What is a ‘boat builder’ model?

[johnyrude200]

VJ120TLAND

What does the ‘AND’ stand for?

Looked it up on the OMC model ID guide but couldnt find the meaning. Very possible I overlooked something.

Oh yeah, and boat builder means……???

[frankr]

I see 120TLAN as being a 1992 120hp. But I have no idea what the final "D" means. Boat Builder means it was built as an unspecified boat builder’s motor, as "T" would mean it was built for Tracker Boats.

Totally wild guess, could it have anything to do with Alaska or Australia (the AN part)??

[fleetwin]

Yeah, a victim of the "packaging" era….
Some of these engines had different decals and paint schemes, depending on what the boat builders wanted…The VJ indicates this was a boat builder/package model. I think the Tracker engines began with a "T", so this would have been a "TJ" if it went to Tracker.
The real screwed up thing about these boat builder engines was that OMC deviated from the usual year code "introduces", to identify these boat builder/package engines. In this case, the EN which indicated 1992, was replaced by AN, which was not decodable at all….
Consider this engine to be a J120TLEND when it comes to looking up parts, although the VJ120TLAN model is included on the manual pages called: models covered in this manual.
The "D" at the end of the model number is the usual code that described mid year changes, which would be called out in parts books if needed.
These were sad times for OMC, and our customers indeed.
PS
Joel, email me if you are interested in a cheap 1985 30 down near the cape, saw it on CL….Don

[dan-in-tn]

Like Don said interesting things were going on at that time. The designation depended on if the boat company was captured or independent. If OMC owned the boat company then the motor could be shipped as a VJ or VE. In the case of Stratos, Javelin, Hydra-Sports (Murfreesboro, TN) where the boat company was only about 150 miles from Calhoun, GA the motors were not even boxed. They came in on racks. Nothing came with them, but manuals under the motor covers. No bolts or anything! Since most of the boats took jack plates the boat companies supplied their own bolts of the proper lengths. I still have a bucket of bolts that were left over before they started doing it that way. Lots of waste! The motor carton was a big cost just to be thrown away. Also like Don said the idea was not well thought out. They violated their own plans. Wasn’t long before it was tough to figure out what you had as they kept changing the model designation for various reasons. You had to have some idea what decade the motor was in. Everything else still worked.

Dan in TN

[johnyrude200]

All very interesting particularly the history side of things. Thanks again for sharing your knowledge guys.

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