MacPointMan
Petty Officer 2nd Class
- Joined
- Jun 15, 2010
- Messages
- 114
About a month ago I purchased my Invader after exaustive internet searching and research. My advise thread resides here.
http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=407124
I posted much of this there but wanted to share my adventures to date and in the future with the rest of the iboats forum members. I have enjoyed reading forums here immensely especially the restoration forum. I hope that no one minds me reposting the bulk of this message to share.
I bought the boat while I was on R&R from my tour in Afghanistan during the first two weeks of July. I had a lot of fun cleaning her up and running her around lake Lanier and Lake Jackson (My local Lake). My family enjoys the boat especially my 4 year old daughter.
I very nearly bought a brand new Bayliner 175 with a Mercruiser 3.0 and Alpha One drive. My wife loved that little boat but in the end I decided to make the drive from Kennesaw to Lanier Marine Liquidators to take a look at some older used boats.
Once we got there I asked Billy about a couple of boats that I was interested in and he told me that they were already sold but he had just the boat for me. He also told me that the boats that I was interested in were really not worth my time and effort and said that I was going to love the Invader.
Well he was right. I looked at it and checked her out talked with Household 6 (The Wife, thats Army speak for the commander he is the 6 element when referring to him on the radio) she was quite nervous about buying an older used boat. Billy offered to put the muffs on and crank her up and let me check her out, a step that would I would have had him do anyways. After that My wife was much more comfortable. I made the deposit and the rest is history.
Bottom line doing business with Billy and Lanier Marine Liquidators was a pleasure. Their operation is more of a salvage and older used boat business. Their facility is not pretty by any means. They do their best to take care of their customers and Highly recommend making the visit to check anything out that you are interested in. If you are in the market for a used or a project boat this is definitely the place to check. The link is below.
http://www.laniermarine.com/
Here is the rest of the story so far.
She is a 1988 Invader 181 powered by a Mercruiser 3.0 and a Mercruiser Alpha One Drive. Will be putting her in the water as much as possible when I get back home in mid September.
I bought her AS IS from Lanier Marine Liquidators in Dawsonville / Gainesville Ga. First day out I put her in the water and started her up and backed her off the trailer. she ran for a couple of minutes then quit. Woah dang my buddy and I had to swim her back into the dock thankfully not too far.
While doing so we saw another guy putting in and waved to him asking for his help He blatantly told us "NO". He had his kids and all on his boat. Great example, Thanks guy. I told my buddy to remind me to never leave anyone stranded on the water.
We put her back on the trailer and took her back to Lanier Marine. They pumped the tank primed the motor for us and even replaced the winch tower on the trailer for us. we went on our way fueled up the boat and put her back in the water. She ran great we put 6 hours on her that day.
Lanier Marine has been great. They told us to let them know if we have any more problems they do their best within reason to fix it.
I Had her out on Lake Jackson with the family and she backfired under full throttle quite a bit. I towed another boat in to the marina with no issues however on the way back to the marina that we put in at she only gave me about 5 mph and wouldn't shift unless I turned the motor off and restarted her. I did a bit of tinkering, checked her out and saw that the motor had thrown the belt and the throttle cable came loose from the post it goes on. I checked the spark plugs the next day and found one that was completely fouled.
I took a trip to NAPA and ordered the necessary tune up parts and a new Belt. I Picked them up the next day, installed the spark plugs and replaced the belt. I was taking the family to Lake Lanier the next day so on the way we stopped at Lanier Marine. They reattached the throttle cable to the post it is supposed to go onto without any problem for me and told me to bring her back if I had any more issues. after that she shifted and ran like a dream.
The tachometer and the volt meter don't show accurate readings so I will have to troubleshoot that issue but the battery holds and gets enough of a charge to keep it from dying and continues to start the boat. I carry a Brand new marine battery as a spare just in case. I may need to replace the alternator for those gauges to work. Apparently the Tachometer gets its readings from the Alternator which would explain the issue with both gauges not giving me a proper reading.
She needs to be wet sanded buffed and waxed to get her all shiny again. The gellcoat on the Hull is pretty old and has a few cracks in it but otherwise she is in great shape she may need to be repainted.
She will get a new prop next season and I am exploring having the Drive cleaned up and repainted with the boat as well.
the Icing on the cake is when I took my 4 year old daughter out on the boat together she kept on saying "Go faster daddy" I would slow down and she would say "No daddy I want to go fast". When I took the family to Lake Lanier I could not get her off the boat when the day was over.
Lanier Marine included a Bimini top with the boat I will probably have it installed at the beginning of next season.
All in all a good experience. No regrets and can't wait to get to boating again. Ill get her back to TIP TOP shape. She is a boat that I can be proud of.
Currently she is parked at my Mom and Dads house because my driveway is too steep to get her up without the drive hitting the concrete pavement. Despite the perfect parking space right next to the house. Our next house will have an accessible and covered parking spot for the boat. Thankfully we do not plan on living in this house but for a few more years.
It is official I am now a member of the boating community and the Driveway Captains Club of America. Beers taste so good while sitting in the boat listing to the radio.
Here is the link to the Lanier Marine listing for the boat. They still don't have her listed as sold but she most definitely is.
http://www.laniermarine.com/pre_owned_detail.asp?sid=04289209X8K2K2010J9I47I51JAMQ3441R0&veh=1735618&nv=y
I have the bug and after getting some experience and knowledge I plan on buying a project boat. I figure that there is no better way to learn about boats than to research and build one yourself.
Plans for this boat so far:
Have the Hull wet sanded, Buffed and waxed.
Check some trouble spots on the Gelcoat and have them repaired during the off season the water line has some fouling as the boat definitely sat in water for extended periods of time.
Look at having a swim platform installed (I will gladly take any information that you can give for this).
Have the drive cleaned up and repainted if it will make a difference.
Reprop her at the beginning of next season.
Have the Bimini top installed and look at getting a custom boat cover made for her as the Hull has snaps all the way around it for one.
Thank you for reading my book. I hope you enjoyed it so far. I will be posting my adventures, experiences, other issues, and questions here.
If anyone has any experience or knowledge with G.W. Invader boats I sure would like to know. I do know that they are no longer in business and started in the 50s building fast little 10 foot boats. I understand that they built each boat to order and custom and that the Hulls are very strong as a result.
MacPointMan
http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=407124
I posted much of this there but wanted to share my adventures to date and in the future with the rest of the iboats forum members. I have enjoyed reading forums here immensely especially the restoration forum. I hope that no one minds me reposting the bulk of this message to share.
I bought the boat while I was on R&R from my tour in Afghanistan during the first two weeks of July. I had a lot of fun cleaning her up and running her around lake Lanier and Lake Jackson (My local Lake). My family enjoys the boat especially my 4 year old daughter.
I very nearly bought a brand new Bayliner 175 with a Mercruiser 3.0 and Alpha One drive. My wife loved that little boat but in the end I decided to make the drive from Kennesaw to Lanier Marine Liquidators to take a look at some older used boats.
Once we got there I asked Billy about a couple of boats that I was interested in and he told me that they were already sold but he had just the boat for me. He also told me that the boats that I was interested in were really not worth my time and effort and said that I was going to love the Invader.
Well he was right. I looked at it and checked her out talked with Household 6 (The Wife, thats Army speak for the commander he is the 6 element when referring to him on the radio) she was quite nervous about buying an older used boat. Billy offered to put the muffs on and crank her up and let me check her out, a step that would I would have had him do anyways. After that My wife was much more comfortable. I made the deposit and the rest is history.
Bottom line doing business with Billy and Lanier Marine Liquidators was a pleasure. Their operation is more of a salvage and older used boat business. Their facility is not pretty by any means. They do their best to take care of their customers and Highly recommend making the visit to check anything out that you are interested in. If you are in the market for a used or a project boat this is definitely the place to check. The link is below.
http://www.laniermarine.com/
Here is the rest of the story so far.
She is a 1988 Invader 181 powered by a Mercruiser 3.0 and a Mercruiser Alpha One Drive. Will be putting her in the water as much as possible when I get back home in mid September.
I bought her AS IS from Lanier Marine Liquidators in Dawsonville / Gainesville Ga. First day out I put her in the water and started her up and backed her off the trailer. she ran for a couple of minutes then quit. Woah dang my buddy and I had to swim her back into the dock thankfully not too far.
While doing so we saw another guy putting in and waved to him asking for his help He blatantly told us "NO". He had his kids and all on his boat. Great example, Thanks guy. I told my buddy to remind me to never leave anyone stranded on the water.
We put her back on the trailer and took her back to Lanier Marine. They pumped the tank primed the motor for us and even replaced the winch tower on the trailer for us. we went on our way fueled up the boat and put her back in the water. She ran great we put 6 hours on her that day.
Lanier Marine has been great. They told us to let them know if we have any more problems they do their best within reason to fix it.
I Had her out on Lake Jackson with the family and she backfired under full throttle quite a bit. I towed another boat in to the marina with no issues however on the way back to the marina that we put in at she only gave me about 5 mph and wouldn't shift unless I turned the motor off and restarted her. I did a bit of tinkering, checked her out and saw that the motor had thrown the belt and the throttle cable came loose from the post it goes on. I checked the spark plugs the next day and found one that was completely fouled.
I took a trip to NAPA and ordered the necessary tune up parts and a new Belt. I Picked them up the next day, installed the spark plugs and replaced the belt. I was taking the family to Lake Lanier the next day so on the way we stopped at Lanier Marine. They reattached the throttle cable to the post it is supposed to go onto without any problem for me and told me to bring her back if I had any more issues. after that she shifted and ran like a dream.
The tachometer and the volt meter don't show accurate readings so I will have to troubleshoot that issue but the battery holds and gets enough of a charge to keep it from dying and continues to start the boat. I carry a Brand new marine battery as a spare just in case. I may need to replace the alternator for those gauges to work. Apparently the Tachometer gets its readings from the Alternator which would explain the issue with both gauges not giving me a proper reading.
She needs to be wet sanded buffed and waxed to get her all shiny again. The gellcoat on the Hull is pretty old and has a few cracks in it but otherwise she is in great shape she may need to be repainted.
She will get a new prop next season and I am exploring having the Drive cleaned up and repainted with the boat as well.
the Icing on the cake is when I took my 4 year old daughter out on the boat together she kept on saying "Go faster daddy" I would slow down and she would say "No daddy I want to go fast". When I took the family to Lake Lanier I could not get her off the boat when the day was over.
Lanier Marine included a Bimini top with the boat I will probably have it installed at the beginning of next season.
All in all a good experience. No regrets and can't wait to get to boating again. Ill get her back to TIP TOP shape. She is a boat that I can be proud of.
Currently she is parked at my Mom and Dads house because my driveway is too steep to get her up without the drive hitting the concrete pavement. Despite the perfect parking space right next to the house. Our next house will have an accessible and covered parking spot for the boat. Thankfully we do not plan on living in this house but for a few more years.
It is official I am now a member of the boating community and the Driveway Captains Club of America. Beers taste so good while sitting in the boat listing to the radio.
Here is the link to the Lanier Marine listing for the boat. They still don't have her listed as sold but she most definitely is.
http://www.laniermarine.com/pre_owned_detail.asp?sid=04289209X8K2K2010J9I47I51JAMQ3441R0&veh=1735618&nv=y
I have the bug and after getting some experience and knowledge I plan on buying a project boat. I figure that there is no better way to learn about boats than to research and build one yourself.
Plans for this boat so far:
Have the Hull wet sanded, Buffed and waxed.
Check some trouble spots on the Gelcoat and have them repaired during the off season the water line has some fouling as the boat definitely sat in water for extended periods of time.
Look at having a swim platform installed (I will gladly take any information that you can give for this).
Have the drive cleaned up and repainted if it will make a difference.
Reprop her at the beginning of next season.
Have the Bimini top installed and look at getting a custom boat cover made for her as the Hull has snaps all the way around it for one.
Thank you for reading my book. I hope you enjoyed it so far. I will be posting my adventures, experiences, other issues, and questions here.
If anyone has any experience or knowledge with G.W. Invader boats I sure would like to know. I do know that they are no longer in business and started in the 50s building fast little 10 foot boats. I understand that they built each boat to order and custom and that the Hulls are very strong as a result.
MacPointMan