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My Dad is in the market for a used (gotta keep my mom on board) Nautique, Mc, or Malibu and we've seen some boats with somewhat high hrs (1500-2000 on roughly 2010-2013 models) and I was wondering what should be replaced at these hour marks to be an informed buyer. Anything special for closed loop cooling systems? Any comments are appreciated.
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Most manufactures will include a maintenance schedule that will go out at least a 1000 hours. The recommendations in the manual should cover most of what you'll need. The rest I've personally found will be determined on condition of the boat in question. I've seen thousand hour boats that looked as if they had a couple hundred hours on them and 300 hour boats that looked like they had a couple thousand hours on them. Everything comes down to condition. When I look at used boats I try to look at all areas of the boat to get a picture of how the boat has been maintained. If the boat is a mess on the outside or interior when you get there you can pretty much assume the drivetrain and other things you can't see has been treated in a similar fashion. A boat trailer is another area that can tip you off. Is the trailer rusted, dirty with rotted tires and brakes that don't work? Then what else that you can't see has been taken care of that way? I also don't take much stock in a boat that's being advertised as dealer maintained. Sure the dealer may have winterized the boat or done the recommended maintenance items but in many cases it was probably the minimum required by the schedule.
Most enthusiasts (myself included) on a site like this will tend to "over maintain" their boats. These are the high hour boats that if you have to go this direction you should be seeking out even if they're asking a bit more for the boat. As with most of these types of hobbies you're always ahead buying the best condition boat you can afford. I've bought older, higher hour boats over poorly maintained newer boats for this very reason. With older boats condition is king. -
Yep, bturner got it just right. Ignore the hours. That's a poor way of determining condition/price/value. If you're concerned, do a compression test. Examine the plugs to see if it's burning oil.
What you really care about is maintenance history and overall condition. It's easy to spot a boat that's been abused or neglected.
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