Briggs and Stratton 5 Horse

Has anyone heard anything bad about the new 5 Horse 4 Stroke Briggs and Stratton Motors. The Salesman at cabelas says he has sold the heck out of them. Any information would be welcome. Thanks

Went down to the local small engine repair business the other day and seen the new briggs motors. They look alright to me. There always were some not so popular motors made by a whole gang of companys through the years. I’ve had a couple and worked on a few. These briggs motors look ok. The business said they are selling alot of them here, i’d buy one.

Here’s the deal with the B&S outboards. They use the same motor as you will find on many lawn mowers. These are fairly reliable, low maintenance engines.

On the plus side, they are air cooled, so no water pump/impeller to ever worry about. They are 4 stroke, so no mixing oil and gas. And brand new cost only $699.

On the down side, the exhaust ports above water and they are loud and smelly.

If you need a motor for a 12-14 foot – bench seat row boat, this is a motor to consider. It will get you from point A to B.

If you need a kicker, not a good choice in my opinion.

Jon J.

So did any one get one of these motors. Are they any good?

For about the same price, I would probably get a Nissan.

Link please. which Nission?

Nissan 4Strokes

Give or take a few hundred.

The Briggs motor looks to be cheap.. I would spend the extra for the Nissan.

So I should not have an issue if I suck up sand into the Nissions water pump? I run a river that at some points can get very shallow and a person tends to hit a bit of sand.

I cant confirm that one. Many motors have different intakes. I guess if your running in inches of water, air cooled would be ideal but that is going to be one noisy motor without thru-hub exhaust.

Tom,

If you motor through areas with very heavy vegetation or regularly plow across sandbars the air-cooled motor might be a good choice.

I fish the Mississippi River where I regularly drag my skeg across sandbars and this is not an issue for me with my water cooled motor. There’s a big difference in outcome between slowly motoring across a shallow sandbar while dragging bottom and hitting one at full speed.

If you want a motor that you can actually stand to be around while fishing (backtrolling, controlled drift, etc., ) and the limitations cited above aren’t issues the 4 stroke will be the way to go.

Well this is an issue I really wanted to investigate. Due to high fuel prices I find my self running the Rum river just south of Princeton. The Co Rd 7 access is like 1 minute drive from my home. All that section has is wood and lots and lots of sand. In normal water theres not alot of issues, but in the last 3-5 years it gets very low with long stetchs of sand that I motor across. I am currently running a 5hp Evenrude Fisherman aka built in 1959. Its doing the job and runs well, but I always worry. I do 99.99% of the time have the wife, 2yr old daughter and 10 month old daughter along. I really should have a mud motor, but I am the only bread winner and make a modest level of money. Most newer motors are out of my range and finding a good used one can be done but is diffcult. The lack of water cooling in the Briggs is inturging and I wonder why no other boat manufature would go that route. For those that run small rivers and lakes, I would think it would be appealing. Well I got to get out of work its 5pm. I plan to fishe the rum this weekend. As Red Green says. Keep your stick on the ice.