I feel like this is a question that gets asked all to often, and if you look at other rental businesses it will become pretty clear what the fan favorite is and for clear reason. What most businesses want or should want anyway, is a ski that is reliable, safe, and good for couples (unless the goal is to only have single riders). We’ve been doing this for a while now, in addition to repairing and upgrading skis for many years now, so we will list our recommendations.
Stability
I feel like as far as safety goes, stability is the most important when it comes to which equipment to buy for your jet ski rental business. As an operator not only are customers having a bad time if they can’t keep the jet ski upright, but this also poses a safety risk to the rider and the equipment. Being able to have predictable control over the equipment is a top priority whether it’s single or double riders.
Top Pick – Seadoo GTI
The Seadoo GTI currently is the most stable ski, it can easily hold 2 to 3 people and ride comfortably with no issues. If your only priority is staying upright, Seadoo by far has the best designed hull to keep things stable.
2nd & 3rd Place – Yamaha FX & VX
Our second and third place choices would be the Yamaha FX and Yamaha VX. The FX is a longer platform compared to the VX, but generally a bit pricier. The FX from experience is Yamahas most stable platform, with the VX being not far behind. Both are suitable with two riders, but flipping can still happen if not careful.
Last Place & Not Recommended – Yamaha EX & Seadoo Spark
Skis to stay away from for stability issues would be the Yamaha EX & Seadoo Spark. We get it, they’re cheap, but they’re cheap for a reason. While the EX has the same TR1 engine as the VX, and while it may be advertised as a 2 or 3 seater, it is just not a good rental ski from a stability stand point. On both the EX and the spark, with any more than one rider, it is almost guaranteed the customers will roll the equipment over. We only ever rent these out in an emergency situation if equipment breaks and it’s all we can find close by, but we only recommend using them for single riders. Do yourself a favor and spend the extra money for a bigger ski.
Reliability
This one should be pretty easy to guess, unfortunately not much beats Japanese reliability. Purchasing a fleet of equipment is an investment, and maintenance cost is definitely something you need to consider. You want to make sure your fleet stays running for multiple years and you can get the most hours out of it without too many issues.
Top Pick-Yamaha VX
In our opinion the TR1 in the VX is an amazing motor, and good for 1000 hours easy. This is our ski of choice, and the issues we typically see are more user error than jet ski error. The only issues we ever run into with these when we buy from other rental companies or repair these for customers are the pump bearings going bad (yes they need to be greased), oil and filter not being changed regularly enough, or the ride motors lock up. Overall most of the repairs we have to deal with these are very simple and easy to do.
2nd Place-Yamaha FX
This is more something we use as a guide ski because of the power, but reliability wise it’s on par with the VX. We do see more issues with the 1.8s than the TR1’s, but it’s still not an often thing. The issues with these are very similar to the VX, as other than the engine, they use a lot of similar parts.
3rd Place-Seadoo GTI
While we like the hull for the GTI very much, we have more issues with seadoo engines and electronics. Relay failures are common, carbon seal failures will catch you off guard, as well as a host of other things. While they’re running they’re great, but I will say from experience, we get vastly more seadoos in the shop than anything else, and it is for good reason.
Last place & Stay Away-Seadoo Spark
Unless you guys like fixing something every few rides I would suggest not running sparks. Between the electrical issues, oil seal leaks, and the driveshaft splines stripping, the spark is a nightmare to rent. Yes it is the cheapest jet ski on the market, but the amount of time it will be down, and the amount of money spent in maintenance will make it not worth it at all. When we rented sparks they would break every 3 rentals or so. We managed to fix some common issues, but others were just things we dealt with as we could.
Power
How much power you give your customers will decide a few things. Too little power and they’ll get frustrated and not have a good time at all, no one wants to get passed by a kayak. Too much power and they’re more prone to run into things, and drastically hurt themselves, no one needs to have anything supercharged that can go 70+ mph. There’s a very fine line, but a few jet skis fit this zone.
Top Pick-Yamaha VX
The Yamaha VX will mostly ride around 47 mph, which is more than enough for customers. It’s fast enough to keep them happy, but slow enough to where they won’t hit things as much. The goal is to have fun and be safe, and this is a pretty good middle ground to keep things exhilarating, but not over the top/
2nd-Seadoo Gti
The seadoo gti has a bigger engine than the VX, and will go a little faster, as to why we rank it lower. These however can be easily downtuned to ride slower if needed (as can the VX). As well because of the bigger engine, it uses a lot more fuel than the VX.
3rd-Yamaha GP1800R/FX/Anything with 1.8
I rank this as 3rd as they can still be used, but i don’t recommend it. Most 1.8 skis now have a low mode which makes them comparable speed wise to a VX. But when doing this it really doesn’t make sense. It’s a more expensive ski, that uses more fuel, that has more expensive parts and maintenance. It’s either going to be the same speed in low mode, or too dangerous for customers to safely use.
Last Place-Do Not Recommend-Anything Supercharged
Absolutely do not rent anything supercharged. Customers do not need anything that goes that fast. These skis are overly expensive for rentals as is, the maintenance is much higher than anything else on the list, and the chance that customers will hurt themselves goes up drastically. No one renting a ski needs anything that can go 70+. Do yourself a favor and don’t take this risk, or put anyone at risk doing this.
Our Choice
Winner-Yamaha VX
Our choice of course is the Yamaha VX. It’s just hard to beat. We can get them up to 1000 hours easily, the maintenance is affordable, parts are easy to get, and they’re just very stable. While the Seadoo hull is better, everything else about the VX just blows it out of the water. If you want to buy a jet ski for your fleet that you know will be a workhorse day in and day out, and stay up right with 2 passengers (within reason), then the VX is definitely the way to go. When it comes to repairs like we said, we hardly ever get Yamaha’s in, as they just don’t break, but when it comes to Seadoo we get them none stop. This is a testament to how amazing these jet skis are and how well they will treat you over your rental season.