Tohatsu 15HP Outboard | MFS15EEPTS

Fifteen horsepower, a short shaft, and a helm that already has a control head to plug into: that's the setup the MFS15EEPTS is built for. It's a four-stroke running remote mechanical steering, power tilt, and an electric starter with a manual override, tipping the scale at 114 lbs.

Picking between the short and long shaft

Tohatsu offers this motor in more than one shaft length across the lineup, and here it's the 15-inch option, meant for boats with a lower transom. Put it on a boat built for a taller motor and the prop runs too shallow to push efficiently, so measure your transom before this ships rather than assuming the horsepower rating alone tells you which shaft to pick.

Rigging for remote steering with power tilt

Since steering runs to a helm control head instead of a handle at the motor, check that your console cables and tilt switch wiring are already in place, or planned for, before the motor arrives. In the crate are the propeller, the steering arm, and the power-tilt hardware, plus the charging system; a small bag of spares, a kill cord, and the printed manual travel separately inside the same box.

Under the cowling sits a two-cylinder, 333cc EFI engine, with the throttle climbing to 5,400 through 6,100 rpm at the top end. Tohatsu's coverage on this unit runs 5 years.

Q: Will the manual backup work if the battery is flat? Yes, the pull-cord override starts the engine without power from the battery.