While on vacation recently I rented a Sea Doo jet ski, I beliece it was a GTX performance model and was not a very old model. I’ve always been more of a boat person preferring center console fishing boats over the jet skis I rode in the past. Well...my opinion changed a bit.

That thing was a rocket! I believe it was a supercharged model and it surprised the absolute heck out of me. It was FAST! The water was 1-3ft chop the day we rented the Sea Doo so I didn’t really get a lot of chances to really open it up but when I did it was a blast.

The guy who picked us up at the hotel for the Sea doo rental also did the maintenance on the skis and we got to talking about maintaining their Yamaha’s and Sea doos. I wasn’t too surprised to hear him say the Yamaha was MUCH easier to maintain. He said the Sea doo is a super fun machine but it’s a bitch to maintain with lots of sensor failures and electrical issues.

I understand a tropical island is a harsh environment for a jet ski so I wonder if used in a fresh water environment like I would be doing would the reliability be better?

Question:
I’ve decided to start looking for a clean low mile jet ski. Considering I find a good clean ski that hasn’t been abused which is more likely to be a fun, reliable, problem free ski?

Choices:
Sea doo
Yamaha

 

I voted Sea Doo. My MiLaw had a 3 person that was an absolute rocket on the water. She had good luck with it but sold it when she sold her lake place. They eat gas but the fun was hard to beat. Her model (not sure which one) could carry a spotter and pull a wake boarder no problem.

Yamaha, Or if you can find an old Honda. I have two supercharged Yamaha's, 5 years old, zero failures, seasonal preventive maintenance. If I remember correctly mine are 240hp.

On the one I usually ride I put a depth finder/gps, it is very useful for $139.

The manufacturers have an unwritten agreement to keep them below 70mph factory. I appreciate the acceleration but 70 on the water is much too fast for most people, it exceeds their ability to foresee trouble by about 40 mph. Believe me there is a significant learning curve.

It is a lot like motorcycle riding in that nobody sees you, everybody hates you and wants to kill you. It takes focus to survive.

Get one with a cruise control, I set mine for about 25 and can cruise for about 5 hours on a tank of gas.

Spend extra money a get the best vest you can afford, I suggest Mustang Survival.

They are a lot of fun but have to be treated with respect, remember you have to yield to everybody.

Yahmaha

They are all rockets, the most fun you can have with a bathing suit on. We have a condo on salt water and bought our first of three Yamaha Waverunners, about 25 years ago. Our current one, an FX-140, we have had since 2004. We have had no problems with any of them. Oil changes and the occasional battery. It's the trailers that give you headaches, broken axles, burnt out wheel bearings, etc. I wish Yamaha made trailers. Everyone on the river with us, who owns Sea Doos, has had one problem or another. Yamaha, no contest.

I have 2 Kawasaki's...about 10 years old.

Kawasaki made the original "Jet Ski's"

They only go 60

I voted Yamaha, because:
1. I had one several years ago, and
2. I used it to tow my friend and his Sea-Doo in after a breakdown on the lake.

quote:

Originally posted by alreadydead:
Yamaha, Or if you can find an old Honda. I have two supercharged Yamaha's, 5 years old, zero failures, seasonal preventive maintenance. If I remember correctly mine are 240hp.

On the one I usually ride I put a depth finder/gps, it is very useful for $139.


The manufacturers have an unwritten agreement to keep them below 70mph factory. I appreciate the acceleration but 70 on the water is much too fast for most people, it exceeds their ability to foresee trouble by about 40 mph. Believe me there is a significant learning curve.

It is a lot like motorcycle riding in that nobody sees you, everybody hates you and wants to kill you. It takes focus to survive.

Get one with a cruise control, I set mine for about 25 and can cruise for about 5 hours on a tank of gas.

Spend extra money a get the best vest you can afford, I suggest Mustang Survival.

They are a lot of fun but have to be treated with respect, remember you have to yield to everybody.

Mine tops out at about 60. I always wanted to have a go-fast boat like a Cigarette or Donzi and used to buy all the magazines detailing this boat at 100 mph and that boat doing 120 mph. Then one day, I read a piece by some fellow, who was a veteran of racing these boats. He said that the fastest practical speed on the water was about 70 mph, that beyond that, things were happening so fast that it was no fun. You were frantically on watch for a floating log or rogue wave. When I started riding the PWCs at high speed, I learned he was right.

Every rental guy I have ever talked to about this subject says Yamaha hands down for reliability.



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I own 3 Seadoos; One old '96 two-stroke GTX and two 2012 GTI 130 HP 4-strokes. The '96 has been perfectly reliable; the two new GTI's have had electric gremlins. When the '96 dies it will be replaced with a Yamaha. I will never own another two stroke watercraft!!

I know folks with both, and as long as their properly maintained, I don't think you could go wrong with either. I'd let price and condition guide the decision.

I have had both over the years and it's true the Yamaha's are more reliable.

quote:

Originally posted by NK402:
beyond that, things were happening so fast that it was no fun. You were frantically on watch for a floating log or rogue wave. When I started riding the PWCs at high speed, I learned he was right.

I'll agree with this. "Way-fast" is fun once in a while, but in time I learned it was more fun to cruise around than to haul butt.

We've owned a WaveRunner III and own a 2004 Sea Doo RXT. We've used my uncle's late '90s Sea Doo GTX RFIs.

To put them in motorcycle terms, the WaverRunner III was an FZR400. Small, nimble, not particularly quick, but a lot of fun.

The RXT is an FJ1200. Big, heavy, hard to turn, but damn the acceleration. The RXT at 70 mph feels a lot like the FJ at 130 mph; fairly stable, but you start thinking about things that could go wrong and how fast everything could go south if something did go wrong. If the RXT could go 85 mph, I'm sure it would feel like the FJ at 155 mph which is when you start thinking this is a really stooopid thing to be doing.

The GTXs were sort of like an SV650. Fun, handled well, but not blindingly quick, fast, or nimble.

Reliability wise, Yamaha hands down. I don't know anything about current offerings from either company, but I'd go for something smaller that handled well over a big, go fast in a straight line PWC.

quote:

Originally posted by vthoky:
I voted Yamaha, because:
1. I had one several years ago, and
2. I used it to tow my friend and his Sea-Doo in after a breakdown on the lake.

I lived on the lake for several years. The cove I lived on was the inlet to the marina. I watched many a seapoo get towed in, rarely a Yamaha/ Kawi.

I don't know about the newer 4 stroke machines but on seadoos two stroke models, I was always let down by their material choices, electrical and mechanical design. They did handle as good or better than the Japanese models in my experience.



PWC Rental companies almost all gravitate to Yamaha as well.

I own two Yamahas 2 stroke stand-ups.

Had a Yamaha 1200. When new, it was king of the water at top end. Heavy, but that allowed faster, more stable speed. Sea-doos would take it at a start, but soon the 1200 would simply go.

From this experience, Yamaha will get my vote.

The rental guy I spoke with said the Sea Doo has a better hull in his opinion, it handled rough water better and tended to not dive into waves like the Yamaha. He said the handling, and performance were the Sea Doos strong points. For the Yamaha he said the reliability and ease of maintenance was its biggest benefit. Apparently the Sea doo runs a closed loop coolant system and he disliked having to buy the expensive coolant compared to the Yamaha that was water cooled by the ocean. I asked him which he would buy and he quickly replied “Yamaha”.

We bought a used Yamaha VX110 5 years ago. It was a 2007 with 40 hrs on it. We use it about once a week during the summer. It get's ridden on the Missouri River and on local lakes, pulls tubes and skiers, and get's run hard. All I've had to do is change oil every season, install plugs once and winterize it.

The 110's aren't the fastest and the hull is geared towards stability. My buddy has a Seadoo. He's had it in the shop every season. it is fast! That's my expereience.

I'd look for a used, low hour Yammy and save on the depreciation.

By-the-way, every ski we've rented when traveling has been a Yamaha. Nothing else has been offered. I'm under the impression that the rental outfits run what's reliable.

I have a Kawasaki jet ski I got in 2016. Love it and for the entry level ski it is the fastest. 67 mph and those in the same price range from Yamaha and seafood are much less HP. Also the motor and setup is tried and true. Got mine for 7900 brand new.

https://www.kawasaki.com/Produ...18JETSKISTX-15FIMAGE