Is it illegal to put a 60 hp motor on a 50 hp rated boat? I have found many conflicting reports. I know it will also depend upon if an insurance company will insure it or not, but this discussion has come up a decent amount. What does that actual law saw for the state of wisconsin and minnesota.
Its a USCG law, which any state CO or water patrol can enforce. Yes it voids your insurance and warranty on the boat. Yes you can get a ticket. No they probably won’t check.
A place down here got “raided” during duck season a few years ago. People were complaining because of all the giant motors so someone ratted them out and the CO’s along with a US army corps guy went boat to boat checking every boat that was parked on the lake. Got several for over max HP, and a few for no USCG plate on the boat.
So I guess you could do it and I doubt anybody would care to do anything about it.. but there are just too many negatives for me to try it.
I’ve never heard about it being illegal, but if the coast guard rates a boat for a certian HP and you over power it, the insurance generally won’t touch it 
If they do, and you get into an accident I’m sure that would nullfiy your policy and they’ll wash their hands of it 
Why would you want to risk the headache over 10hp, I can’t see 10hp making much of a difference
If it’s in the budget, I’d just consider getting a different boat with more HP 
Page 32 in Minnesota boating regs tells you for mn.
I’m all for it within reason but I don’t make the laws.
The boat is rated for a 90hp with a counsel but only 50 for a tiller.
Do you have the link to the coast guard law?
I have the perfect size boat that I want and the perfect motor just came for sale and it is a 60hp. I just want to check with my insurance company to see if it will be covered and to make sure that it is legal.
Thankyou, Now I just need to check on Wisconsin.
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I have the perfect size boat that I want and the perfect motor just came for sale and it is a 60hp. I just want to check with my insurance company to see if it will be covered and to make sure that it is legal.
What are you looking for? There is nothing stating what the repercussions are for breaking the “law”…. The part on your plate that says “maximum hp” is pretty self explanitory, anything that has “maximum” means it is enfoced by some type of regulation. In this case, here it is
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CFR-2003-title33-vol2/xml/CFR-2003-title33-vol2-sec183-53.xml
Under horsepower capacity
“The maximum horsepower capacity marked on a boat must not exceed the horsepower capacity determined by the computation method discussed in paragraph (a) of this section, or for certain qualifying boats, the performance test method discussed in paragraph (b) of this section.”
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Thankyou, Now I just need to check on Wisconsin.
It is a federal regulation… all 50 states and their navigable waters are the same. You break the federal regulation and you get a ticket. Some place may choose to not enforce it, but they surely can when/if they need to. No state will ever say you can go above the max rating. Federal trumps state.
Thankyou, that is what I was looking for. It is hard to believe just by going to a counsel I could have a 100 HP motor on the thing. That was a pretty informative site.
Yeah, I had the same problem on my old Lund 
The new Ranger 620T’s and other big tiller boats are putting a rating on their that even differs between power steering i.e mertens, or manual steering as well as a counsel. If you have power steering on most big tiller boats, you’re allowed to put the maximum rated HP motor on the boat
Absolutely stupid if you ask me. As long as you have the weight distributed as you would need to it shouldn’t matter.
Put the 60hp on it and put 50hp decals on the outside of the motor. No one will know the difference. 
Motors since about ’85 are rated at the prop. But older motors were at the powerhead. “Back-in-the-days” seems we always up the “HP”. Don’t think it’s worth it anymore…. 
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Put the 60hp on it and put 50hp decals on the outside of the motor. No one will know the difference.
not so fast, if you get in an accident or file a claim the bank / insurance Co / law will check the motor serial numbers which will reveal the h.p. now you’re not just overpowered but also fraudulent. Your call.
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Put the 60hp on it and put 50hp decals on the outside of the motor. No one will know the difference.
not so fast, if you get in an accident or file a claim the bank / insurance Co / law will check the motor serial numbers which will reveal the h.p. now you’re not just overpowered but also fraudulent. Your call.
Fishing the St. Louis river we have had the serial numbers run on the motor to see if the block matched the sticker. Then the serial numbers on the hull ran to make sure they match the USCG plate in the boat. I asked him what happens if it was over powered and he said its a tow in and goes to impound and then you go from there.
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Put the 60hp on it and put 50hp decals on the outside of the motor. No one will know the difference.
not so fast, if you get in an accident or file a claim the bank / insurance Co / law will check the motor serial numbers which will reveal the h.p. now you’re not just overpowered but also fraudulent. Your call.
Fishing the St. Louis river we have had the serial numbers run on the motor to see if the block matched the sticker. Then the serial numbers on the hull ran to make sure they match the USCG plate in the boat. I asked him what happens if it was over powered and he said its a tow in and goes to impound and then you go from there.
That is how they got the guys here. They all had their motors painted camo or lower number stickers on them. When in doubt they run the #’s on the motor, only takes them a second.
You just get your outboard rebuilt and “enhanced”. Numbers will all be good.
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Put the 60hp on it and put 50hp decals on the outside of the motor. No one will know the difference.
COs and the USCG are both wise to this gag. It’s easy to tell, in the case of Mercury and OMC, the original HP is embeded in the model number, so one glance will tell anyone that the stickers have been changed.
Grouse
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You just get your outboard rebuilt and “enhanced”. Numbers will all be good.
Pretty sure it is illgal for anyone to alter the emissions systems on any motor made after about 1992. To my knowlede, there is not a shop out there that will do the conversion.
-J.
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You just get your outboard rebuilt and “enhanced”. Numbers will all be good.
Pretty sure it is illgal for anyone to alter the emissions systems on any motor made after about 1992. To my knowlede, there is not a shop out there that will do the conversion.
-J.
Just asking but I can send my CPU in for my Opti and they can tweek it for more HP and better performance. Can you say chip a vehicle along the same lines but not the huge performance difference.
It is the one industry where you dont see performance mods. I always knew they were serious about that law because of this.
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