Nitro Z7 and Mercury 150 Fourstroke Review

Greetings! I have fished my Nitro Z 7 equipped with a Mercury 150 Fourstroke engine for about 7 months now and feel I have operated it long enough to give it an honest review. I am going to break it down into two parts, first my review of the Nitro Z 7 boat itself and then the 150 Mercury Fourstroke.

Before I start I want to mention that I usually operate the boat with a fuel level between half and full and 99% I have a passenger with me, my wife. Gear wise I have a pretty standard compliment of tackle boxes, 5 in all, in addition to a shovel, push pole, anchor, 10 gallon cooler, etc. Out rear compartments are primarily used for clothes storage and essentials. The forward compartments house the tackle, rods, shovel etc. We operate the boat exclusively on the lower Colorado River.

 
Nitro Z 7 Boat Review: Our first outings were in extremely hot weather vs. the normal hot weather. During the past summer we had never fished a day that wasn’t over 110 degrees, a few were even near 125 degrees. You spend a lot of time in the boat, so comfort is imperative, but it didn’t take long to find out that the Nitro Z 7 was not optimal for fishing in hot weather. I normally wear Hawaiian shirts and shorts while fishing and the very first time I knelt down on the deck I got burned by the lid latch, which was made of metal. The latches got so hot in the sun that they would actually burn your skin if you touched one, you cannot even open the lids without gloves. I did a little research on the manufacture and tracked down a company that sold an replacement locking latch that was made of nylon (pictured below), end of problem.

Replacement nylon lid latches for the Nitro Z 7

Fishing from the bow is great, the huge deck is spacious! The only thing I don’t like is that when you pull the trolling motor up the sheathed cables can hit the bows motor trim switch, forcing an unwanted trimming of the motor. I think a recessed set of switches would cure that problem.

Nitro also uses nonskid materials on select surfaces such as the metal boarding ladder. After the very first outing I noticed that all of the non-skid was missing, it still is because I am still looking into a better solution than something that relies on heat sensitive adhesive. I am leaning towards a slip on grip, something similar to what you would see on a bicycle handle.

While the decks are quite roomy, I can’t say that for the drivers compartment, it’s a little tight for 6’ tall guy, there is lack of leg room and the steering wheel feels like it extends to far out towards the seat, it’s apparent the moment you sit down with a standard vest on. In my 2013 Nitro Z 7 they have the key switch mounted in the outer hole of the console mounted plate, when you get up from the seat you have to be very mindful of where your leg is as its very easy to hit the key and bend or break it off. FYI I noticed that the 2014 model has the key relocated to the inside of the console, where it should have been in the first place.

2013 Nitro with key switch mounted on the outside

2014 Nitro with key switch mounted on the inside

It would have been nice if Nitro had added a built in clock to the instrument and bow panels, (a standard feature in cars which cost the same as this boat) the aftermarket “stick on” clocks cannot handle any heat or bouncing around and falloff in just a few hours. But the hydraulic steering is a nice feature, I can’t think of any situations where I had to deal with prop torque, ever.

The seating in the boat is comfortable, but the center seat is something that you need to consider removing as soon as you can. It’s very hard to step over and after the seat base has been stepped on a few times it will begin to tear at the seams. There is a solution offered by Nitro, but I strongly suggest that you go with the center seat exchange option at purchase. The pictured center step (no it does not open) offered by Nitro Boats will run you $411.69 + Tax yep, that highway robbery at every level. I won’t pay that and am looking into a different solution, one that will serve as a step/flat seat, as well as providing small item storage for items like the scale, phones, a hand gun etc.

Picture of the embroidered step sold by Nitro boats.

The company touts the boats trash can (which is nice but could be bigger) and the so called built in cooler, which is nothing short of useless as it has a very small capacity, it’s un-insulated and drains directly into the bilge. A much better use is to use it to store bags of frequently used soft baits. There is also a very large tackle storage area in the center of the deck, but it’s just not always feasible to try accessing it while fishing from the bow, as it only opens for access from the rear deck. Side storage is awesome, there is actually enough room in each one to fit an entire person inside.

The front deck could stand to have a built in yet small storage area, one that is easily accessible to the person operating the trolling motor. When your fishing current, especially under windy conditions, it would be nice to have an area to place items essential to that days pattern that you are working. Just throwing all of it on the deck doesn’t work well because you have to pick all of it up before you can get back on pad.

 

The live well system takes a little getting used to and my only complaints with the live well is the poorly designed drain plug system and that the live well divider is not removable, thus making the live wells less than accommodating for the larger fish. If operating the boat in hot weather you will want to consider adding ventilation to the live well lids. The live well water will start to steam and those water vapors will collect in the foam lid liner. Once the lids have been heated by the sun, softening the foams adhesive, and enough water has been absorbed, making the foam quite heavy, the foam will simply fall of into the live well water.

Mercury 150 Fourstroke Review: I had basically 2 options, a 150 fourstroke or a 150 two stroke. Having had a Mercury Black Max in my distant past, it didn’t take me long to decide on which engine to choose. I don’t do tournaments and hate filling oil reservoirs, so the Mercury 150 Fourstroke was right up my alley. The engine itself has been everything it was advertised to be, well except for a few things. If you are operating it on a hot day i.e. 90 degree water on a 120 degree day, the engine guardian system will kick in and only allow the engine to run at idle, that means if you are on a long run you either limp home at idle, or you completely shut down and hope it cools enough to get you back on pad for a while.  

While the fuel injected engine starts fast and doesn't ever smoke, the engine isn't as "quiet" as they would like you to believe, because at 4500 RPM its very difficult to hear the warning buzzer, especially with the wind blowing across your ears. A dash mounted warning light would be way superior.

There is also a built in feature that limits the amount of trim you can apply when on pad, it appears to have a module that is set in such a way that no matter how much you trim up from the seat, it will always stop at the exact same position. Trimmed up all the way it will throw an optimal rooster tail, but you don’t receive all of the top end speed the engine could deliver, and those of us that run sand bar laden waters don’t have the ability to do short term over trims when we need them the most. Having a strong mechanical background, I honestly don’t think that trimming up a few more degrees for the 15 – 30 seconds it takes to blow across a sand bar is going to harm anything.

Water speed with a Mercury 150 Fourstroke is probably 8 - 10 MPH slower than most of the two strokes, according to our GPS we can eventually achieve 46- 47.5 MPH, that is on a good day, empty livewell, 1/3 tank of fuel, no cooler, and with the stock 23 pitch prop. Note that if the engine didn’t have a trim limiter interfering, you might be able to squeeze a few more out of it.

I have since swapped out the 23 pitch for a 21 pitch and increased the top end to around 54 SOG with the same load.

Engine service is a snap, you can do all it yourself in under an hour. Outside of changing the oil once a year there really isn't much in the line maintenance.

While I left out the little stuff, like the onboard batter charger only lasting 3 months, glove box hard to open, etc. I hope that this post gave you some additional insight on this package. Overall I would buy another Nitro boat but I think I would up my demands and expectations a bit.

Happy fishing!