TOPIC: Fuel economy reports with 4 cycle Homelite

A customer of mine called me today to tell me he's been out crabbing with the kids several days this month. Says his freezer has room for about 1 more trip of crab.
But he also wanted to tell me of his fuel consumption experience.
Says he and the kids and all the gear run a couple miles from the marina to the crab grounds, then idle around most of the day exploring and crabbing, then back. Total time right at 6 hours each on all three trips. Says last 3 days he's done it he left with 6 gallons and comes back with about 2.5 gallons left in the tank. So 3.5 gallons over 6 hours. And no smoke for his kids to breathe while idling around.
I'll get him to post some pics and more reports here.
He bought this little trihull with the Bearcat on it for $200 as I recall, boy he got lucky! He uses the heck out of the thing too.

What kind of fuel consumption are some of you seeing over how many hours and at what speed etc?

Filled my 12 gallon tank last Oct and ran the 85hp for about an hr pretty close to redline, probably burned a couple gallons, it's thirsty at those rpms. I put the 55hp on for fishing, made four trips. Ran 5000 rpm for about 13 miles total and then trolled on average 4 hrs each trip. I filled it up for the first time this year, it took 8 gallons so I figure I burned 6 gallons for the 4 trips. I couldn't come close to that fuel economy with my 40hp Johnson. I'm really liking these engines.

My 55 Homelite is pushing a 20' pontoon I'm running a 4 blade 8" pitch prop. At slow speed I'm thinking I'm using about a gallon an hour Should it be better?

I am hauling a lot of cargo. 2 trolling motors 12 gal of fuel, plus 4 12v. batteries. And I'm no 90lb weakling.

elgindave wrote:
At slow speed I'm thinking I'm using about a gallon an hour Should it be better?

Sounds about right. The one test they had said (I think) 2 quarts in 44 minutes of idling.

Thanks for your input 4stroke I guess it is doing OK then.

Went boating with some friends last week, so had an opportunity to do a side by side comparisson between our 55 Homelite on a Larson Thunderhawk Sr (16 ft) and Bell Boy Banshee with a 1984(?) 50 hp merc 4 cilinder two stroke.

We started off with 6 gallons, friends started off with 5.5 gallons.
After 37 miles of boating, our friends switched tanks. We did an additional 11 miles and had just a splash of fuel left in the tank.

Our average cruising speed is a whopping 14-17 mph
It sounds like we're doing 40!
If we really push it to the max, we can get it to 21.6 mph but we don't push it...
(We're running a 12 prop on it. Have tried others).

For the fun comparisson:
friends: faster is funner; 10 points (I think their Merc tops out at 31 mph?)
us: great for trolling and no wake zones. We burn less fuel.

I think I should start looking for an 80's Merc LOL if I want to dry faster after swimming. I know the Banshee is a foot shorter than our t-hawk. Overall not a very dramatic difference when it comes to fuel economy imo.

Peggy,
Something is wrong if you are only getting that speed aboard that boat.
Is this one of those blue engines from Redding?

I've been on a couple Skagit 17's repowered with single Bearcat and/or Homelite, and those boats are much heavier than that Larson and get 24-26mph wide open, and cruised at 19-22mph at reduced rpm.
So again, something is amiss. How many people were aboard?
Do you have pictures of your engine?

Yup, one of those blue engines from Redding... Would not go that route again. Could have bought two for the money we spend on gas going back and forth to get it fixed (we're 240 miles from Redding).
I'll see if I can find some pics (should have some as most of the time we were boating (or floating) with the cover off
This is the best it has run since we got it two years ago and got the carb unclogged. (Gotta love that "gasket material" some people use...)
Peggy

My old 62 Homelite keeps pluging along. She burns a little oil. But less than a 2 stroke. I can get 12mph on my 21'pontoon with the 8" pitch 4 blade prop I got from Bill R.
I fixed her up myself with Bill's help with the lower unit.
I did the cam work and valve clearence shimming myself. Got the correct shims from Bill. He even takes back the old shims you don't need and gives you 1/2 credit towards the ones you need.
My Homelite wouldn't be running right now if it wasn't for Bill!!!!
Thanks a Lot Bill!!!

Thinking about putting my 1970 Bearcat '55' on my 62 Lone Star
Fleetwood. Right now it is powered by a 62 Merc 700 FGS. with some issues.
I had fun with the Merc 700 until I blew the rotor.
So I'm going to let her go. I still have my little 56 Merc MK 55 manual to run on a 14' fish boat.
My Larson is powered by my 59 Fat Fifty. I'm keeping that.

Am thinking about repowering our Glastron with a Homelite from that guy in Redding. You sound like he may have issues with his motors? We live in Redding but do not want to buy a passel of problems.
Greg