mtdoramike

Here is my setup.

I have the Pelican Bass Raider 10

I use a Minn kota 55 pound thrust trolling motor on mine and it moves across the water quite rapidly.But it is a bit heavy for me to tote back and forth from the truck to the lake.

Most paints will not stick to this plastic very well. So I would research it thoroughly first before making up your mind.

If you want a speed boat, buy a speed boat. You have what you have so best to make do with it rather than taking the chance and screwing it up.

I know in Florida, these boats come up all the time on Craigslist. But when you check with the owner, they never have the title. Here, we must have the title in hand, in our name in order to sell the boat to another person. Without the title, we would have to have the certificate of origin as well as a notarized statement from the previous owner as to how he came about ownership of the boat and a number of other hoops to jump through. Lets just say, without a title, you pretty much have an expensive lawn fixture.

Registration won't do it. You must have a title.

If it has a clean title and very little wear on the bottom, which is the main issue with these plastic boats. Then I would offer $250.00-$275.00. If they are still stuck on the $300.00, then I would opt for a new one, which runs around $499.00.

That sounds neat, could you post a picture of it? Mike

I would love to see another forum for these boats. I use the Minn kota 55 on mine and it works great. But it's a heavy beast to load and unload and tote to the lake and back to the truck.

I will look into putting down a layer of carpet over the floor just to have a barrier between the plasting floor and my bare feet.

When I bought my Bass Raider, the previous owner had installed like 7" seat risers. I hated them. I'm 5'10 and 225 pounds and my feet couldn't touch the floor of the boat, I felt like a child sitting in the seat. So those were the first things I removed from the boat.

That would be the only addition that I would consider usefull to me. I will admit that during the summer, after 10:00am the floor can get down right hot on the bottom of my feet due to the sun shining down on the plastic flooring.

I'm a firm believer in that.

To me, lighter is better.

My god you guys love to dd a lot of extra weight to your boats.

For $200.00 I would be all over it faded or not. The questions to me would be is there a clear title & registration? Also how much wear is on the bottom of the boat, which is where the problem would be if there is a leak. The main issue with a lot of these boats is wear on the bottom from being dragged across shells, rocks and just normal sand. I recently bought a Bass Raider which was in like new condition and had only been in the water a couple of times. I didn't take time to flip the boat over before I bought it. Well, come to find out the boat was from Virginia, where the owner had used it a couple of time ON A RIVER! The river rocks had put some significant scrapes on the bottom of the boat. Fortunately none had penetrated the first layer of plastic. I paid $550.00 for the whole package, boat, motor, battery, and a ton of other stuff. But had I looked at the bottom before hand, I would have asked for a better price. It just goes to show that outward appearance isn't all that important.

I got one of the Walmart Everstart batteriesfor $68.00 from my local Walmart about a month ago. But be aware to check the fluid level on your new battery. I charged mine and ran it a couple of times and then decided to check. The fluid level in the NEW battery was LOW. So I had to add water to it.

WOW, that is a nice setup. But I would have sold you a Humminbird 215 Portable Depth/Fish Finder with a suction cup transducer and a new trolling motor transducer mount kit for $90.00 + shipping. It's in excellent condition and only used a couple of times. Ooooooooops, SOLD!

My brother had a john boat that has some leaks on the bottom of it so He used black jack tar that you buy for roof repairs and covered portions of the bottom with it. It worked great. He would just have to reapply it every now and then.

Well if your going to use it for river fishing, I would highly recommend doing something to help protect the bottom of the boat or go with a metal boat. My Bass Raider was purchased from a guy who also used it twice to fish a river in Virginia. The bottom has a few gouges from the two trips, but nothing too serious or no leaks.

I love the looks of the trailer.

Wow, that was a great deal, I figured since the other store was so far away, They wouldn't have done the price match.

You are correct, I was thinking of the Pelican Predator, which is the same as the Basstender. http://www.dickssportinggoods.com/product/index.jsp?productId=1757755

Here's a picture of my Bass Raider setting at the beach where I rented a spot to keep it so I don't have to keep loading and unloading it from my truck. It's on a beautiful spring fed lake.