Buy a truck or join a marina?

[Fishing Dude too]

Re: Buy a truck or join a marina?

Check what the tow cap is on your vehicles, then check weight of boat and trailer. You might get by with what you have. As far as the marina I live in the slums of lake Erie dock 600 ft from lake cost $150 a year.

 

[AZBoatDreamer]

Re: Buy a truck or join a marina?

And that is a whole different calculation, I'm assuming a modern DD truck that gets half decent milage- Fords with the V10 get some of the worst unoaded and loaded milage of any truck built - part of the reason that people practically give them away these days.

Giving them away. Not sure where you base your facts on. My truck does what I need it to and I do not worry about mpg. I have plenty of pulling power for my boat and Travel trailer.

 

[oldjeep]

Re: Buy a truck or join a marina?

Giving them away. Not sure where you base your facts on. My truck does what I need it to and I do not worry about mpg. I have plenty of pulling power for my boat and Travel trailer.

Local market a 2000-2005 V10 F250 sells for 6-12K if you can find someone to buy it. They do pull fine but are not too many peoples choice as a combo DD/tow rig due to the milage issues, exhaust flutter and popping spark plugs through the hood in some years.

I'm in an offroad club and between the bunch of us we've had several of just about every pickup made, so that is where I get most of my info from.

 

[Leardriver]

Re: Buy a truck or join a marina?

Buy a boat that you can tow with your current car. There are plenty of 18 foot outboards that weight 2500 lbs that a car can easily tow.

 

[oldjeep]

Re: Buy a truck or join a marina?

Buy a boat that you can tow with your current car. There are plenty of 18 foot outboards that weight 2500 lbs that a car can easily tow.

They are looking at a ski boat. An 18 foot with an inboard is in no way equivilant to a ski boat.

 

[ezmobee]

Re: Buy a truck or join a marina?

Buy a boat that you can tow with your current car. There are plenty of 18 foot outboards that weight 2500 lbs that a car can easily tow.

Cars typically have a 1000 lbs tow capacity.

 

[jayhanig]

Re: Buy a truck or join a marina?

I bought my 2007 Ranger XLT (3 liter with 2wd and automatic transmission) last year to pull an utility trailer. I customized it a little with a double DIN satellite radio, backup camera, amplifier and subwoofer. It came with all the comforts of my Taurus sedan already and now I find it's my primary vehicle. I get 24 MPG in the truck vs 30 MPG in the car but it is just so much more capable. As it turns out, the utility trailer is seldom needed since I have the bed of the pickup to use. In lieu of a toolbox, I have a large 5 day ice chest in the back to transport groceries or hide stuff I don't want just sitting out in the weather.

It's got enough beef to pull my 17' bowrider out of the water and on down the road, though mileage drops to 16 MPG when I pull it. Being 2 wheel drive hasn't seemed to be a problem. It can cruise highway speeds pulling that boat with the transmission temp climbing no higher than 170 on the hottest day.

If I had to do it again, I'd have bought a stronger truck merely so I could upgrade boats as I choose. As it is now, I'm pretty much at the limits of what I'd ask of it.

 

[AZBoatDreamer]

Re: Buy a truck or join a marina?

Local market a 2000-2005 V10 F250 sells for 6-12K if you can find someone to buy it. They do pull fine but are not too many peoples choice as a combo DD/tow rig due to the milage issues, exhaust flutter and popping spark plugs through the hood in some years.

I'm in an offroad club and between the bunch of us we've had several of just about every pickup made, so that is where I get most of my info from.

Agree F250 v10 is not a good DD Vehicle. I bought mine sole purpose for towing, and camping.

Im happy regardless of its current value. I didn't purchase for its great gas mileage.

 

[reelfishin]

Re: Buy a truck or join a marina?

Keeping the boat in the marina will limit where you can boat and make do it yourself repairs and cleaning a hassle. Besides, money spent to keep the boat at the marina is money that could be spent on a truck, which in turn has other uses. If you like you gas mileage, buy a third vehicle, in most cases, with a good driving record, a third vehicle on you policy is minimal. I pay less than $300 per year to have a third vehicle on mine and I'm in NJ where insurance is insanely high.
If you can store the boat either indoors, inside a garage or under a cheap metal roof, you will add years to the life of the boat and it will no doubt make taking care of it far easier. Coming home late at night after a day on the water and having to flush the motor, clean the boat inside and out and secure a cover on it properly is a real hassle.

If storage at the marina is not covered, there's no way I'd go that route, unless you look at your boat as a short term investment and don't care if it gets sun or weather damaged. Most marinas around here just have open docks and dirt parking yards for boats not in the water. They also charge a fee to put the boat in and out of the water as needed too.
Keeping the boat in the water full time will also mean more boat maintenance as well, you will have to consider a good bottom paint, probably every season depending on the growth there, a trailered boat generally don't need any bottom paint.

 

[airdvr1227]

Re: Buy a truck or join a marina?

No one's talked about wear and tear on the trailer yet. Marina's bearings don't fail on the way to the ramp.

 

[Sunsetrider]

Re: Buy a truck or join a marina?

My Subaru Forester (small 4-banger) is rated to tow 2400 lbs. The Sea Ray 175 Sport (4.3 l, 190 hp) I am looking at is well under that. Will possibly need a helium-filled trailer though.

 

[oldjeep]

Re: Buy a truck or join a marina?

My Subaru Forester (small 4-banger) is rated to tow 2400 lbs. The Sea Ray 175 Sport (4.3 l, 190 hp) I am looking at is well under that. Will possibly need a helium-filled trailer though.

Sea Ray 175 Sport weighs 2100 dry without a trailer. Close to 3000lbs on a trailer with fuel and stuff in it.

 

[V153]

Re: Buy a truck or join a marina?

Marina vs. truck: I've done both. Trailer sailor these days. Yet there are so many variables, each situation is unique. In my case the current boat's much smaller than some I've owned in the past.

The ramp where I launch majority of the time is owned by our Civic Association. It's only a lil one holer with an L shaped dock but there's rarely any congestion. Has a rinsedown station in the parking lot. $75 bucks a year. Can pull out of my driveway'n be there in the time it takes to smoke a cigarette.

Sad to report the Mom & Pop marinas are all but gone. Down here at least. Reason being some genius in Tallahassee decided those small businesses needed to be taxed at the same rate as the surrounding condos & Mcmansions. Naturally they couldn't compete and the corporate boys moved in.

Having said that I have friends who keep boats at marinas in dry storage and love it. I dunno, lil pricey for me. For that kinda money make sure yer on the top rack of the boat barn, preferably near the corner ...

 

[lncoop]

Re: Buy a truck or join a marina?

No one's talked about wear and tear on the trailer yet. Marina's bearings don't fail on the way to the ramp.

True, but a spare set of bearings is twenty bucks or so and in most cases is only required if simple maintenance is neglected.

 

[Sunsetrider]

Re: Buy a truck or join a marina?

Sea Ray 175 Sport weighs 2100 dry without a trailer. Close to 3000lbs on a trailer with fuel and stuff in it.

The NADA site screwed up and must have listed it without the engine. I double-checked and it shows the same weight as the OB model; I'd better make sure there is no fuel or other stuff in the boat when I pick it up!

 

[capslock118]

Re: Buy a truck or join a marina?

Here is my personal story if it helps:

3 years (maybe 4) ago we bought our 19' sea-ray. At the time we only had one vehicle between the two of us, a nissan versa.

The boat was at a dock and we really wanted to have a dock with the boat; we knew we would use it a whole lot more if we didn't have to worry about pulling it in and out of the water every time.

Still, we needed a way to pull the boat in and out of the water at-least once each per season to store it for the winter, we can afford the summer season but it doesn't make economical sense to have it stored for us in the winter, especially since I work on it in the off-season.

Well I said let's get my friends ford escape manual transmission to pull it in and out of the water.

Then I realized that would never be reliable. So we bought a truck, a '94 dodge ram 1500 4x4.

So, we bought a truck after we bought the boat, and it's turned out to be well more useful than just hauling a boat around twice a year, it's good for all the yard work and furnishing our house.

We are still primarily a one-car family, we never use the truck unless a pick-up is required or my wife needs the car when I need a vehicle at the same time.

The moral of the story is - if you can work with it, you should be fine.

 

[tswiczko]

Re: Buy a truck or join a marina?

You could always do both...

Then you would have a truck to lend to family members and friends to move, haul dirt, clean out their back yard, etc.

and you could get the boat from the marina to take it to different lakes in your area.

 

[lncoop]

Re: Buy a truck or join a marina?

Of course you might have to invest in one of those bumper stickers that says "YES THIS IS MY TRUCK. NO I WON'T HELP YOU MOVE".