Further North

Cool boat, enjoy it! ...and it's really cool you started a topic about it for other folks.

That makes sense, thanks!

I can't think of any reason why it would not. If that's true, that'd make this an even better solution. The swing arm is much more solid than the "normal" RAM mounts. Good choice as well - one of the owners lives right down the road from me. Solid mounts, a little expensive.

I have a fair number of orange baits, and a ton of flies with orange in them. I've got a 10" orange/black fly that's caught a dozen or so musky; big and orange/black/orange-flash double bladed spinners were a hot ticket in Canada this summer. This one works too:

That' works for a lot of people in this area...I ran the numbers on it (using vehicles I found that I wouldn't mind making a 2,000 mile round trip in) and, for us, going with the Escape was an easy winner, dollar wise. It's useful to know that I use my tractor to run a 4 ft. wide snowblower for the driveway, and our vehicles are AWD, so there's no need for a bad weather vehicle...those things change the equation a bit. ...and with all three stalls of our garage already full, it would have had to sit outside. That drives me nuts...no can do.

Happy to help...but I'm not going to be a ton of help as I'm just re-adding divers to my rotation myself. There's a great section in the new Tight Lines Smallmouth book about them, so I decided to try them again after being frustrated by them years ago. What they wrote about works...

I have my Helix 12" at the console on a RAM swing mount: https://www.amazon.com/National-Products-RAM-109H-Marine-Single/dp/B001GLLF3I/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1505347195&sr=8-1&keywords=ram+swing+arm+mount Much sturdier than a regular RAM mount, it doesn't move on rough water (on on the drive to the lake) and it gets the screen slightly off the side easily. My bow mount is a 10" Helix unit, but I just mounted the included right to the deck...I didn't see a need for a complicated mount up there...it lacks coolness, but 1) it was cheap, 2) it works just fine, and 3) it was cheap*. *Did I mention it was cheap?

Lots of good advice here. Like a lot of the others, I use my console unit to find structure (and fish) and for when I'm running at faster speeds to avoid shallow water (shows up on the maps) and I use the bow unit while I'm fishing. Someone mentioned the separation you get by having the two transducers at both ends of the boat...and it can be more than that given cone angles...you could be 40' off if the water's deep enough... Having a unit at the console also gives me something to look at when I fish from the back of the boat (I typically set up the bow for gear and the back deck for fly casting if I'm out by myself). Even though I can see the bow unit from the back...I want to know what I'm over at the transom when I'm back there (and that's where my 360° is mounted). I run a 12" Helix G2N SI (MEGA) at the console and a 10" Helix G2N DI unit at the bow.

I'm 90 miles due east of the Twin Cities...Water temps here are mid 60s...we had that same storm, pluss an all day rain on Saturday. I went to a lake that's got smallies, largemouth, pike and muskies. Caught one of each in about 4 hours. I can live with that...

Yep. Fish goes up, rod tip goes down! ...it helps if it's already down, but try to stick it in the bottom of the lake if they get airborne.

Surprise Esox are always a good bonus! I had an unintentional topwater smallie yesterday: I was throwing weedless diver across the top of some shallow weed beds, got the fly line wrapped 'round the handle and reel, so I let it sit for a moment while I detangled it...and...SLURP! I said a bad word, figured I'd missed the chance, but felt the line come tight...nice fish (hatch cover is 18" for reference), right next to the boat launch at the end of the day... Had I been staying out longer, I'd have switched to real topwater....

You've got a fridge in the garage, don't you?

Many questions on internet forums are like that...people don't really want answers they want validation for a decision they've already pretty much decided on... My replies...when I bother to give them...are along the lines of "You asked, I answered, my answer hasn't changed...." Everyone in a while they'll bring new data that didn't get mentioned up front...but not often. Weird things growing...well...not growing... But there will be a significant amount of "stuff" that will accumulate on the hull, particularly at the water-line. That is enough work to remove on boats that are in the water one or two days a week...as long as you're prepared to scrub it off each fall (and it'll be a fair amount of work), you'll be fine.

I had the same thing happen on a Ford Expedition several vehicles ago...towing relatively light loads had little impact on MPG, it just sucked all the time... Side note: I'm amazed* that a lot of people seem to buy vehicles for things they do a low percentage of the time and absorb the impact of that every day. That's why we looked so hard when be bought the Escape...I tow my boat considerably less than 10% of the time I drive the vehicle...I didn't want to deal with the cost penalty of having a full size SUV of pick-up truck on a daily basis** if there was a way to get the job done another way. *"Amazed" isn't really the right word...more like wondering why more people don't look into alternatives. **1) They cost more up front with similar equipment levels, by a significant margin. 2) They cost more to operate.

I don't shop new, so I'll take your word for it...but a friend bought an 1850 Crestliner about the same time I bought my CMV four seasons ago and all in, electronics, etc., he was north of $55K. His was not Crestliner's most expensive model at all, so that's what I based my comment on. He was right around $10K on electronics and trolling motor, so the boat itself was mid $40s.

I'd agree. Slightly high of the middle, at best. New Ranger bass boat - a "real" one, anyway...is going to be $70K and up..$100K is not even remotely out of the question...

is that best case, or average? I've seen 32 MPG best case on our Escape. Average hovers around 23, a buddy with a 2010 Edge who lives a couple miles from me and drives about the same patters reports about 20 MPG. Darn near bought an Edge, would have been great with the extra back seat room...but $$$ won out over something that gets use less than one trip in 50.

Let's end with the good news:

Here's how the gas thing (MPG) shook out in my head back in 2015: Our existing vehicle, a SAAB 9-7x (Chevy Trailbazer/GMC Envy with a SAAB badge on it) averaged about 16 MPG. That meant about $3,750 a year in gas*. The Escape averages about 23 MPG...or about $2,610. Dunno about you folks, but I can find a lot of things to do with $1,140 a year...or $11,400 of the time we're likely to keep the vehicle. ...even if it's 19 MPG on the lower MPG vehicle, that's still $550 (I rounded up $0.80) and $5,500. So back to my example... I'll give the $1,140 to 'my guy" who will invest it for us...over the last 10 years, he's averaged 9%. So at the end of year one, the $1,140 is worth $1,243** (I rounded $0.60 this time), and we add another $1,140 At 10 years, it winds up looking like this: In my world, that's about $1,000 less than I paid for my last new-to-me used boat...or if I let it float, part of a larger picture that's going to let me pull the plug on working for a living before I'm 60... Keep in mind the real number is something like $18,150 if I give "my guy" money once a month, or $18,330 if I give "my guy" money every two weeks as an auto-deduct out of my paycheck**...Compound interest is truly the 8th Wonder of the World...*** Sorry to wander off topic...but I love this stuff... *20,000 miles; $3.00/gallon to keep the math simple) **Yeah, there's fluctuations in markets...but the 9% is easy, and I'm anything but aggressive in investing. ***the difference between a 19 MPG vehicle and a 23 MPG vehicle are $7,230, $8,275 and $8,810 respectively. Nothing to sneeze at...

Ford Escapes with the tow package are rated for 3500 lbs. https://www.ford.com/resources/ford/general/pdf/towingguides/17RV&TT_Ford_Escape_Sep7.pdf Google isn't very smart, apparently.

Try a 7 1/2 foot long piece of 4" - 6" diameter PVC pipe. Buy two caps, stuff the inside of the caps with foam. You can buy commercial rod tubes, but they won't be as durable as the PVC. You'll have to take off the reels.

Same here. The filler is on the port side gunwale, the tank itself is buried under the seats low in the center of the boat...it's a 42 gallon tank and I've never been able to put in even 30 gallons, even when the fuel gauge says I'm under 1/4 full.

Jim, here's what I'd do - in fact what I did back in 2014: Figure out what you need. Figure out what you want. Research based on specs, reviews and questions you ask on forums like this. Eliminate the ones that don't meet your needs. That's the easy step, it'll help you ignore a buncha static and noise. Eliminate the ones that go way over what you need. For example, you're not gonna need a V8 Diesel quad cab long bed...and you probably don't even need to spend the money on an EcoBoost Ford F150, even though you thinnk they're cool as heck. This should leave you with a list of a half dozen or so. Get pre-qualified for a loan so you can get 'er done when you find your vehicle. Go test drive them. Filter on the stuff you want, and when you find what you're looking for, at the right price...be ready to write the check on the spot.

We're getting a bit of topic here, but spot on, IMO, and a very reasonable evaluation. American makes absolutely earned a reputation for spotty quality and prices too high for the product they were selling back in the 70s, 80s and 90s...I didn't buy an American car from about 1982 until 2000...but these days, they are just as good as anything else...and typically less expensive by enough to get my attention...the price difference really shows up in the used market...or it did last time we shopped in Dec., 2014. These days, there's 3 Fords in the garage: The 2014 Escape, a 2012 Focus and a 2006 Freestyle. No problems worth mentioning with any of them, nor do I expect any. There's no particular reason they are all Fords, other than at the time we made the purchases, data and dollars told us they were the best choice for us. Other folks' may be in different places, that's cool with me...

I like Toyotas, have had several...but when I was looking at vehicles a used RAV4 with similar miles was several thousand dollars more that an used Escape...and to get the RAV4 up to anywhere near the same tow capacity, you had to go to the V6...which shot the day-to-day fuel economy right back down to the vehicle I was getting rid of because gas was $4/gallon. ...also, having owned many brands I never found them to be any more trouble free than other brands, in fact one of our blew a head gasket at what I felt was unreasonably low mileage...under 50,000.