Question? Best aluminum boat?

[sparky197]

Put a hole in ours when hung on a stump. Also caused a weld to break.

[Cray]

Wareagle or Seark.

[slackline]

There are so many good ones to choose from. I have had a War Eagle hung on some pretty nasty stumps. If I could afford to I would have a Havoc built for me. I have also fished out of an Excel that I really liked.

[Alphahawk]

You will get a 100 answers. There are a lot of good ones. I wouldn't overlook the smaller builders. I have an Xtreme Classic SS 1454. It is their entry level boat and it is .125.....I had a buddy who just picked his Xtreme Brute 1860 and it is .190. They are tough boats. But as others have said...there are many good ones out there.


Regards

[Erin Brewer]

War eagle or xpress would be my
choice

[skeetbum]

F & F custom builds some awesome boats, but for production boats it would be war eagle or sea ark. Really like the big sea arks.

[bandchaser]

I just sold my 1860 G3, and it was as tuff a boat that I have ever had or been in. My dad had a sea ark, and in the backwater duckhunting we managed to find some 3/4" square tubing and it put a perfect square hole in the transom.
My G3 was used every month of the year, duck hunting, crappie fishing, and has been to several different states, big water and on the Ohio River and the Mississippi River. I beat the dog crap out of that boat, it drafted maybe 6" of water, hunted swamps, cypress bayous, timber, backwater, big water and big rivers, not one leak.
Sea ark's and War Eagles are heavy, heavy boats. If you worried about big enough stumps that puncture aluminum hulls, you will need to think about the weight of the different hulls as well. Being stranded is not fun...

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[M R Dux]

Its the old Chevy vs Ford argument. Ask 20 people and you are likely to get almost that many different opinions. When I was shopping for my boat last year I had criteria much different than most folks do. I needed a heavy boat that was rated to carry a large load and several fishermen since it was to be used for my guiding on KY and Barkley lakes. These lakes get as rough as some ocean inlets.

I decided a center console was much more practical for trolling ,which I do 90% of the time. I looked at most all the aluminum center-console models and price was a serious factor. I had a $$ range I had to stay in. I dismissed any boat that was less than .125 hull thickness. I also had to have medium low decks due to my destroyed knees. The bass-boat type decks were out. That took several makes out of the running.

After much consideration and talking to dealers across the entire mid-west, I settled on the Excel Bay Pro 203. It has decks that are 2 layers of .125 aluminum and is built like a tank. Stripped hull weight is 1550 pounds. That is 20-21 foot glass boat weight. It had the features I wanted and room to customize some other features I built myself. It is rated for 1100 pounds load and up to 8 people. Obviously those have to be very small people, very much unlike me.

I then talked to at least a half dozen Excel dealers in several states. I have one 15 miles from my home but they wouldn't get serious about dealing and wanted to sell loaded boats rather than unrigged like I was going to buy.I had also decided on a 140 hp Suzuki 4 stroke after reading all I could find about the Suzuki outboards. I settled on the deal that Bill at Big River Marine in West Memphis, AR gave me. Bill is a sponsor here and great to deal with. He also saved me $4K over the boat locally with a 115 Yamaha engine.

I've had it a year and have had it loaded to the max a few times. It is everything I had hoped for. It won't win many races with a top speed of 42-43 with 2 fishermen, their equipment, full fuel load and full livewell up front.

[wicklundrh]

I guess it would be what neighborhood are you looking at? Are we talking flat bottom boats, john boats, deep V, semi deep V, rivited, welded, combination of both?
Several great companies "specialize" in different configurations. One of them might be awesome at one particular configuration and flounder on others. You don't want to compare apple to peaches. Comparing a rivited deep V to a welded flat bottom might not be fair.

[Mosquitopat]

Too bad they don't still make the original Sea Nymph boats. 1998 was the last year of production (Lowe bought them out) I always thought they were pretty good.