Champion Boats

[raburn]

I am looking at a 2001 Champion boat, I do not know anything about them, any help would be appreciated. I beleive the model is a 201

 

[beetlespin]

Supposedly the best riding boats made although not the fastest. Not as slow as Rangers but not as quick as a Stratos or Triton. They are supposed to be great boats.

 

[Oldman]

i heard about the same.

 

[TnSabre]

One of the best riding boats out there. They take turns at high speeds like they are on rails. Great handling boat and fishing platform.

 

[Oldman]

i really think u should buy this one for me and look for you another one.lol

 

[Jmax]

That year may be one of the years where they crack. Sorry to tell you but that year may suck. All the ones made prior to around the mid 90s were great. Then in an effort to increase their speed they changed the fiberglass on them to get more speed saying it was lighter and still strong. Lighter yes but still strong...NO!!!! emoMad Many of them started cracking and spider webbing. One such boat was mine. Mine was under warrenty with their supposedly 5 year hull warrenty and when I went to use it they said it was impact damage because I had a few scatches on the bottom. I blew up and really got into it with them. They said to turn it over to my insurance so I reported them for insurance fraud. My insurance started investigating them and then they would not give me my boat back after I told them nevermind. They claimed they had started fixing it and would not return it. emoEek I had never given them permission to fix anything. We went round and round. A couple months later my insurance company sent a guy undercover into their plant to find my boat. He found it and it had nothing done to it what so ever. It was just like it was when I gave it to them. My insurance company threatened legal action and they sent me a letter stating that if I would not discuss it or tell anyone about this they would fix it for half price as long as I signed a form stating never to discuss it. I told them where to put it and that I wanted my boat back. Reluctently they finally gave me my boat back three months after I had given it to them. emoDoh I told my insurance company I wanted it replaced so they paid me for the whole boat and gave me a savage company where I sold them the boat as is. I took that money with the money I got from the insurance and bought my first Ranger.

Later I found out that my insurance company had discovered they had done a whole lot of claims that way including many others who had just paid them to have it repaired. My insurance company threatened to block and drop all claims on their boats. It was about a year later I heard that Champion was filing banksruptcy of some kind. I was told a lot of it came from the false claims that they caused. That was my second Champion boat...my first one I had for ten years and loved the thing. A great boat, I think it was around a 1987 year. It was when Earl Bence owned the company I believe. That was why I got the second. It turned into a nightmare.

I understand the newer ones have been fixed and no longer have this issue but there are still a lot of the bad ones out there. I talked to one guy that went through about what I did at the time and the Champion company told him it was impact damage from waves. emoCrazy The really bad part about all of it was due to the filing of the bankruptcy thing they did not have to stand behind the other boats that went bad.

emoBadLanguage Jmax

 

[jon]

I just switched this past year to a Champ from Ranger.

Pros: Awsome rough water boat. I can take my 19' w/ a 200 merc to WOT on full plane. Cut the wheel as hard as you can and it never wiggles. It's like the thing is on a rail. The front deck and storage are laid out great as well.

Cons: Slowwwwwww. Even more so than the Ranger....

 

[jbh3]

That year - 2001 - was the time frame when Champ was going through bankruptcy, the transition to Genmar and moving their operations from Arkansas to TN. It's either a 203 or a 206. The 203's are nimble and pretty quick. The 206 is a barge and a low/mid 60's boat at best with a 225. Both are great fishing boats, just different. As you would with any similar purchase, look it over very closely. Have the engine checked by somebody competent. Take it to the lake. Make sure everything works. Don't overlook the trailer. Make SURE it has had the single leaf springs REPLACED. If the rig is well kept, no reason not to strongly consider it. Champs are/were nice boats. Hope they can survive the Genmar liquidation. Good luck!

 

[raburn]

Thanks to all for your advice,

 

[Bassallday]

I have a champion mean 16 with a 150 xr2 it can handle the worst wide open

 

[hippi97]

I have a 1995 181sc with a 150 evinrude and the boat will gps around 60 mph. Rides good and feels solid in the rough water.