Thinking about buying my first boat! Opinions??

[elwood]

2000 Monark 170se with a 2001 75hp Mercury 4-stroke. 52lb Motorguide foot control trolling motor, some hummingbird depth finder and all the safety gear needed. The boat has been garaged and is really clean with the exception of a few small tears in the seats and the usual scuffs/scratches that come with a boat this age.

The only problems are that the trailer needs new tires and one bunk board replaced.

Anyone have experience with this boat? I plan on mainly fishing crappie/bass in shallower water with stumps.

He was asking $5800 but willing to take $5000

What do you guys think?

[Slab Junkie]

If everything is in good working order that doesn't sound like a bad deal. The four stroke should be a solid motor if he took care of it properly. I would do a compression check on the motor, run it , check lower unit for water intrusion and make sure everything on it is functional. Also, if it has any wood in the floor or transom make sure it is solid. Check for soft spots unless you want to rip out flooring and replace wood and carpet in the near future. You can always fix or replace the little things like gauges, lights, bilge pumps etc. Those things aren't too awful expensive and if you are mechanically inclined at all they are an easy fix. Good luck!

[wilbur]

The motor alone is close to that. Jump on it.

[elwood]

Went check it out, did compression test; top cyl 120, 2nd 130, 3rd 130, 4th 90!

Didn't run it in the water, I don't believe he knew it had low compression, everything else looked great!

He would've taken $4k for it but I didn't know how much it cost to overhaul one cyl. Anyone know about how much it would cost to overhaul a single cylinder (if it's a good idea to do only one)??

[EARL KITCHENS]

I would think long and hard about buying a boat that already needs work on the motor. I like for the compression to be as equal as possible across all cylinders. You will not accomplish that by rebuilding only one cylinder. Just my two cents that aint worth one!

[Barnacle Bill]

Yeah the cylinder's compression need to be within 10% of each other. If the motor has sat for a long time without being ran there is always the possibility of #4 being just stuck rings. I have seen them come back to life and I have seen them not come back. It would be a gamble. If everything else checks out I would offer him 3k for it but no more. But again I do all my own work.

[DENNIS WILLIS]

Just me but Merc. scare me I have friends 4 of them and they have put more money in them than I would ever done. Like said if you need to fix the motor now I would look around and find another The shop here called the Opti Max the Opi Pop. Get a Yamaha and you will have lots of good days on the water.

[elwood]

Just me but Merc. scare me I have friends 4 of them and they have put more money in them than I would ever done. Like said if you need to fix the motor now I would look around and find another The shop here called the Opti Max the Opi Pop. Get a Yamaha and you will have lots of good days on the water.

I can say the same exact thing about yamahas. My friend is on his second complete rebuild in the last 5 years on his 40hp Yamaha

[DENNIS WILLIS]

I can say the same exact thing about yamahas. My friend is on his second complete rebuild in the last 5 years on his 40hp Yamaha

Look on the mech. page and I bet you will see more Mercs. than Yamaha. Mine is 25 years and no major problems

[Barnacle Bill]

Look on the mech. page and I bet you will see more Mercs. than Yamaha. Mine is 25 years and no major problems

Of course you will, there are a whole lot more of them out there. My Merc 150 was over 30 years old when I traded it. It had never had a major problem either.