A 12' V-hull, or 12' flat bottom Jon? Assume the beams are the same. Common sense tells me the flat bottom Jon is. What do you guys think? I want to buy one that I will mostly use myself for a couple small lakes that can't handle my larger boat. Thanks for your opinions.

I would probably assume the flat bottom to be more stable.  What are the bottom widths of the 2 boats?

the flat botom will feal more solid when moving around in.  I am not sure which one will actualy prefent a tip over if things got bad enough.

for 1st stability flat is better

I dont know enough abotu 2nd stability to say.

I am no expert, not by any means, but in my feeble mind I see it like this:

Flat bottom Jon boat =greater initial stability

V-bottom = greater secondary stability

what is initial and secondary stability?

Initial stability is as the name implys the boats tendency to tip as you move the load slightly off center of the boat. If the load (you ) continue to move toward the gunnel, will the boats tendency to tip become more pronounced (rolls more than the initial tipping) or does it resist further tipping. That is secondary stability. Then as the gunnel of the boat nears the water, does the boat suddenly flip? That would be the result with a boat with poor final stability.

You are most concerned with initial stability as you will probably not be operating your craft in very choppy water. So the flat bottom boat will be most stable. However the V hull will give you a much nicer ride back thru the chop if the wind comes up, as the v hull will part the oncomming waves, while a flat bottom will pound them.

Thanks guys. The beam on the 12' V-hull is 48", and the max. weight capacity is 500 lbs. I'm not sure where to measure the bottom width because of the way it curves up, but it's about 38". I don't have any 12' flat bottom in mind, I'm just wondering about the "average" 12' Jon to compare. What do you think a common floor width would be for a 12' flat Jon? Thanks.