If you have a boat trailer, and do all these services yourself, it ends up costing much, much, much less .... all around. You can get outboard motor oil filters and oil and gear lube at the Gilford Wal-Mart....and store the boat in your driveway, or someplace other than a marina.
Doing a lower unit, gear lube replacement, costs about 4-dollars for a quart of 90-weight lube, plus you need a re-usable $10 lube pump that screws onto the top of the quart bottle. For an oil change, figure maybe $25 for five quarts of 4-stroke oil. Plus, you get familiar with the motor and do other maintenance needs along the way ...... something to do on a warm and sunny day. Gilford Wal-Mart has a big boat and boat oil section for so-it-yourselfers.
Some repair services like replacing a trim & tilt pump could require more expertise than a do-it-themselfer has .... but one can find marina boat techs who moonlight doing jobs like this on their own time at maybe half the cost of a marina repair. Just post a 'help wanted' ad in the classified ads looking for a marina boat tech to do a side-job ..... and it always catches some local talent looking for some extra money.
By doing your own repairs and services.....you start to become one with the boat ........aaaaaaaoooooooommmmmmmm......namaste! .....plus it gives you something to do! .... as opposed to raking leaves ...
