New Boat Suggestions

[huntnfishnguy2014]

I had the exact opposite experience at Cabelas. Went in there and was ready to write a check. Only thing the guy really did was show me how much better the Alumacraft was compared to Lund. I had him spec out a boat for me. Didn't want to do much but put a Merc on which I didn't want. Finally got it spec'd out, but was more than I had seen elsewhere. Left my name and number and a year later almost to the day have never heard anything back.

I researched them all.
Tracker- Horrendous customer service if something goes wrong. There are a lot of them out there because of the price point. I owned a Tracker Pro Team 175 at one point. Fit and finish was not great and my trailer was junk. However I got it cheap, had fun with it, and sold it at a profit.

Lowe- No splash rails on it. Also standing on an Alumacraft deck which was solid vs the Lowe that had some give made me ask myself how long it would last. Straw that broke the camel's back was they would only sell it with a Merc. I asked if they would order one without a motor and rig the motor of my choice and it was a negative.

Lund- Really intrigued me. One of the top Lund dealers in the country is in Pittsburg, MO which isn't far from SE Kansas. They had some Lund 1775 Impacts with 115 Mercs on them very competitively prices. Talked to them on the phone. They really wanted to earn my business. Turns out they are a Mercury platinum dealer and weren't interested in hanging anything but a Merc on the boat. That ended it for me. Lund has great fit/finish, big splash rails for a dry ride, and pretty much everything I wanted except for the motor I wanted.

Alumacraft- Really liked the boats. I went to Cabelas to look at what they had and try to work a deal. They apparently weren't very hungry, and I don't think the guy believed me when I said I would write the check right there for the right deal. Alumacraft makes a nice boat.

StarCraft- Had an 88 deep v starcraft that I really liked. However to get a StarCraft I was going to have to drive quite a way to find what I wanted. Found one I liked in Pennsylvania and darn near hopped a plan to Pittsburg.

G3- This is what is sitting in my driveway. I had been looking and found it on ebay. Its a 2010 V172C with a 2013 90 hp Yamaha on the back. He had it listed as a factory demo. I had priced some new G3 boats previously before finding it. Drove to Plainville, KS to take a look at it. Negotiated what I felt was a good deal, wrote the check, and came back on my next day off to pick it up. It had a couple carpet stains and some scratches in the decal, but I have since added more of both. I love the Yamaha outboard. I did have one warranty issue that Shady Creek handled with no issues. Fit and finish isn't Lund quality, but its a nice boat that has a good dry ride. If you want to check it out or take it for a drive one day let me know. The boat was bought from the Plainville Boat Shop. Its kind of a hole in the wall, but I felt I was treated fairly there. I have it serviced at Shady Creek, and have had nothing but good experiences dealing with them.

Tell ya what, when I come back to KS for some leave hopefully early to mid-spring I will coordinate that with you and see about meeting up to take a look at it and take ya up on your offer to get a test spin with it!

[kscrappeye]

Lots of good information in the previous posts. Take your time and look around and you will find what you are looking. I would suggest that you contact a few dealers further north (Iowa, Minnesota, South Dakota) and tell them what you are looking for. Seems like there are a lot more of the Lund/Alumacraft boats up that way and much more competition than down here.

I found my boat that way a few years ago. Called to check on one they had advertised in the Des Moines area but it was already sold. Gave them my name. A week later got a call from the dealer that he had a friend looking to get rid of a boat. It was bigger and fancier than what I wanted but the price was right. Ended up with 19'7" Lund Pro-V with a 200 Yamaha Four stroke (it was only 4 years old) and bought it for less than 19K. Only had 160 hours on the motor and boat was very clean. I don't regret getting the bigger boat and still had some money to upgrade the electronics. I am sure there was some luck/timing involved but it was an easy sale to convince the wife with everything around here being a lot more expensive and in rougher shape.

Good Luck.

[sah]

I know you said you were looking for a new boat but there are some good used ones out there. I got my 2008 Lund 186 from Waconda Boats a year ago and love it. They usually have a pretty good selection of used boats at a fair price. It handles any type of weather I'm willing to fish in. Often times there are 4 of us fishing out of it. I traded from a bass boat to a deep V and I will never own another bass boat again. Good luck in your search.

[ragnar]

Best advise I can come up with is FIND what you are looking for and can afford. You don't by one very often (unless your name is Shane ) so get what you like and be patient and the right one will come along. I looked for a while and couldn't find what I wanted for what I wanted to pay. As soon as I quit looking it showed up.

I love my Renken. deep-v center console only 17.5f so not to bad to pull. but I don't worry bout what KS winds my do. It doesn't go fast (38mph) but then again I don't either. No carpet which is great as I keep I out side so nothing gets ruined by getting wet. When I am done fishing I just pull into a car wash and wash it all down inside and out. Not as soft as standing on carpet all day but that's ok for me.

Nothing fancy but it is what I like. until Ed McMann delivers me a million dollar check I am good.

[DenOz]

Ragnar, if you ever want something soft to stand on, get a mechanics or gym map. Sizes up to 3 x7 feet. Cut to size if necessary. Be sure to pull them out, so the floor can dry, if any water gets in the boat that day.

[cbass12]

I recently had the same decision to make. I had a Stratos 176XT bass boat. Great boat, but I didn't care for the 2 person seating and never felt comfortable on it. I have a bad back and some balance issues. I never felt comfortable on the decks of the bass boat, always felt like I was going to fall in.

I wanted a boat that I could feel more secure in, like I was "IN" the boat instead of on top of it. So I did a lot of research and shopping around. I thought seriously about a Stratos 1760DV, the multi species version of the boat I had. Unfortunately there are none of these in my area. All my research kept pointing to Lund, and I'm sure they are great boats. But we don't have any Lund dealers in Arkansas and the closest one (Pittsburg, MO) only sells Mercury motors. I wanted to go with a Yamaha, Honda or Suzuki. The closest dealer to me is a small dealer that sells Alumacraft, and I started looking into them pretty seriously. I decided on a 175 Voyageur, a new model for 2014. This dealer also sells Suzuki motors so I was all set.

When I got down to pricing things out, the Voyageur was going to be almost $5K more than a leftover 2013 Competitor 165 on the dealers lot. Long story short I ended up with the Competitor 165, it's the Sport Model with the Limited package.

This is EXACTLY what I want, I wish the wife was OK with us buying a new boat right now but unfortunately I agreed to wait a few years.

[Mrs. Crappie Stalker]

If you don't care about brand new, you owe it to yourself to check out the Ranger Fisherman series. Awesome boat, very stable, tons of storage and plenty of room to handle double seats up front. Handles the wind exceptionally well. We found ours on walleye central and LOVE it. This is a long term keeper for sure.

[cbass12]

I like the fisherman series, problem is I'm limited to a 16' or 17' boat because my garage is only 19' deep. I've figured out that I can fit a nitro Z6, the competitor, crestliner 1650 fish hawk or possibly super hawk, and the stratos 1760 DV will MAYBE fit.

[huntnfishnguy2014]

I like the fisherman series, problem is I'm limited to a 16' or 17' boat because my garage is only 19' deep. I've figured out that I can fit a nitro Z6, the competitor, crestliner 1650 fish hawk or possibly super hawk, and the stratos 1760 DV will MAYBE fit.

I really had my heart set on a Nitro Z7. I absolutely love the Nitro Fishing platforms on the market, as I have had one already and loved it! Wish I would have kept it but got rid of it since I was deploying. We have are kind of in the same scenario as far as garage space. I think we have changed gears a bit and are looking into the Lowe rigs right now. Beacon Marine out of Junction City seems to be pretty legit to deal with and I have heard nothing but great remarks and comments from people that I know have bought from there. So we are looking into those right now. Still not rushing into anything I did that with the last two and ended up having a ton of problems with them.

[burns_312]

Check out that new Ranger VS1780 deep-v aluminum. They're badass and there's a great chance one will be parked in my garage by the end of the summer.

http://www.rangeraluminum.com/model.cfm?sid=7099