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Skeeter makes a fine boat but all of your major brand bass boats are well made these days. The biggest differences come in ride, fishability and interior layout. That is more of a design concept of the individual boat company. Nothing you can read will really tell you what you need to know, you need to get on the water in several different boats and decide for yourself. Here's a couple examples of just 2 boats The new Ranger ZX series is a pretty new hull for them. Many of the guys who own them can't get enough but many of them are complaining the the boat is still too slow considering the money spent and apparently the new compartment latching system is weird and not very good. The latest Champion models are getting rave reviews, mostly because of the tremendous legroom under the dash and improved larger rear storage area. Champion has had a problem in the past with pretty weak, rear storage box size. Pathetic really considering the size of the boats. The finished product of both of these boats is a result of a design teams decisions on priorities of how their final product should ride and fish. All boats brands have their own nuances, it's up to you to decide what's most important to you. Reading reviews of boats is relatively meaningless since the opinions of the reviewer are directly related to what he or she thinks. What may be important to them may be meaningless to you and vice-versa.

If it has a floor you can buy pedestals for it or build your own deck for it.

This one? Nice boat. I'd say he's right in the ballpark with that $9500 asking price.

I've seen more than one motor that ran great on the muffs and then fell flat on it's face in the water with a real load applied to it. Get a compression test and make sure that thing runs right on the water.

The only thing on the TM battery should be the TM. Everything else gets hooked to the crank battery. Considering the age of the boat I'd consider replacing the bilge pump immediately. When you do that either get a new pump with an automatic on switch built into it or get one of the automatic bilge switches. The pump should be hooked up with the hot wire from the bilge pump on/off switch on the dash and a second line should be run straight from the battery to the automatic switch. Take it from someone who's sunk a boat because the auto bilge switch failed. Check it often.

They ran the bolts through the hull for the seat pedestals? ;D Good grief.

Ahhh yes, one more thing I hate about those power drive Minn Kota's. The transducer cable placement for your front graph. The problem with those things is the TM deploys with the shaft sliding through the fixed mount. You can't run the cable tight to the shaft because the shaft has to slide through the mount. IIRC, I had to run the cable with it only tied off at the head unit and down by the power head. I ran the cable through the handle that you use to pull the motor up with. You have to leave enough slack so the motor can travel from the stowed position to the run position without binding the cable. Of course that leads to a lot of excess cable hanging in the water when you're fishing. On deck you'll have excess cable hanging around all the time. Those power drive units were made for the built in transducer.

Well, that's Skeeters take on things. The Wrangler proved that a true V hull was fishable, not tippy even with elevated casting platforms, and didn't require the stabilizing sponsons as long as the hull was wide enough. It was in 1977 or early 1978 that the first Champion 16' 8" SuperV came out. Based on a Hydra Stream performance boat hull, it did everything the Wrangler didn't. The Starfire came out in 1979 IIRC. Right about the time Champion introduced the first 20ft bass boat hull based on their SuperV 86" hull. Many of those early V hulls like the Starfire and SuperV's, (not the Wrangler) continue to be great hulls to run even after over 25 years. Not a lot has changed as far as the hull design since then which is why some of those early models are so cherished by their owners. I know I love mine. The ride on my 184DC is one of the best in the business even after all these years.

Yep, lowest part on center of the bottom of the boat. You can use a Drywall t-square or any long straight object to measure with. Lay it on the very bottom of the pad so it extends out to the engine. The engine should be trimmed to a 90 degree angle of the measure. You'll measure the distance from the top of the cavitation plate (that flat plate just above the prop) to the ruler or measure you're using. Does your Trophy have the vent holes with plugs in them? If it does you may want to try removing some of those plugs, that low RPM doesn't seem right, sounds like the prop needs to be freed up.

Make no mistake. Bassboats as early as the first Skeeter were a species specific boat. Hull design merely followed what was popular and feasible at the time. In the beginning there wasn't a great need for wide, long boats because nobody fished in a manner to make that kind of hull or boat popular. Popular bass methods of the time involved fishing in shallow areas with heavy cover, not exactly what a TR-20 Triton is suited best for. As tournament angling became more popular and anglers wanted to go farther distances, the early cathedral, trihull boats just weren't suitable. So the sponsoned V hull was developed. I can tell you as someone that owned a 1976 Charger Pad hull bassboat, that it was no fish n ski. But whether you look at the old Ranger TR10 style boats from the early 70's, to the Skeeter, Hydrosports,etc. style pad hull boats from the mid to late 70's into the early 80's and then the V-hulls that we know today, there's no doubt those are bass boats, not fish and ski's. (The fish and ski bassboat was developed by Cajun boats in the mid 70's BTW) The bassboats you see produced today aren't much different in hull design than the Champion V hulls made in the late 70's early 80's. In fact, it is only the style in the way we bass fish, with tournament anglers wanting to fish with both anglers at the front of the boat, fishing further from the takeoff area, larger livewells, larger storage boxes and bigger, faster, more fuel efficient OB motors that have driven the boat's width & length to the dimensions they are today.

Eagle is Lowrances Price point leader. They're models are usually similar with occasional differences.

BassBoatSaver MacGuires Flagship Marine wax or I use Formula 303 protectant. Really brings back the color and adds a UV protectant. UV rays are a killer to Gelcoat.

You might want to call your conservation Department or Game and fish department. They usually have plenty of info for people wanting to build a pond.

I'm about read to put the fishing seat pedestal back in the boat. I've got a pair of them and can switch between the butt seat or the regular chair. My back just isn't what it used to be though I'm curious to see how long I last after installing this Pro Control Tray last weekend:

From the looks of it I'd say that's the standard ol aluminum prop that came with it. You might want to look into a SS prop as a replacement and keep that one as a spare.

There's a reason a car battery is lighter than a deep cycle. The plates inside are thinner and the casing is thinner as well. Neither of these attributes lends itself to a marine application. Car batteries aren't meant to be drained and then recharged over and over again either. They're also not intended for intermittant or prolonged on/off cycles of high current draw. You'll ruin the car battery quickly. You're wasting your money.

As a benchmark, there's a '92 278 on the flea market board with a 150 Evinrude on it going for an asking price of $5800 and it's in excellant shape. I'd start by offering $8,000 and go from there but I certainly wouldn't pay his asking price, seems a little on the high side for a boat that's 25hp underpowered and a TM will be just enough to pull that boat around. Try doing a Google search on used boats and see what the market is asking for a boat of that age and size.

If all you're going to be fishing is small waters with horsepower limits or no horsepower at all then a fiberglass rig would be a waste of time for you. Glass boats are better in the wind, give a far superior ride to any tin boat regardless of hull design and fish more stable. There's more storage (usually) and the resell value better. I wouldn't own an aluminum if I was running reservoirs often. Since you're not I'd stick with a 17 1/2 foot tracker aluminum.

2 words. rotted wood. That is all.

Welcome to 5 months ago.

I caught a 6 1/2 foot baitcaster once with a Garcia 5500C on it. The cork on the rod was shot as well as the wrappings on the guides so I pitched it, the reel was salvageable and I used it as a backup for a couple years till I sold it on Ebay. Of the 5 or 6 rod n reel combo's I've had go overboard over the years I've only managed to save a couple of them.

3-4 years is all you'll get out of those Walmart batteries.

Let's see. These may not be 100%, I'm going by memory. The original Skeeter boat came out in the early 60's if I recall. Mainly a narrow, shallow draft boat with 2 fishing seats that could slip in and out of shallow water big bass haunts. By the late 60's, the cathedral style hull bass boats came out. Still no decks but the swivel seats were on pedestals. There was an occasional storage box. Then Cathedral hulls went to raised decks. Horsepower started increasing so the need for a faster platform was becoming evident. Tournament angling saw guys wanting to go farther and get there faster and SAFER then the current cathedral hulls could manage. Anyone that ever rode in one of those knows what a back breaking ride they gave. I'm not sure if it was Ranger, Hydrosports or whom created the first pad hull bassboat in the early 70's. The boats were V's by nature but boat designers felt a V hull bass boat with elevated casting decks would be too tippy so they added sponsons on the sides. Typical horsepower for these was around 115, a few 18 footers that would take a Merc Tower of Power 150 were produced. This was the first real heyday of high performance bassboating with bells and whistles, lots of storage, livewells and guys trying to get every drop of speed out of their boats as possible. About 1975 Skeeter showed up at a tounament in Texas with the most radical design to date. A true V hull, around 16 feet long but much wider than the typical Sponsoned V's that were out then. Those who rode in those early Wranglers described the boats as a wild ride, not a very good boat at all but that was all it took, it proved you could have a true V hull with raised decks and it not be tippy if the boat was wide enough. Champion later refined the V hull *** couple years later when they took a Hydro Stream, high performance speed boat, modified the hull and built a 16 1/2 foot bass boat. That was the boat that really got the ball rolling. From there the hulls have been lengthened, widened, tweaked, modified, new building materials used, etc. but the basic design is still there. To answer your question best, most of the stuff like storage boxes, livewells, raised casting decks, swivel fishing seats, etc probably became industry standard by around 1970-1972. Boat design, especially in hulls is what has evolved the most over the years.

If your positive this technique will work why don't you shoot for the top and get an Allison XB-2002? With a properly setup 150hp you can get to the mid to upper 80's.

Short circuit of some kind. Good luck finding it. Sounds like you shorted out in the foot pedal. It happens.