Finalists in my Boat Search!!!

[Brett's_daddy]

If something needs fixing and we don't have the money the boat will stay where it is covered until we do...simple as that! I've had snowmobiles for most of my life and it's the same with them...something is always needing to be tinkered on and I operated under the same philosophy, if it needed fixing and i didn't have the money the sled sat until I did, did I miss out on some riding time...yup, sure did but such is life, the World keeps on a turnin' and once i did get the money I fixed her up and away I went...same way it'll be with a boat :).

[Allen Der]

11 hours ago, Brett's_daddy said:

NADA says motor weighs 199lbs., where are you getting 96lbs.?

My Gross Vehicle Weight Rating = 4,564lbs.

read this http://www.onlinetowingguide.com/guidelines/gvwr.html

2 hours ago, thomas15 said:

My boat this almost an identical StarCraft. We have two tow vehicles, one is a Ford Ranger 4x4 with a 4.0 Ltr motor and a factory towing package with class 3 receiver hitch. This pulls the boat no problem and I have pulled much heavier loads from NE PA to Wisc. and back no problems. The other is a 2011 Ford Escape with 4 wheel drive but a small 2.5 Ltr 4 banger. I installed a class 3 hitch and have towed the boat with no problems in the Pocono Mountains of NE PA up to maybe 60 or 70 miles one way without incident or issues. I wouldn't make a habit of going that distance with that particular vehicle though. Oddly enough the Escape has a factory installed transmission cooler. Usually I tow the boat literally 2 miles from home to ramp.

I'm pretty sure your escape is rated for 3,500lbs towing, not 1,500lbs.  there's more to towing than just the engine size

[Brett's_daddy]

1500lbs. for a 2011 4-cylinder Ford Escape.

[Kevin22]

11 hours ago, Brett's_daddy said:

NADA says motor weighs 199lbs., where are you getting 96lbs.?

My Gross Vehicle Weight Rating = 4,564lbs.

 

My mercury book. 96# dry. i guess with lube and oil it would be more. 

[Brett's_daddy]

The search continues :(. Went to look at the Starcraft tonight. The seller was a wicked nice guy and very forthright with everything about the boat. The motor ran strong and the cover was exceptional but...it started going downhill after that. As nice as it looked in the pictures once you saw it in person and got up close it didn't look quite as nice. The pedestal seats wouldn't fit in any of the bases no matter how hard we tried, the vinyl main floor had a couple of spots with wrinkles in it bu these were negotiable...what wasn't in our book was electrolysis. The seller did point this out to us...thought he had mentioned it before but I informed him he did not. He fixed a couple of patches with JB weld but after reading up on electrolysis we found that it could be a potentially serious problem. There were already spots in the transom where it literally has eaten away parts (divots the size of your thumbnail) of the aluminum and you could see more spots on each side of the boat. Maybe it could be fixed but from our quick research it became apparent that this problem was more than we wanted to deal with on our first boat. It's a shame too because if it didn't have this problem we may have purchased it (although the seat thing bothered me...only the drivers seat was usable). The seller was willing to haggle more on the price because of this but we just decided that it was a potentially serious problem that we didn't want becoming OUR potentially serious problem. Oh well, unfortunately the search continues (and yes, the Lund sold this morning)!!!

[Further North]

Sounds like you made a good choice - is the Lund still available?

[Brett's_daddy]

Nope, Lund sold yesterday morning :(.