, but was good for just one use. Still working on that issue. The boat seemed easier to steer by just locking the engine throttle in the cruising position and iamed straight ahead and then steering with the rudder. Not sure what it will be like when I try with just the engine and no rudder.

[Gypsy]

I don't own one , but I have seen a lot of these Briggs and Stratton engines on fishing boats , in the river.
From what I have seen and read , they are loud , heavy , simple ,but very cheap engines , when compared to a Honda.
So I guess its whatever you are looking for.
If you are looking for a quiet , lightweight , and very expensive engine , buy a Honda

If you are looking for cheap , but dependable engine , buy a Briggs.

Briggs has been making engines for who knows how long . With a little care , the engine will last forever, I know my lawnmower engine has.

One other cosideration is if it does breakdown , it should be cheap and simple to fix.