Trojan Boat Forum

http://www.northeastboatsales.com/listp ... ator96.htm

I've been watching this boat come down in price. My wife loves the layout and pilothouse concept. It's been on the market awhile, and continues to come down in price. The same boat with Caterpillars is priced over $200,000. Anyone have any experience with the Detroit 8.2s?? I read the forums about them and overall people are not satisfied. I'm wondering if this is the reason this boat has not been scarfed up yet.

I will tell you what I know . Not a bad engine , but there are some issues like any other engines , at 250 hp they did real well ( I help install a set in the early 80s ) when they when to 300 hp the started having some head gasket issues . They when to a larger head bolt that fixed the issue ( not sure of the year ) Another issue can be getting some marine parts manifolds and the exhaust crossover . Not imposable but it takes some doing . The cross overs have been know to fail so that would be 1 thing I would look at replacing if I was buying .

Todd if you are looking at this I would be glad to find out when they changed the head bolts and cross over availability .

Would I own a set ? Maybe but I am not a big fan of V8 ( or any V ) diesels I like in line diesels

And yes they do lower the value compared to other diesels .IMO they Just were not a real poplar marine engine .Some folks just hated Detroit's ,They thought all DD were noisy smelly Smokey so why would this be better . And the DD lovers thought a 4 cycle diesel was not a true Detroit .

Thanks Prowlerfish. I'll let you know what the wife thinks. I like the layout of this boat, and it has extremely low hours. I think the cruising speed of 19 knots and top speed of 24 knots on this 30,000+ lbs. boat with 600 horsepower is very optimistic, but then again, she looks like she would prefer to be a trawler anyway.

It's just hard for me to part with my International, and I've worked my butt off fixing all the issues. Its scary to pick up another 20 year old boat and start all over.

I also find the speeds very optimistic . BTW that boat maybe slavage or a repo .

It's definitely repo'd. Northeast Marine Liquidators deals with repo's. We've had a couple guys buy some boats from them. They seem pretty decent to work with.

I've heard the same on the head bolts/head gaskets.

With that reputation, resale would be the same problem for you as the boat is currently having, regardless of when the changeover was.


now, for one moment, imagine you buy this boat and six months later you have a major (and expensive) engine problem because the previous owner red hot overheated one of those engines once, say 150 hours ago.

The market for 20-40 year old 10,000 lb plus boats is bad due to operating costs, ownership costs and fuel costs.

That said, the biggest cost in buying a new boat is depreciation.

Your International is now at or near the bottom of the depreciation curve.

But, costs aside, once you operate a modern 6 cylinder turbo diesel in our size range, you will have a totally different concept of what this repowering thing is all about.

RWS

RWS wrote:I've heard the same on the head bolts/head gaskets.

With that reputation, resale would be the same problem for you as the boat is currently having, regardless of when the changeover was.


now, for one moment, imagine you buy this boat and six months later you have a major (and expensive) engine problem because the previous owner red hot overheated one of those engines once, say 150 hours ago.

The market for 20-40 year old 10,000 lb plus boats is bad due to operating costs, ownership costs and fuel costs.

That said, the biggest cost in buying a new boat is depreciation.

Your International is now at or near the bottom of the depreciation curve.

But, costs aside, once you operate a modern 6 cylinder turbo diesel in our size range, you will have a totally different concept of what this repowering thing is all about.

RWS

I have a pretty good pro/con list. Repowering for the International would be fantastic, but it would probably be more costly than repowering the Navigator, since I don't have to change out fuel tanks and generator on something that already has diesels. Of course, the Navigator right now costs more than double what I paid for the 10.8.

My biggest concern is that I have spent an enormous amount of time changing out systems, and repairing issues on the 10.8 that is normal with a 20 to 25 year old boat. Starting all over and learning a new boat is a little overwhelming to me.

The Navigator has some great features, and would be nice for those cool rainy days when having that pilothouse would come in handy.

unless your fuel tank is corroded, I know of no reason to change it out for a refit.

of course, the genny goes.

The only problem is ........

....the money part and of course

the justification.

RWS

by the way, that Navigator looks really nice.

If it was me, I would rather have the Cats in the engine room.

Those 8.2 Detroits were discontinued FOR GOOD REASON.

Another way to look at it is to run the Detroits until one gets itself into a overhaul situation, then yank them both and replace with a more reliable power plant.

By the way, 24 kts on twin 300 horse engines with that weight and hull design?

REALLY ?

RWS

Just IMO I believe those 8.2s could give you years of service if you run it like a trawler .( replacing the cross overs ) But running that boat @ 20 knots would be really pushing them ( if it can run 20 knots) I would recommend you join boat diesel . com and read read and read . well worth the 25 bucks .

Repowerd with a set of reman Cummins 450C s it would be a sweet boat or even the QSB 6.7

But look around there are some other deals on large boats out there

Thanks everyone. Aaron is probably right. I would like to get into some diesels, and repowering the 10.8 won't happen for awhile if at all. The Crusaders are running like champs, but god they suck some serious fuel. I love my 10.8, and have put some serious time in. It's proven to be a great heavy weather boat in the Great Lakes. I know exactly what the future issues are and know the boat very well at this point.

The biggest issue is running the express in the fall in the Northeast, on those colder days. The pilothouse concept is very attractive, along with 2 staterooms and heads. Prowlerfish, I was thinking along the same lines with repowering the Navigator. A set of 450 Cummins would be fantastic in that boat.

I appreciate all the help. I'll let you know what happens.

seems cheap. Looks like a lot of boat for the money