Bought My First Boat Today !! :)

[Scfisher80]

Today I purchased a ranger RT 178 with 2 HDI dsi 7 electronics, got the 70 yamaha 4 stroke. I was in a total mix between the nitro z6 and bass tracker 190 tx with a 115hp. After quite a few trips to the shop and comparing the boats for hours ,I made the final decision that it would be the ranger !!! I will be picking up the boat by weds and I hope to be heading to the lake. Any pros and cons to the boat that I should know about before hand ? How does it ride in choppy water and etc ? How good are these electronics ? I appreciate any info. Thanks in advance

[Slade House]

You made such a good choice on that one.  In terms of what makes it a better choice over the bass tracker and the nitro z6 is this.  and this is my personal opinion, i own a 2005 bass tracker pro team 175tx

Compared to the 190 TX , you have much better use of storage space, your carpet will last longer, you will get great gas mileage and still probably have around the same top speed.  The yamaha 4 strokes in my opinion are a little bit better than the mercury 4 strokes ( i prefer my 2 stroke, just easier to fix) .  

 

With the nitro z6 you would have had a more stable platform , but you would have had to worry more about the fiberglass, and towing it would be really heavy.  also gas mileage would be way way worse.  but you probably would have gotten higher top speed. 

 

Ok so here are a few tips for a new boat owner , 

1.  Don't forget to put your 2 drain plugs in the first time you launch or every time you launch.  I forgot 

2.  when backing your boat up , look over your right shoulder , don't try and use your mirrors.

3.  study the manual when it comes to trimming the motor out

ALSO LEARN HOW TO ENGAGE THE NEUTRAL FUNCTION AND GIVE MOTOR GAS WITHOUT TURNING PROP. 

4.  when launching or loading your boat , you don't need a rope and you don't need to get in the water.  just let it glide gently off your trailer, walk along side it and tie it up, and when loading your boat, just drive the d**n thing on to the trailer. 

5. you don't need an anchor

6.  BEST WAY TO WASH YOUR YOBOAT IS TO TAKE IT TO A SELF SERVICE CAR WASH AND WASH THE ENTIRE THING DOWN (AFTER YOU REMOVE YOUR GEAR) ,  to clean the carpet just powerwash or wash it and then take shop vac and suck up water. 

7.  IF you have to upgrade trolling motor , go with the motor guide XI5 and stay away from the loud and noisy minn kota terrova or any of their ilink craptoilets

8.  buy a hydrowave h2

[slonezp]

Congrats and enjoy

[slonezp]

You made such a good choice on that one.  In terms of what makes it a better choice over the bass tracker and the nitro z6 is this.  and this is my personal opinion, i own a 2005 bass tracker pro team 175tx

Compared to the 190 TX , you have much better use of storage space, your carpet will last longer, you will get great gas mileage and still probably have around the same top speed.  The yamaha 4 strokes in my opinion are a little bit better than the mercury 4 strokes ( i prefer my 2 stroke, just easier to fix) .  

 

With the nitro z6 you would have had a more stable platform , but you would have had to worry more about the fiberglass, and towing it would be really heavy.  also gas mileage would be way way worse.  but you probably would have gotten higher top speed. 

 

Ok so here are a few tips for a new boat owner , 

1.  Don't forget to put your 2 drain plugs in the first time you launch or every time you launch.  I forgot 

2.  when backing your boat up , look over your right shoulder , don't try and use your mirrors.

Using mirrors is much easier than looking over your shoulder. Is it possible you just haven't learned to back up a trailer properly?

3.  study the manual when it comes to trimming the motor out

What's to study? Trim down until on plane then trim up. If it starts to porpoise, trim down a hair.

ALSO LEARN HOW TO ENGAGE THE NEUTRAL FUNCTION AND GIVE MOTOR GAS WITHOUT TURNING PROP. 

Why?

4.  when launching or loading your boat , you don't need a rope and you don't need to get in the water.  just let it glide gently off your trailer, walk along side it and tie it up, and when loading your boat, just drive the d**n thing on to the trailer. 

This I agree with but it takes time to learn how to launch solo. Add some wind or current to the mixture and it gets more difficult

5. you don't need an anchor

Says the guy who is 100% confident he will never experience a breakdown or want to take the family out for a cruise and a swim or fish for some other species than bass.

6.  BEST WAY TO WASH YOUR YOBOAT IS TO TAKE IT TO A SELF SERVICE CAR WASH AND WASH THE ENTIRE THING DOWN (AFTER YOU REMOVE YOUR GEAR) ,  to clean the carpet just powerwash or wash it and then take shop vac and suck up water. 

7.  IF you have to upgrade trolling motor , go with the motor guide XI5 and stay away from the loud and noisy minn kota terrova or any of their ilink craptoilets

To each his own

8.  buy a hydrowave h2

Do you work for Hydrowave?

I'm not one for criticizing advice, but you couldn't be more off on some of your points 

[BassinLou]

To the OP, congratulations on your purchase. Ranger tins are nice!!

As far the advice given above. Several of those points are suspect. But hey, we all have our own way of doing things. 

[Slade House]

I'm not one for criticizing advice, but you couldn't be more off on some of your points 

The guy isnt taking the family swimming if he was choosing between a nitro z6 a bass tracker and a ranger.  And with an aluminum boat , you can just park it on shore if you get into trouble. no problem or just tie up to a rocky cliff, done that. an anchor takes alot of room , is all. 

 

my point about letting it glide gentlly (at first keep the front winch clipped) was to steer the man away from the "white rope" trying to load and unload his boat and to learn how to drive his boat onto the trailer.  

 

ALSO LEARN HOW TO ENGAGE THE NEUTRAL FUNCTION AND GIVE MOTOR GAS WITHOUT TURNING PROP. 

Why? 

Gee I don't know maybe you still wait for 10 minutes after your engine is flooded instead of starting the motor in neutral with the throttle engaged .  How do you start a flooded motor? you start it it with the boat in neutral and just a tad bit of throttle.  also comes in handy when you might need to rev the engine when its cold.  

 

Says the guy who is 100% confident he will never experience a breakdown  ?    Ive taken apart my fuel line, cleaned my filter, taken apart my carbs and cleaned the jets in the miiddle of a lake and put it all back together in less than 45 minutes , and i can change my impellor in 30 minutes flat (liquid soap is best lubricant) Im not a mecaniic i just use google. 

 

as for the hydrowave, no i don't work for hydrowave, i was just trying to pass on my experiences with that amazing little box of greatness. 

 

as for the minn kota vs motor guide.  I had an terrova ipilot 80lbs thrust on my boat and took it out 300 days out of 365 last year.  in that time ,

it lost the ability to turn itself off (stupid magnet system) and i had to install a pain in the butt switch just to turn it on or off.  ,

the plastic on the stow pedal broke ,

the thing deployed while driving (never not locking that thing down again) and

cracked the collar and the other thing the collar links to thus its abilty to turn was cruddy.  

DID I MENTION THAT WHENEVER IT TURNED IT MADE A SOUND SO LOUD YOU COULD HEAR IT 2 MILES AWAY? (cheap servos) , "WHIIRRRRRR...WHIRRRR" or my favorite the day it started turning left and wouldn't stop no until i had to cut the power cable.

its lock feature was ok , how about the pedal designed by wildmen from borneo, with no ability to control speed on it. 

oh and the stupid remote required banging just to have it power on cause the battery connection was always so cruddy.

Did i mention that bolt holding the sidepanels broke on both sides ?  

 

so sold it bought a motorguide xi5 which is Ninja silent, way less hyperactive, much better lock system AND BECAUSE THE MAN HAS LOWRANCE FISH FINDERS ON HIS BOAT I WOULD RECOMMEND THE MOTORGUIDE .  (IF YOU HAVE to upgrade fish finder go with the HDS 7 Gen 3 , and not the Gen 2 since the Gen 3 doesn't require you to buy an external structure scan module nor an external router.  the gen 3 has built in WIFI -allows you to use an Ipad as a 2nd unit (not fully but pretty much most features) and built in structure scan

 

as for backing down, if you like using your mirrors to back down fine , most people get confused with the double negative of that situation , if you must just put your hand on the bottom of the steering wheel and that should help.  

 

There hope that explains that i actually do know what im talking about

[slonezp]

The guy isnt taking the family swimming if he was choosing between a nitro z6 a bass tracker and a ranger.  And with an aluminum boat , you can just park it on shore if you get into trouble. no problem or just tie up to a rocky cliff, done that. an anchor takes alot of room , is all. 

 

my point about letting it glide gentlly (at first keep the front winch clipped) was to steer the man away from the "white rope" trying to load and unload his boat and to learn how to drive his boat onto the trailer.  

 

ALSO LEARN HOW TO ENGAGE THE NEUTRAL FUNCTION AND GIVE MOTOR GAS WITHOUT TURNING PROP. 

Why? 

Gee I don't know maybe you still wait for 10 minutes after your engine is flooded instead of starting the motor in neutral with the throttle engaged .  How do you start a flooded motor? you start it it with the boat in neutral and just a tad bit of throttle.  also comes in handy when you might need to rev the engine when its cold.  

 

Says the guy who is 100% confident he will never experience a breakdown  ?    Ive taken apart my fuel line, cleaned my filter, taken apart my carbs and cleaned the jets in the miiddle of a lake and put it all back together in less than 45 minutes , and i can change my impellor in 30 minutes flat (liquid soap is best lubricant) Im not a mecaniic i just use google. 

 

as for the hydrowave, no i don't work for hydrowave, i was just trying to pass on my experiences with that amazing little box of greatness. 

 

as for the minn kota vs motor guide.  I had an terrova ipilot 80lbs thrust on my boat and took it out 300 days out of 365 last year.  in that time ,

it lost the ability to turn itself off (stupid magnet system) and i had to install a pain in the butt switch just to turn it on or off.  ,

the plastic on the stow pedal broke ,

the thing deployed while driving (never not locking that thing down again) and

cracked the collar and the other thing the collar links to thus its abilty to turn was cruddy.  

DID I MENTION THAT WHENEVER IT TURNED IT MADE A SOUND SO LOUD YOU COULD HEAR IT 2 MILES AWAY? (cheap servos) , "WHIIRRRRRR...WHIRRRR" or my favorite the day it started turning left and wouldn't stop no until i had to cut the power cable.

its lock feature was ok , how about the pedal designed by wildmen from borneo, with no ability to control speed on it. 

oh and the stupid remote required banging just to have it power on cause the battery connection was always so cruddy.

Did i mention that bolt holding the sidepanels broke on both sides ?  

 

so sold it bought a motorguide xi5 which is Ninja silent, way less hyperactive, much better lock system AND BECAUSE THE MAN HAS LOWRANCE FISH FINDERS ON HIS BOAT I WOULD RECOMMEND THE MOTORGUIDE .  (IF YOU HAVE to upgrade fish finder go with the HDS 7 Gen 3 , and not the Gen 2 since the Gen 3 doesn't require you to buy an external structure scan module nor an external router.  the gen 3 has built in WIFI -allows you to use an Ipad as a 2nd unit (not fully but pretty much most features) and built in structure scan

 

as for backing down, if you like using your mirrors to back down fine , most people get confused with the double negative of that situation , if you must just put your hand on the bottom of the steering wheel and that should help.  

 

There hope that explains that i actually do know what im talking about

He has a yammie 4 stroke, not a carbed merc. There is no reason to put it in neutral to start it up.

 

I'm glad you are able to completely rebuild a motor while out on the water. Most people cannot.

 

And when a break down occurs with 3 foot rollers on the lake slamming into a rocky shoreline is more like it.  

I'd much rather have an anchor.

 

My Lund is a fishing machine. Doesn't mean the wife and kids never want to go out for a swim.

[Scfisher80]

I appreciate the advice and info.. I'm not a dummy when it comes to boats just electronics and bass boat, I grew up with a high tide ( fiberglass river boat ) with a 60 hp tiller.... I just would like to know how this boat would handle going across the open lake and also the electronics ? Yes I will have a anchor with me always have and always will, it serves multi purposes.

[jamey1e]

I appreciate the advice and info.. I'm not a dummy when it comes to boats just electronics and bass boat, I grew up with a high tide ( fiberglass river boat ) with a 60 hp tiller.... I just would like to know how this boat would handle going across the open lake and also the electronics ? Yes I will have a anchor with me always have and always will, it serves multi purposes.

I recently purchased the same boat and outboard although I bought the Triton version (same boat as the Ranger).  The boat handles open water ok.  Maybe it's just me but when the wind gets up around 15 MPH it just isn't worth it so I stay in the protected coves and be prepared to get blown around quite a bit.   It doesn't take much of a breeze to spin you like a top which so far is my biggest complaint about the boat but I guess that's to be expected with a tin rig.  Judging by your username I take it your from SC?  Which part?

[Scfisher80]

Thanks , I am in Lexington county but live in Springdale ( beside columbia airport )

[jamey1e]

Thanks , I am in Lexington county but live in Springdale ( beside columbia airport )

If you don't mind me asking where did you buy the boat, Berkley?

[Scfisher80]

Yes I did

[Scfisher80]

Where are you at in sc ?

[wnybassman]

an anchor takes alot of room , is all. 

 

Anchors are required to have on board in many states.

[jamey1e]

Where are you at in sc ?

I'm in Mount Croghan which is Northeast of Columbia.  I purchased mine from the same place.  

[Scfisher80]

In Springdale ( west columbia )... how far from columbia are you

[BassnChris]

Congrats.

I love my Lowrance hdi units.

Can't help you with the how it handles.

You don't mention your experience level.......so I'll just throw in a couple of things.

PFD's.....wear them.

Boater safety class if needed.

Have some signaling devices (flares, whistle, ect)

Anchor for emergencies if nothing else.

Practice/get to know your new boat on a calm day or protected cove......up the challenge a little at a time.

Research all you can here on the forum and the Internet.

My biggest scare involved rough water (rough is a relative term).....waves were 2-3'.......never again for me.....I watch the weather and current conditions closely.

Do not let anyone talk you into doing anything you're not 100% comfortable with doing.

Again ....congratulations and enjoy!

[WIGuide]

Congrats on the new rig! I'm sure you're going to enjoy it. I think it should run decently in rough water. Maybe not quite as good as glass, but once you get used to running it it shouldn't be too bad. 

[Scfisher80]

After having it for a cpl days now, I have to say this is the absolutely the best smoothest riding boat I ever had and rode in !!! It handle going across the open lake with ease with moderate boat traffic and breezy conditions !!!! The 70hp yamaha did a awesome job and not one time did I ever feel like I was under power for this boat !!! My family loves riding in it and the kiddo's are asking when can we go back out !!! These are what makes being a dad proud !!!! I do have a few pictures that I can post if I can figure out how to. .

[Canyon explorer]

Lots of good advice here. I would however offer a new perspective on backing your new boat up. Do learn to use your mirrors because as the years go by your boats and the back of your truck may change where you will not be able to see by turning your head.

The best way to learn this is to always put your left hand on the bottom of your steering as you back up slowly turn your left hand in the direction you want your trailer to go. e.g. if you are looking in the mirror and want to angle your trailer more to the right turn your left hand to the right; and visa versa.

 

Learning the mirror system will serve you well no matter what your backing up, boat, house trailer or semi, the system doesn't change.