bob101

I've patched some pretty big holes in my duck boat - like 1/2" holes where the old side mounted steering was mounted. I just put the largest size machine bolt I could thru the hole with a flat washer on each side and good silicone or 3m 5200.

Tracker list all their boats with a speed for every engine they offer on their website. http://www.trackerboats.com/boat/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.motors&boat=2111 It says 20-22 so I'm guessing that's close. Just a matter of do you want to live with it at 20-22. Up to you. I assume that's on plane because I can't see you going 20-22 in a planing hull with it not on plane.

From talking to people who have bought one. If your looking at something like the 21' sport or 21' bassboat your looking at a price around what a fully decked out top of the line bassboat goes for...but that's just a boat - no motor.

Regarding the Allison, as the saying goes, "if you have to ask............" Really, over double on your high end. Most prices you see of Allisons' for 50k are for the boat...just the boat - no motor. Throw in between 10-20k for a motor on top of that. I'd look into a fish and ski boat maybe if that fits your style. Only boats I know of with actual seating for 4 people - not 2 in seats and 2 on the floot.

I have never done it myself I always get a mechanic to do it. I'm guessing like a car you have to disable the ability of the motor to actually crank while checking the compression (like pull the plug wires, pull the deadman etc...) I don't know what number your looking for but I've always heard the key is to get them as close to each other.

Both. It's the great catch-22. Factory says dealer is responsible for all warranty work, dealer says take it or leave it.

Ask the guy to drop it off for a compression check and pay for it before you go look at it, or before you pay for it after you drive it. I can't stress enough how important this is, it should only cost like $50 or less. Without it there's no way of knowing if the boat is being dumped on you. It could last 15 minutes after you buy and then your out a motor and honestly on a boat that age it's the most expensive part. For a new powerhead install if it went out you'd be looking at 50% what you paid for the boat alone. $50 is cheap insurance.

I've owned a Triton aluminum boat now for 2 months. Personally I'd look to buy a boat from a company that ONLY makes aluminum boats and not someone who wants to make glass boats and has aluminum as a side deal. I learned my lesson about how the factory stands behind the aluminum line....owned the boat 2 months - been in the shop for weld repairs for 1-1/2 of those. Small leaks are acceptable after repairs, as are thumb size gorilla welds for a repair. Triton said as long as it didn't take on excessive water that's all they cover as far as warranty... Not impressed, I know for a fact they wouldn't let a glass Triton be repaired like that and call it "good". Just a heads up, I'm sure lots of people have them and love them. If you get one with a factory defect god help you. I could write 5 pages of my dealings, phone calls, letters, etc...and my boat still sets at the dealer.

Have a mechanic check the compression and just general health of an engine. Ask him if it looks like it's been taken care of or not - they can tell. EFI Mercury's are pretty bulletproof engines with a good track record (Mercury still makes them on limited basis like this year when they bank enough pollution credits so parts are readily available as well as know how on them). Other than that take the transom saver off and pull up on the engine nice and hard to see how the transom does and look at it from the inside - push on it and knock on it. If those 2 things check out everything else can be dealt with as it pops up without too much trouble. Give the trailer a pretty good look see too like tires before you haul it home. Good luck.

Friend has one and used PVC pipe to go up and over the transom. Made for a neater installation than a soft hose - used the elbows etc...doesn't have to worry about it getting kinked or caught in anything. Just made it go straight up and over and back down about an 1" - just enough to "hang" on the transom.

The boat is floating in it....

Most tournaments that actually pay out here have a minimum outboard size unless it's a team tournament. I placed second once in a charity type tournament in my duck boat with a 11hp go-devil motor. I got a waiver from the other participants to trailer my boat rather than have to launch at the tournament marina.

I dunno I have a 1968 15' 42" flat bottom aluminum duck boat that has dents in the bottom as big as softballs from running over stumps and crap at 4 am in thick fog that is riveted and has never leaked... I have a 2007 Triton fully welded boat that is at the dealer for the 2nd time for cracked welds and leaks.... Nothing is 100% absolute.

Oh I knew ( well suspected)...the bass cats are fine boats...but, the are expensive as well. I wonder why JD Power tested so few manufacturers. JD power only test companies/products that the manafacture pay to have included in the test.

Well I have a less than 2 month old Triton aluminum boat that is sitting at the dealer for the 2nd time to have cracked welds rewelded.......boat goes up for sale the day it comes home. Talk about taking a big hit money wise....boat has around 5 hours on it and 2 different places have cracked and leaked. It's yet to even hit a stump with the T/M, the bottom looks like the day I picked it up. Welds just weren't prepped right. You look at them after they crack and you can tell they tried to fill in with the weld instead of having no gap which isn't how you weld.

I beleive a 70hp Yamaha is cheaper than a 60hp ETEC by quite a bit. However that's still a good deal. I priced them a few months ago. Standard 50hp Yam was right at $13k and the 70hp was $15k and change plus tax/title/license (tax here on boats/motors is 6.25%). I wanted a Merc on it and for a 50hp Merc I was looking at right around $15k as well....

You can do what I did. I bought an Eagle GPS/Sonar unit. It's made by lowrance but has a little less resolution screen on the same size screen (color) and lacks the networking capability of the Lowrance unit. It was around $400 on sale at BPS and then I got a Navionics chip for it. I mounted it to the side of the console in my boat with a RAM mount. When I get up to fish I just loosen it up and I can spin it around so I can see it from the bow if I want. I have another cheap depthfinder at the bow but sometimes I want to see the big screen/color or the GPS. Just something to think about. You can also check places like Cabelas now has last year's Lowrance models on sale for a lot less than they were new last year....

No comment on how to get a better hookset...but if you go with a hook with a straight shank over an offset worm hook with a senko they'll last 3x longer. Since I made the switch I quit going thru a few bags a day.

I fish several days a week and have a good time each day (well except for last week when I pulled the boat out and had a hole in it - that day pretty much blew). The thread title said "How many does it take to be a good day". I don't fish numbers so that question I really can't answer. I have been out and caught 40+ fish in a day that were small...literally I'd move to try and get out of them. I fish weight - but that's just me. If you want to gauge your fishing day by numbers then that's good too. To me I look for an average of 5 fish - which is the normal tournament limit here - and see what I get. 15 pounds is a so so day. 20 pounds is getting pretty good. Anything above 20 pounds for 5 fish makes a "good" day.

Same prop I have on a Triton 17' with a 50hp Mercury 2stroke...gonna guess your pretty close on prop, if your off your not far off.

Know what's really sad? Tracker advertises it's 175TXW in magazines for $12,995 +prep and freight and gives a monthly price in the ad for 15 months with 0% down....

I think the bang for the buck on those is the Stratos. I'd say the Triton and the Ranger are going to be on the same plane as far as fit/finish but I'm not sure on the price. I recently went thru all those boats in the last 2 months till I decided to just go with a similar size aluminum boat. I looked at all three except for the Ranger - I went to the ranger dealer but he also carried Stratos and said he really couldn't sell the 17' or so Rangers went they were put up against Stratos for the most part because of the price. People who buy a 17' usually don't go all out on the price and he said for the price of a 17' Ranger people could bump up to an 18' Stratos with a 150 he had on the floor.... I might even say I'd base my decision on all 3 of those on the dealer, pretty sure you wouldn't realy get a bad boat on any of those.

Since you said at first a Triton did you look at the Triton aluminum boats while there? When I said I just bought an '07 Triton I bought a Triton Aluminum boat. Just something to think about.

I just financed a new Triton for 3 years...but they were offering up to 15 years. There are lots of problems with financing it that long. 1. At no point in the loan will the boat be worth more than you still owe on it. The day you take it home you loose 20+% of the value. In 10 years your boat will be worth a LOT less than you still owe on it. 2. You'll pay approximately double the sales cost over the term of the loan. I know it's old fashioned but what happened to either saving up or buying what you can afford....I had the cash for my boat, but my personal bank offered me a loan at the prime rate. Considering my investments overall make more than the interest they charge. I decided to pay 50% down on the boat. Finance the rest for 3 years and keep the 50% difference in investments that are semi liquid in case I need them and are currently beating the interest rate on the money they loaned me. Even if my return on my investments come way down I still consider it a wash because for those 3 years I'm keeping more money liquid than if I had paid 100% cash.

Find a new Marine dealer. Yes aluminum will give more than SS - that's the point. It will be cheaper in the long run to go SS durability wise - unless you fish in an area where you have 0% of ever hitting anything like a 50 foot deep clear lake. I guess it's possible to hit something and break the shaft or lower unit, hang around areas like here (like someone said above like Ford, Rayburn, T-Bend) and you'll see more boats pulled out of the water that have SS prop damage that have to have them repaired (much easier than an aluminum) and no L/U or shaft damage and they were going 70+mph when they hit it. I've seen too many people break a blade on an aluminum prop and get stranded unless you have a spare, whereas a SS would have either held up or had such a slight bend you coulda limped home. The performance boost of a SS prop over aluminum is a secondary bonus on most boats , durability is what sells the prop. Around here nearly 100% of boats have a SS prop - I have one a 15hp and a 50hp. Most dealers here throw one in on the package or they couldn't sell it with an aluminum prop. That or people get a SS prop and put the aluminum in the boat in case they really tear something up and need to get back to the ramp. Again if you live where there's nothing in the water - run aluminum...but why would you fish there for bass? haha.