tnriverluver

Document everything and if the motor fails soon from an oil related issue it should be on the dealer to correct his mistake.

All I can tell you is I have purchased 2 motorcycle batteries from Advanced and neither have lasted 6 months. Autozone and Wallyworld batteries have both worked very well for me.

Even the little 20 is a heavy beast. If you can spring for PT get it!!!!

I fish alone 100% of the time except for having my dog with me. I let the wife know which body of water I am fishing in case I don't come home. Figure it will save search and rescue a lot of effort knowing which lake to drag.

Tilt steering wheel. Many newer boats have these now.

I find that very very hard to believe. I seriously doubt the 20 being less than even half the rated HP could even plane a 165 much less the 170. I love my 20 but I think that might be stretching the limitations just a bit. If and I stress IF the 20 can get the boat on plane it might push it 20mph. I just don't see it happening unless the hull has been gutted!

I have a Tracker 1542 with a 20hp 4stroke Merc and have the boat fairly loaded down with floors, pedestal bases, depth finders etc. With me and my 65 lb Australian Shepherd I run 27-28 mph and am very impressed with the stability of these boats. My last boat was a 201proXL Stratos and I have wobbly legs due to back problems. My 1542 is much more stable than my slightly larger decked out 16 Alumacraft Angler bassboat with a 50hp and only 2 mph slower. Over on Tinboats.net a lot of people have decked these boats out with all the bells and whistles and are still happy with the stability.

How would you possibly access 10's of thousands of acres of water without a boat?

1973 when I was 12 y/o

I had one of those when they first came out back in the late 70's early 80's and it was a neat little motor albeit loud since it is air cooled. EBay has always been my best bet for finding old discontinued parts for boat motors and motorcycles.

The last time I did something very similar to an old Merc 115 tower of power I ended up burning 2 cylinders because the timing was now out of sync with the throttle linkage. If you don't know what you are doing please take it to a Professional before you have an expensive lesson like I did.

Looks like the whales knew exactly what they were doing. Maybe a little close for comfort!

Depends on how big the waves are and how fast you plan to hit those waves. Of the ones listed except for the ProCraft which I have no experience with there is really not that much difference. The Ranger will get the nod but I think it's mainly because the Ranger is also slower.

No advice on the boat you are looking at but someone had one similar at a lake that I camp at often and it was an awesome rig that is perfect for smaller lakes under 1000 acres. I think this one was a 12 footer with a 20 hp 4 stroke. I had never seen a pontoon that small and he had 6 people on board.