Well after reading about other guys on here, putting decks on thier jons i decided i want one. Im set on either 16 or 18 foot. What company makes the best bang for your buck. I dont need anything fancy about it cause i plan on making it "my own" I guess. My uncle has a 18' Lowe and he loves it, and i like it also. So brand suggestions would be appreciated. ;D

Nowadays, they are all pretty similar.  The big difference in price is whether it is welded or riveted.

I would hunt for a used one first, lots out there if you have the time and patience to save some cash.

Also, many of the welded jons will be made from a heavier guage aluminum.  However, I was in a dealership the other day and saw a welded jon that was adversted as a " 1442 light" model with lighter guage aluminum than their standard welded version and was about $300 cheaper than the same boat in the heavy guage metal.

I had a "light duty" 12 a few yrs back.  Weighed about 80 lbs.

My 1964 12ft jon weighs 140 dry!  Heavier guage but that's how things got built back then.  The stability in this old jon is like none I've experienced in a 12 before.

Nowadays, they are all pretty similar. The big difference in price is whether it is welded or riveted.

I would hunt for a used one first, lots out there if you have the time and patience to save some cash.

Riveted would be fine and keeps the cost down.

Ive been looking for a used one for a few months now. All i ever manage to find is 10-12 footers that the owners think are worth brand new prices. I guess this is the totally wrong season to be looking for one. There are TONS of inland lake around me and alot of folks fish here. Maybe ill wait till winter to come across a killer deal or just pony up the extra cash and buy one new.

yes,understand that the size you are looking for isn't all that common. Most will use the flatbottom hull up to 14-16 ft and then graduate to a full hull bot from there. I think the 18's and 20's are primarilymade as work boats for rivers.

As to holding their value, I just paid $450 for a totalled 1964 12 ft jon with totalled trailer. And in my book,I scored,lol.

MY JON

I recently went thru the same process. I was fishing from a 1236 Jon boat with a 5.5HP engine. Like most fisherman and hunters we started collecting equipment and before long we had to have a bigger boat or sink!

I sold all my old rig and stopped by AK McCallums in Fayetteville, NC with a pocket full of money and an idea of what I wanted.

I had decided on a Jon boat. I figured I needed to support at least 1000 lbs of motor, equipment and people. To do that and still draw very little water I decided to go with a 16 to 18 foot boat. I run a mud motor and use the boat for fishing and duck hunting so I wanted a flat bottom. Once I got to McCallums and started looking over the 3 acres or Jon boats it got a good deal more confusing.

I ended up with a 1648 Alumacraft NCS. This boat has a large front deck, no center seat and is rated for 1010 lbs and 35 HP. Cost with galvanized trailer was just over $2100.00. Modifications have pretty much been finished except for the bearing buddies on the trailer wheels and some running lights. So far we have installed a 8' by 46.5" piece of 1/8" treadplate aluminum as the center floor/deck. Then we painted the front flipping deck and the new floor with self etching automotive primer and with epoxy floor paint mixed with sand. It made for a nice no-slip durable surface. We also put in three removable pedestal seats, Rod Savers, oar holders and holders for my collapsable Avery Marsh Foot pole. Everything is attached with stainless steel screws, bolts and rivets. The final addition was two 500 GPH bilge pumps in the rear, one in each corner.

The entire rig is propelled by a 13 HP Honda Scavenger mud motor. I finally got a chance to take out my new rig the other day. I had 3 people, coolers and fishing gear that weighed around 600 lbs, add to that the engine weighs around 120 lbs. Boat, motor, people and gear the boat was close to 1000 lbs. We experimented with moving all the people load back to the center of the boat rather than having a person on the front deck. The boat ran better and we picked up a couple of MPH. With proper weight distribution the 13 HP Scavenger pushed us around 15 MPH with two large wakes on either side of the boat, on plane, with the bow high and free of the water.

Later we were fishing mud flats and catching some good cats on shrimp and minnows. In areas I used to pole for 100's of yards I just cranked the Scavenger and idled along watching for stumps and downed trees. I kept hearing a rubbing on the bottom of the boat and noticed we were running in less than 4" of water. The Scavenger was plowing thru soft mud and pushing just like it does in deep water. No water pump or impeller to worry about plus the prop will grind rocks, its that tough.

The Scavenger is a great little engine for the type of thin water fishing and hunting we do. It does a great job in the open lake as well.

Here is a link to three pages of pictures of my new rig. Rather than tie up bandwidth here I posted them to my site.

http://www.yerfrockethellhound.com/boatpage1.html?1154045769830

Well Im taking my uncles boat out for the weekend. Its a 18' jon with a 30hp Evinrude. It just may be the kick in the butt that i need to go buy one finally haha.

I do not know if this means anything...but I see ALOT of old beat up Polar Kraft jons around us...been around for years and still in use. That says to me that they must be durable to be around for so long and still in use