Reply To: 58 5.5 Evinrude value

[David Stanton]

I think a lot of the 5.5s were sold because back then, almost nobody had a boat. You bought a motor and rented a boat; at least that’s the way it was in Minnesota and you could rent a boat on most easily accessible lakes. Some of these rental boats on small lakes were 12 footers rated for 6 HP max. Also, some wanted a light-weight motor to carry to and from the trunk of the car. The 5.5 was the smallest OMC that had a gearshift and a tiller throttle – also made it the cheapest with those features. If it was to be used on small lakes, the time needed to get to a fishing spot was not an issue, but smooth trolling was. Time to get to/from the spot was also beer time for many. Most of the small motors from the “boat rental” era got beat up bouncing around in the trunk of the car.

I have several 5.5s, but none that begin to look as nice as the one posted here! I think the 5.5 and the 6 that replaced it are some of the smoothest runners of the 1950s and 60s. When I’m not fishin’, I, like some others here, like the performance of a 10 to 20 HP on an undecked, tiller-driven boat.
Dave