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Thinking about buying a boat

Skerpokes

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Any advice or help is appreciated.

As of now, my buddy has a used bass boat that we take out most of the time. But lately I don't trust the thing, and he's not free to take it out most of the time these days so I am tossing around the idea of getting one myself so I can go out whenever I feel like it.

doesn't have to be super fancy just needs to be reliable
if it fits two people that would be ideal
can even be a good sturdy jon boat
Price range is probably up to $5K

What should I be looking for or avoiding?
 

Bridgeburner

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Bassresource has a lot of good info.

I've no experience with bass boats. Always like pontoons myself.

I can recommend some nice yaks though. :D
 

williewilliejuan

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Any advice or help is appreciated.

As of now, my buddy has a used bass boat that we take out most of the time. But lately I don't trust the thing, and he's not free to take it out most of the time these days so I am tossing around the idea of getting one myself so I can go out whenever I feel like it.

doesn't have to be super fancy just needs to be reliable
if it fits two people that would be ideal
can even be a good sturdy jon boat
Price range is probably up to $5K

What should I be looking for or avoiding?

You should be looking for another friend with a boat and avoiding buying one yourself.
 

Wild Turkey

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Any advice or help is appreciated.

As of now, my buddy has a used bass boat that we take out most of the time. But lately I don't trust the thing, and he's not free to take it out most of the time these days so I am tossing around the idea of getting one myself so I can go out whenever I feel like it.

doesn't have to be super fancy just needs to be reliable
if it fits two people that would be ideal
can even be a good sturdy jon boat
Price range is probably up to $5K

What should I be looking for or avoiding?
Check Craigslist they have a filter where you can narrow it. I'd recommend an outboard and check the hours on it as once you get to 1,000 your heading into limited life. Don't buy anything you don't test drive.
 

Rex Racer

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Any advice or help is appreciated.

As of now, my buddy has a used bass boat that we take out most of the time. But lately I don't trust the thing, and he's not free to take it out most of the time these days so I am tossing around the idea of getting one myself so I can go out whenever I feel like it.

doesn't have to be super fancy just needs to be reliable
if it fits two people that would be ideal
can even be a good sturdy jon boat
Price range is probably up to $5K

What should I be looking for or avoiding?

Make a small fire pit in your yard, start a nice little fire and toss all the money you were thinking about spending in the fire.

It'll be the cheapest boat you'll ever own :thumb:
 

Rex Racer

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Break
Out
Another
Thousand
 

Skerpokes

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Well, I realized I need to put this boat on hold for the time being as I'm going thru a bit of a personal situation and really shouldn't be acquiring any more "assets" at the moment.

But I appreciate the feedback and will continue to investigate and look.
 

Rex Racer

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Well, I realized I need to put this boat on hold for the time being as I'm going thru a bit of a personal situation and really shouldn't be acquiring any more "assets" at the moment.

But I appreciate the feedback and will continue to investigate and look.

On a more serious note, be very careful if you're going to go the "used boat" route. Someone mentioned earlier that motors get tired after 1,000 hours, but that number should have been a fraction of that. I doubt that many people sell a boat that doesn't need some type of repair.
 

Wild Turkey

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On a more serious note, be very careful if you're going to go the "used boat" route. Someone mentioned earlier that motors get tired after 1,000 hours, but that number should have been a fraction of that. I doubt that many people sell a boat that doesn't need some type of repair.
Actually it depends on age of the boat. For any motor sitting can be almost as bad as over use. I’d be comfortable with anything lower than 400 hours on a Yamaha as long as it wasn’t more than six years old.

If you can get the motor with warranty left then that takes a lot of the risk out.
 

AHFox

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Actually it depends on age of the boat. For any motor sitting can be almost as bad as over use. I’d be comfortable with anything lower than 400 hours on a Yamaha as long as it wasn’t more than six years old.

If you can get the motor with warranty left then that takes a lot of the risk out.

An older two cycle motor imo is better than a four stroke motor. my father has owned different boats over the years and only buys used boats. He has a couple of older boats now that he stuck some money into them but they still have the original Evinrude two cycle motors on them reliable and really hasn't had to stick much money into the motors except regular stuff.
 
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