Boat Comparison - which one and why

[Whaler]

Looking at new boats. Fish Indiana and Illinois lakes with a trip to Barkley yearly. Looking at Tracker 170 tx, Lowe Stinger and G3 Eagle 170. What are the good and bad of these choices or should I include other brands?

[Fishawk]

Looking at new boats. Fish Indiana and Illinois lakes with a trip to Barkley yearly. Looking at Tracker 170 tx, Lowe Stinger and G3 Eagle 170. What are the good and bad of these choices or should I include other brands?

If it were me I'd definitely buy fiberglass. For the price of these new metal boats you could probably by a very nice late model glass boat. I personally can't think of one benefit in owning a metal boat over a glass one. I've had my share of both, tracker, lund, polar craft - a ranger and three champions. Just my 2 cents.

[lowe175]

The Lowe will be more stable the other 2 will handle ruff water better but not much better. ×2 on the glass boat. All the boats you mentioned are around 15 000 to 19000 $ a z6. Is around 20000 if I could do it over I would have a z6.

[Rees Guide]

Happen to agree with Fishhawk. Fished from a tin boat last 2 tourneys, (partners boats) one of them being top of the line in tin. The wind effected it WAY more than it does my 1989 model BassCat Pantera II, my boat is 26 years old and will out fish the top of the line new tin boats, got to say something.

[Cray]

If going tin I would go with the Stinger. Much more interior room and set up to crappie fish. Like Lowe said, much more stable than the other 2.

[Treeline]

I too have had both aluminum and glass..I currently have a Lowe 175 stinger..I really like it..it does blow around alot worse than my stratos did but to say there are no reasons to own aluminum over glass...I don't agree. My stratos held 42 gallons of gas and it needed filled very often..I now have a 60 horse suzuki four stroke and it sips gas. I can go to the lake 5 times on what it cost to go once with my bass boat. I also fish by myself alot and beach my boat to load and unload..you can do this with glass but i never did..It also requires less gas to tow to and from the lake..I don't argue that glass is superior but there are reasons that tin fit some people better. just my .02

[deltadawg9]

If I was just going to troll or pull cranks I would own a fiberglass boat. But here in the MS delta we do everything including run trot lines and jug fish including going up and down the shutes of the MS river. We go into some nasty areas. So we use big nice aluminum boats. We do everything in them. But on those 10+ windy days it can get dicey in areas.

[clfarms1]

If your are going to compare buying used glass boat then use the price for a used tin boat also to make it fair. I have a G3 which is almost the same space as a lowe 175 the beam is just a little less, the G3 doesn't ride as good as the other 2 I don't think but it has a lot of storage space and it is also set up for 2 up front for spider rigging. It does have wood decks in it which I love for attaching trolling racks and other things as you can just screw right down to it. Ive got a 70 Yamaha 4 stroke on it and a 13 gallon gas tank and can go out 5 or six times and still have plenty of gas. Put a 80 lb thrust terrova on there and you don't have to worry about the wind blowing you around

[plateboater]

pending your budget.......go with lower cost boat and put ALL your money into electronics

[barrelslime]

The g3 eagle is more quality boat than the lowe or tracker. Iv owned all 3 and all 3 are good boats. I'm not knocking any brand but of the 3 boats mentioned the g3 is the better boat.