Maintenance

You guys who complain about service costs should be aware by now that part of the cost of owning a boat is maintaining it. It you buy your service from a marina on the water or a Sea Ray/Mercruiser dealer you are going to pay $80-$100 per hour for the labor and parts mark ups are roughly 100% of cost.

A 1.5 hour service with oil change, a $10 filter (marked up to $20), a $15 fuel filter (now $30), 6 quarts of oil at $4 ea is going to tear up a $200 bill.......add 2.5 hours to pull an outdrive, service the u-joints and coupler, etc and you are getting close to $500, add winterization and its ever higher. It could be worse....if you had a twin engine diesel boat with a 20 gallon oil capacity, special oil filters and multiple fuel filters an annual service at the dealer runs into "nose-bleed" money

It seems to me that you folks who don't like the cost of dealer/marina services you are left with only 2 alternatives..........learn how to do it your self or find some one off the water who can do it on the cheap and just hope he knows what he's doing.
 
Ah. . .yes. . .the cost of owning a boat. Why complain about it?

BECAUSE I CAN!!

I pay my taxes too. . and I complain about that as well. Personally, I like having a mechanic work on my boat because he can see things I don't. . .or at least I like to think so. The tech I use has done two jobs for me at little or no cost (while working other issues) that would have had me running in circles or paying $$$$$ at the dealer.

And I feel better about paying a tech DIRECTLY than I do paying a dealer, who in turn pays the tech a fraction. One advantage of using the dealer is that supposedly they will charge fixed labor rates for jobs. . .and stand by their work better (I say supposedly, because it has not worked out that way for me in the past)
 
Morpheus said:
No not yet, MM has messed up enough that they have owed me a couple but I plan on someone showing me or figuring it out.

With the newer searays there is an oil drain hose attached to your drain plug pull it out and drain your oil should be pretty easy even for someone like me who's never changed oil in anything ever.
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Like you Morph I don't do very much of my own either.. but this really is quite simple.. the oil drains pretty readily if you loosen up the fill cap.. and the filter is placed stategically so it isn't a pain to get to either.
 
Thanks L&L.
I thought there was a Merc video out there somewhere on changing the oil... We will probably do it ourselves this year. It looks easily accessible enough to be no big deal.
We had MM do our last oil change when they did a few other things. It was $150 bucks. I had them do it more out of time saving for me....
 
Maybe my dealer is the exception but since they won the annual Sea Ray award for the best service department worldwide in 2005, I have absolutely no problem heaping praise on them both for the quality of their work and for their fair prices (at least by Marine standards). For instance, my 20 hour service was $86.66. That included changing the oil and filter and thoroughly inspecting everything in the engine room which uncovered a few other problems fixed under warranty. When they pull my out drive for its annual inspection and lubing of the various components, they charge less than $90 bucks.

While I do a lot of my own work on my boat, I won't hesitate to have them do work on my boat. My relationship with them has been built up over the last six years to the point that I know every single technician in the service department by name and they know me. They also know I am as picky as they come when it comes to the condition of my boat. So they "respect" my boat when they work on it and I don't find it dirty or damaged when they are done with it.

The point I am trying to make is I have found it very helpfull to work on this relationship with the service department since it pays dividends in the long run. While maybe my dealer is better than a lot of others out there when it comes to service, I still feel everyone could benefit from a better personal relationship with their dealer's service department.

Just my 2 cents for whatever it's worth.
 
Dave S said:
Maybe my dealer is the exception but since they won the annual Sea Ray award for the best service department worldwide in 2005, I have absolutely no problem heaping praise on them both for the quality of their work and for their fair prices (at least by Marine standards). For instance, my 20 hour service was $86.66. That included changing the oil and filter and thoroughly inspecting everything in the engine room which uncovered a few other problems fixed under warranty. When they pull my out drive for its annual inspection and lubing of the various components, they charge less than $90 bucks.

While I do a lot of my own work on my boat, I won't hesitate to have them do work on my boat. My relationship with them has been built up over the last six years to the point that I know every single technician in the service department by name and they know me. They also know I am as picky as they come when it comes to the condition of my boat. So they "respect" my boat when they work on it and I don't find it dirty or damaged when they are done with it.

The point I am trying to make is I have found it very helpfull to work on this relationship with the service department since it pays dividends in the long run. While maybe my dealer is better than a lot of others out there when it comes to service, I still feel everyone could benefit from a better personal relationship with their dealer's service department.

Just my 2 cents for whatever it's worth.
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:wow: Holy Smokes! Make room I'm moving up there where you are!
 
I think I am moving as well. :)

I don't think my local MM would let you met the techs.
 
Gunn said:
Are you serious about the charge for changing the oil ($150) and changing fuel filter ($60)??? Holy smokes...people actually pay that for a single engine boat? Yikes. I change my oil for about for about $12-15 and my fuel filter/water seperator for less than $10.

Heck, for those costs you could buy every tool you'd need, all the services manuals needed, and still come out ahead...the very first time!
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Where did you get oil for that price? It cost me $15 plus tax for 1 gal. then another $5 plus for one more quart.

I agree there is no way I would pay $150 to change the oil!
 
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