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Manual (pull) start 25hp Honda: Effort?
JohnnyJupiter	#1  Posted on 05/05/10 - 7:12 PM
Member Posts: 2 Comments: 1 Joined: 04/15/10	Greetings to all, Brand newbie here, I joined about two weeks ago and have been reading a lot. Two days ago I bought a pretty nice early 70's Whaler 13 with a great trailer, starboard side console with wheel. No engine. I've located a 25hp Honda short shaft fresh water manual (pull) engine that seems pretty nice, but before I follow up I'm clueless about the effort required to start something with 25hp. I fire up my 9hp snowblower pretty easily, but no one would ever mistake me for a weightlifter. Will this engine be a bear to start? Will my 5'3" extremely fit wife be able to start it? Thanks in advance for all the collective wisdom in this forum. Please chime in with any thoughts/suggestions/opinions on my engine choice. JJ
John Fyke	#2  Posted on 05/05/10 - 11:13 PM
Member Personal Page Posts: 1307 Comments: 0 Joined: 09/06/06	Are you able to start it? Does the motor run well? If so she should be able to. John Fyke Re-Fit or Reef It 1979 15' Sport with Super Sport conversion and 70hp mercury.
neb_2000	#3  Posted on 05/05/10 - 11:15 PM
Member Posts: 4 Comments: 4 Joined: 06/13/06	it is easy to start if u don't think you will not wee the built in batt. charger that the electric start has. Which is a nice thing to have. but you might be able to put it on the motor for a few bucks
Optiker	#4  Posted on 05/06/10 - 6:12 AM
Member Personal Page Posts: 40 Comments: 0 Joined: 02/13/10	I can't speak for the Honda, but I have a 25hp 4 str Merc and I can pull start it easily, and my 13 yr old was able to with not too much effort. I think you will be fine. Mine starts up on the first pull. 1966 Whaler 13
JohnnyJupiter	#5  Posted on 05/06/10 - 3:29 PM
Member Posts: 2 Comments: 1 Joined: 04/15/10	Thanks to each of you for responding, that was useful info. Unfortunately the owner of that engine sold it before I could secure it, but now I'll be confident including pull start models in my search. Side note: boy it seems like there's tons of 40HP somethings out there and a bunch of 2.5/5/7/9 HP as well, but not many in the 15-30HP range. Just my luck.
theo	#6  Posted on 05/06/10 - 7:28 PM
Member Personal Page Posts: 252 Comments: 0 Joined: 08/26/08	If my dad would have put a 25 on our old 13' Whaler instead of the 33 1/3, and later the 40, I'm sure I would have been bored with it. As it was the 40 Johnson wasn't scary, just enough power to make it fun. Of course, a modern 40 horse probably has more guts than the 70's and 80s vintage stuff. But you can slow it down with less prop and lower mounting until you get the hang of things. That's what I would do - 2-stroke only though. You've already read the threads with folks saying a 25 is all they would ever want on a 13. I guess I just don't long for that kind of temperance in my boating life. Ted 1985 15' CC, 1994 60 hp Merc (Wednesday built), 5" jack plate