When Buying a Boat ??

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Inga41

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Joined
Feb 22, 2009
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23
Ok, I have a few questions..I absolutely appreciate any advice.

So besides a kill switch, live well with aerator and trolling motor..what else should I look for ??
 
One question that needs to be answered is what price range are you looking at? Answer this and everybody can chime in with some more details.
Another is what are you going to be fishing for the most. Bass, Cats, etc.....
 
Welcome to the board........Just make sure the boat you choose has been checked out by someone who knows something about boats. TOOO many people end up buying someone elses problem. Alot of people don't know how to check for a rotten/weak transom. They take the boat out and it seems to run good to the new buyer but the owner knows that it is not running right and time to get rid of it. I have seen too many boats come my way for repair work that they just bought recently and now has mechanical or physical issues. I had a good friend jump on a "good deal" and turned out the transom was bad and the the engine was short lived. A simple check out and I could have saved him a ton of headache!! If you look at some of the recent post you wil find 2 engines that I am working on that had good compression but failed leak down test. The one(ditchdoc666) found that cylinder 1 (the one that failed with 70% leakage) had excessive carbon on the 2nd ring and was pinned. Compression was 122 to 130 which was great but the engine had issues that was found with a leakdown test, So don't rely on a compression test as a bill of good health. Just offering this advice to save you some headache! Congradulations on your future boat purchase!!! Hope you get what you a looking for as far as options!!!!
 
Inga, for used boats get someone to go with you that knows boats from one end to the other, a specialist on boats, there are people out there that do this for around $100.00 or so, it is money well spent. Most big repairs on boats are very expensive and you don't want or need someone else's problems. There are a few on this forum that might help you out.</p>

</p>

B.O.A.T............."Bring on another thousand"</p>
 
http://www.boatengine.com/usedboattips.htm good tips

also when you seal trial it and you better, don't be afraid to run it wide open. When I bought my triton I ran it wide open trimmed up for about a mile or 2. 2 cycle motors are made to be run wide open.

Livewells, kill swithces, and areators can easily be replaced. On the boat I have now I actually talked him down 500 more dollars when I found out one livewell pump was bad. I fixed it for 28 dollars.

Motor and Hull in that order are the most important thing in a 2500 boat.

Hope the link helps
 
Good link honkytonker, just remember not to lay all the faith into compression test.

Doc1, another one for B.O.A.T........Break Out Another Thousand.
 
wrechin2 - 2/23/2009 1:42 AM

Good link honkytonker, just remember not to lay all the faith into compression test.

Doc1, another one for B.O.A.T........Break Out Another Thousand.
Click to expand...

true that!
 
Hey Guys,

Thanks for all the advice and the links. The guy that owns the boat is a retired IRS man. He is a good guy, I have known him for about 3 years. He wouldn't purposely sell me a piece of junk. He was out in this boat all last summer. He just recently bought a pontoon as the bass boat wasn't enough room for his wife and grand kids to all go out fishing. I will check the links, thank you very much for those. I won't be test driving it by myself, My Fiancee' James will be test driving it. I'll just be along for the ride. LOL. We will probably take it somewhere to have these checks done that you speak of (Pure Guy Talk) Gibberish to me. Laugh.

Thanks Again all of you, you are all appreciated.
 
Your friend might not know something is wrong, which is why its your responsibility to run the boat and check it all out. I would hate to sell a boat to a friend then a month later it blow up.. I know it wouldnt be my fault, but it would still suck. I made a mistake of buying a used boat from my dads friend. I ended up taken his word for a lot of stuff and it ALL ended up going wrong. I took a loss and sold the boat on ebay and learned a lesson.
Make a list of questions to ask before you meet the guy to look at the boat. Cause you'll forget half the stuff you need to ask him once you get face to face.
 
Old man,
Yes, I was refering to your purchase. First we fixed the transome then now we are repairing the engine. By the way...Ordered rest of the parts today and plate should be here this week to make the torque plate. Hope to get yours going my way by next week!!!

I am working on 2 fellow members engines that showed no real signs of issues but they had engines with good compression but high leakage. They had issues and were on their way down hill. Like honkytonker said, the guy may not know that he has a issue. Can't stress enough to do a cylinder leak down test on it. Don't trust a compression test alone. Here is a link to the mercury I am currently working on for ditchdoc. May help you to understand.

http://www.chattanoogafishingforum.com/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=27877&posts=12&start=1
 
Awesome Pics on that link, I have never seen the inside either. Not my cup of tea. Thank goodness there are people out there to work on them. You are right I don't have a clue. We would like to do the tourney next week but I believe we have to have like 150 posts so the tourney's will have to wait. We are going to test drive it soon. Any idea on who we can take it to, to get these tests you speak of. I took my other bass boat to Hyde's once, they are pretty high.

I am going to print this forum..lol before I go to talk to the guy about his boat and to the mechanics.

Thanks again Guys..I certainly don't want to get stranded out there with a storm rolling in.

Appreciate you all, Cheers, Inga
 
Where are you located???? Just make sure where ever you take it you specificly ask for a leak down test and that it be done just off TDC. You would be surprised at how many places go just by compression. I have rebuilt many engines with loss of power and had been elsewhere with a good bill of health and not be a healthy engine. I have taken engines apart with good compression and have near perfect compression and look like the ones in this engine I am building for oldman101. THe thing is the damage can be so severe that the piston cuts grooves in the block filling up the void and will make good compression "pressure" but will not hold any of the pressure once the air/fuel mix is ignited and the real "pressure" begins. I had gotten to do these leakdowns since I pulled my hair out on a engine one time with a bad miss and everything checked out good. Then a fellow mechanic told me to do a leakdown on it. Did a leakdown with the piston at top and it showed good then he told me to bring it off top dead center then found it to have 86% leakage. Then pulled the head and found a gauled piston. Since that day, I do leakdowns and have found many problems with engine with noticable problems and some in the early stages with no noticable issues. Like ditchdocs the other post. Hope this helps!


http://www.chattanoogafishingforum.com/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=27265&posts=32&start=1
 
We live off of Hwy 58, the boat we are looking at is also just off of hwy 58..Just a few miles down the road. I called the owner and talked to him just a few minutes ago about the boat. He is the second owner and has had it for 8 years. (looks like a new boat) He told me he put 800.00 into it last year for a new steering cable and a few other minor things, said he felt it grip at a point and so he took it in and found the steering cable was going bad. It already has a kill switch that attaches to the driver, as well as a remote & foot pedal trolling motor. The live wells and aerators are in perfect working condition. He has always had the boat in a garage so its not weathered. Like I said it looks new but I understand what you are saying so we will definitely find a place that can test what you have stated. He said he takes it to be winterized every winter and has not ever had any issues with it. He also said he bought the engine about 4 years ago.

Thanks again buddy for your help..Hopefully we can get our needed points and be able to get into a tourney soon. Guess we'll try some of the other tourney's first as they don't have such requirements.

Cheers, Inga
 
Well we did it..we found and bought a boat today. Its not a 20,000 + boat but its awesome to us and we got it for a GREAT Price. Won't make it to the tourney tomorrow. We have some cleaning and things we have to do to it before it will be ready the way we want it.

Thanks for all the advice, You guys are all awesome. I hope we get a chance to meet out at a tourney. We will be in the Grey and Red Hustler, with 115 HP Johnson on the back.

Good Luck to all of you who are able to make it to tomorrows tourney.

Cheers, James & Inga
 
emoThumbsup emoThumbsup congrats inga on ya'lls new baby ,If you have any questions or problems just ask and post here and someone will answer,we have a wealth of knowledge on here in about every subject you can think of,Good luck and look forward to seeing ya'll on the water soon. emoToast
 

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