gamblerOH

I am pulling my boat with 1999 chevy Tahoe 4-door. Love the truck and it pulls my boat with no problems. I get around 16 mpg. pulling my boat, not bad for a 5.7 litre. I have only needed the 4x4 once while pulling my boat and that was because I had to park in the grass during a tournament on a busy lake with a small parking lot. The 4X4 came in handy that day though. I use my 4-wheel drive more in the winter than anywhere else. I doubt you need 4x4 to launch you boat, unless your boat is really big and your truck is really small ;D

youre going to get a ton of different opinions on this one. Dont go with the Merc. I have an 01 225 and it always has a problem going on with it. As soon as I fix one problem shortly after another one creeps up. So far there has been both powerpacks, next was the stator, next was the oil injection pump then the tilt trim motor went bad,next was the ingnition coils and now it is having a low oil alarm go off and the dealer says its a low oil control module. All of these repairs total over $3,000. All which have been electrical. I have a lot of friends with Yamahas and yes things happen but I dont know of any who have had electrical problems like my merc. I wont buy another merc, I simply cant afford to own one.

Please dont let GamblerFL see this post!!---- ;D

looks like you have done a great job Jeff! I would like to have a website for our bass club!!

Muddpuppy is exactly right about the 15 year financing. I believe if you cant pay for it in 5 years then you really cant afford it anyway.Thats why I have to buy my boats and vehicles a couple years old. My wife is a loan officer at a bank and here are the #'s she came up with if you were to finance that new triton mac7373 was looking at. For 15 yrs the payment would be $460.02 and you would be paying back $82,803. The same loan on 5 years would be $1017.33 per month and you would pay back $61,039. The five year loan would save you $21,764. I know a $1,000 a month is a ton but if you are buying $50,000 toys then that should not be a problem (although it would be a big problem for me!!).

i dont like the recessed foot pedals anyway, You cant move it at all so if its not where you want it when they build the boat then youre just out of luck. I think a foot pedal that moves can be a lot more comfortable in the long run.

What a deal!! The boat manufactures are all going crazy with these high prices. I have been looking at new boats for the last few weeks and from what I've found skeeter and stratos seem to have the most reasonable pricing. Tritons are not 50,000 $$ boats.

you got a great deal! You will love that stratos. You may want to try to sand and buff the existing gel coat, it may shine up like new. Stratos puts plent of gelcoat on their finishes so i would try that first. Enjoy your new boat.

you can replace with a little lagrer rivets. When you replace theI would go ahead and replace all of them and maybe even consider using a bonding adhesive between the top cap and bottom cap. I'm sure you may know this but just in case you dont, those rivets are what holds the top half of your boat to the bottom half. Thats why I suggested bonding adhesive between top and bottom and then the rivets. 3M makes great adhesives for fiberglass. Get it at an auto body supply shop.

Has anyone checked out skeeters web site. I was looking at it earlier and it is great. Watch the video of their boats, its one of the best boat manufactures web sites I've found.I have a gambler and will be the first to say that their website is by far the worst. Those new Skeeters sure look impressive.

I would go with what noluckfishin said and wait til that baby got really low and get you a net! If you still cant catch'em then i would say maybe the fish are not the problem-----LOL

2001 225 optimax. It has had both powerpacks replaced and then the stator went. Now I am having oil warning (intermitent beeps) problems. I cant be sure the oil injectors are working properly so I am thinking of disconecting and premixing. My boat has fairly low hours(about 150) I dont think i should have had these problems yet. Oh well, its going to be a while before I can buy a new one I will have to live with it for now!

I would say 24K is a steal for that boat!!!! I dont own a Yamaha(mines a merc.) but I wish I did. A ton of people in our bass club run the hpdi's and all of them love em. I am not haapy with me merc. It has ahd a lot of electrical problems so I wont rig my next boat with merc. It will definatley be a Yamaha. By the way, the only reason I could see for not buying this boat would be a fear of high speeds!!

If it is a 24 volt trolling motor your boat will have to have 3 batterys. a 12 volt to run the boat and its other accesories and 2 other batterys to run the trolling motor.

A 2 bank means it will charge 2 batterys. The total amps of the charger will be divided by 2. say if its a 10 amp charger it will charge 5 amps per battery. That means it will put 5 amps per hour into your battery. A battery usually wont require more than 60 amps to recharge, that means it will take that charger 12 hrs to recharge your battery. Make sure you buy one for a 24 volt system if you are running a 24 volt trolling motor.Check out the minn-kota mk 210 in bass pro, It has a mail in rebate and will cost you 84.99$ Remember the more expensive ones usually only charge faster so if thats not an issue then dont waste your money on a high $$ unit.

Make sure whatever you buy has temperature. Be sure to get the transducer you want also, either trolling motor mounted or transom mounted.Dont go with a shoot thru hull transducer, they cant get accurate water temps.Dont get caught up in the Fish ID thing, when you use fish ID you lose about 30% of the detail on the bottom.

I bought one made by battery tender a while back for around 150$ and it was a dual charger. The only prob with it was it took about 24 hours to get back to 100% charge. Most of the time this wasnt a problem unless I fished a 2 day tournament then my batt. were only about 80% but I still made it no problems. I looked on the battery tender website but cant seem to find it, I'm sure they do make one though. If I can find any paperwork I will get you the model # of the one I had.

since I cant talk you into a Gambler, check out the skeeter or champion. A guy in our bass club has a 2004 Triton tr-21 that has major problems with the transom. It flexes under power. I have not heard what the company will do about it but I'm sure they will correct it. I just dont think a high$$ boat like that should be having those issues.A lot of guys I fish with own Champions and I think they are top notch. I hope you enjoy whatever you buy, even if its a ranger!(just kidding Glenn)

I have to put my 2 cents in on this one. Go out and find a Gambler to take a ride in and you will be sold for life. They handle like no other and are very well made. The fishing decks are all aluminum and the rest of the boat is a fiberglass composite. These boats have no wood at all so there will never be a rotting problem. The next boat on my list would be a Champion, they are very nice and faster than most (not Gamblers) so that would be my next choice. You really need to find a Bass club and ask some guys to take a ride, most guys are very proud of their boats and would love to show it off. This is the best way to get a back to back feel of different brands and models.

I have found several marinas that will let you test the prop and then buy which ever one does the best for you. I would definatley deal with a local marina on this one, as long as they know you are going to buy one of the props they are usually more than happy to work with you.

Sorry to say but if you are a non boater and the guy in front is sight fishing, you are only along for the ride!! He will spend 30min. - hrs on 1 bedded fish, and still may not catch it.Then its kick the trolling motor on high and find another bedded bass. I guess you could troll a crankbait behind the boat when he gets movin good!---LOL

tritonman, I was almost sure thats what you meant. I was just making sure that maverick didnt try to sand his resin and mat with 1800 grit, we may have never heard from him again!!

I live on the Ohio and am really beginning to wonder if it has any fish in it. I fished an ABA tourney on the Ohio last summer and I think 3 fish (about 12-13 inches) were weighed out of around 45 boats. I think those were the only 3 that were left in the Ohio. With all of the barrells,tires and trees floating out there you would think they have plenty of places to live. I am going to spend a lot of time this summer trying to find those 3 bass again since our bass club has decided to have 2 tournaments on the river, yes 2!!

Is your boat a gambler? I cant really tell for sure in the pic. Any bass boat will pull at higher speeds and usually get worse the more you trim up. A four blade prop will help a lot but the best cure is hydraulic steering, I assume you dont already have it because you should not have this problem if you do. As for the fin, take it off, its not going to be in the water anyway! You can buy a flat plate to replace it with.Like I said earlier if your running a 3 blade you will get more torque steer and a 4 blade will be a LITTLE less. Dont ditch your 3 blade, you will miss the speed!!!

thanks Raul, the plankton and baitfish is something I had never thought of. I guess thats why we fish wind blown shores!!