Advice needed on 12'-14' jon boat purchase.

[Texasmark]

That rig looks like my Lake John, wide and high sides.....great boat. Being aluminum and wide and flat bottomed, that 25 ought to push her along at 30 or so. Nice rig.

I had a Toyota, the small sized truck before they made the full size...forget the name. Made the rack from the tailgate to the front of the bed out of electrical steel conduit.....scraps from dumpsters I welded (learned how to weld) together.

I would drag the 10' boat up to the rear of the truck, turn it around, push it up close to the bumper and lift the bow up and onto the rack upside down. Then get on the stern and lift it the rest of the way with some of the weight being on the truck's rack. I was around 40 at the time, in good shape and it wasn't a walk in the park but not that hard.

I had deliberately purchased the 71/2 Merc. because it was light enough to not be a problem moving around.....the boat was pretty fast and I thought about upgrading to a 9.8 but that never materialized.

I probably had more fun getting back into protected waters with that boat for trot line fishing for Channel Cats and minnow fishing for Crappie. After a rain the cats would come up the little creeks from the lake. I'd get up early and go and run my lines before work, come home clean up and go to work. Then after work would be back at the creek. This action would last about 4 days after a good rain....it was over before you got tired of it. The Crappie fun was in the spring when they moved up the creeks to spawn.

 

[MtnHaul]

Although I haven't made a purchase yet I found another boat builder that seems a better fit than the three I was looking at--Marlon boats. The 10' and 12' both look very nice, fit between the wheel wells of a full size pickup, and appear to be incredibly stable. Anybody heard of them/owned one? They're made in Canada if I am not mistaken. More money than a Lund, Lowe, or Tracker.

 

[Texasmark]

Lund has the best reputation, probably cost more as well . The upside is the resale value is much higher than the other two brands and will be easier to sell when it comes to that . That hull would be my first choice , would not buy either the Lowe or Tracker , have not read anything good about them , especially the Tracker .

The Lund reputation may have to do with the location of their customer base dictating their popularity. Down here in Tx. they are a minority. I have currently have a Crestliner 1750 Fish Hawk and they are few and far between down here....but you go up North and they are popular....same thing with farm tractors....Case IH are few and far between but JD is everywhere. Have to go up North if looking for a used one.....BTDT

 

[JimS123]

My Dad started boating in the late 1930's. He bought an old woodie from Sears Roebuck and often recalled how he and his brother lugged the old girl on top of the car to go boating. When he came back from WWII they got a trailer.

In MY youth, before I could afford a boat of my own, we would get a small tinny from a local neighborhood "renter guy", and haul it to the river to go fishing. It wasn't too heavy, and back then pickemup trucks were only for contractors, so we put it on the roof of an old Chevy.

When I finally got a boat of my own, it DEFINATELY was on a trailer.

Sorry to hijack the thread, but if you have a boat you need to store it somewhere. Sitting it on a trailer takes up no more space. IMHO, after you've hauled one around in a truck for awhile, it may cause you to get out of the boating hobby. Too much hassle.

 

[MtnHaul]

The Lund reputation may have to do with the location of their customer base dictating their popularity. Down here in Tx. they are a minority. I have currently have a Crestliner 1750 Fish Hawk and they are few and far between down here....but you go up North and they are popular....same thing with farm tractors....Case IH are few and far between but JD is everywhere. Have to go up North if looking for a used one.....BTDT

I'm sure regional popularity in relation to availability is a factor. Even chainsaw chain gauge has regional differences despite little or no difference in performance/quality.

 

[MtnHaul]

My Dad started boating in the late 1930's. He bought an old woodie from Sears Roebuck and often recalled how he and his brother lugged the old girl on top of the car to go boating. When he came back from WWII they got a trailer.

In MY youth, before I could afford a boat of my own, we would get a small tinny from a local neighborhood "renter guy", and haul it to the river to go fishing. It wasn't too heavy, and back then pickemup trucks were only for contractors, so we put it on the roof of an old Chevy.

When I finally got a boat of my own, it DEFINATELY was on a trailer.

Sorry to hijack the thread, but if you have a boat you need to store it somewhere. Sitting it on a trailer takes up no more space. IMHO, after you've hauled one around in a truck for awhile, it may cause you to get out of the boating hobby. Too much hassle.

I know someday the trailer will look better than it does now but a trailer would be much more of a hassle to store than just a jon boat on some supports, and where I live you can't legally tow at more than 55mph, which is probably a good thing as some people really don't know what they're doing but it sure is a pain on long trips. And there are no decent sized bodies of water less than a 2 hour drive from home. My main reason for wanting a smaller boat is that I intend to go a lot of places where there is no launch ramp and most aluminum 10, 12, and 14 footers are light enough to wheel over to the water. I'm still in my 40s and fit so a 140lb boat isn't much of a concern--for now. I get there is no one perfect boat in every way but I'm trying to find the best compromise between budget, available space, projected use, and physical ability.

 

[airshot]

Consider this....most insurance adjusters will tell you that a small tinney upside down on supports are far more likely to disappear in a windstorm than a small tinny attached to a trailer !! I know this from experience, more than once !

 

[MtnHaul]

Consider this....most insurance adjusters will tell you that a small tinney upside down on supports are far more likely to disappear in a windstorm than a small tinny attached to a trailer !! I know this from experience, more than once !

Fair enough but a larger problem for me are Redwood trees. I live in the woods and a trailer is one more thing for a massive branch to customize. In all likelihood I will keep the boat below our raised deck because it is out of the way and doesn't increase the fire danger. We had a nasty wildfire about 4.5 years ago and many things have been reevaluated since.