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I'm looking at buying a used boat soon and came upon a 98 R80 I believe and was wondering what everyones opionions are on these. Its an 18 foot boat w/ a 175 Merc efi. Will I be able to fish most of the big lakes around here effecively w/ this boat? Do these boats have any drawbacks? Thanks for your time
I've got a Ranger R71...17 footer and it does everything I need on Indiana waters. The only problem I've ever had is one time down on Ky Lake the waves got too high for me to run all out. Other than that...it's perfect for these small Indiana waters. Never had any signifigant problems at all. Solid boat.
The waves down here on Ky Lake can keep any bass boat from running "all out".
[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON Jan-07-06 AT 11:49AM (EST)[/font][p]I didn't have the money to buy a Ranger, or I would have. By far the nicest boats that I looked at the Indy Boat show.
I would think that buying a used boat, the motor is going to be the biggest concern, just like buying a car. How well the previous owner took care of it is key.
If your going to be worring about rough water, a bass boat deck layout is not what you would want in my opinion. A Lund Deep V or a Lowe Fishing Machine type boat is more of what you want.
I bet a '98 Ranger boat would be just like new. Just check the motor out real well. I heard a nasty rumor about the Merc EFI series being real bad on gas economy. Lots of power, bad on fuel consumption.
[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON Jan-07-06 AT 06:40PM (EST)[/font][p]Yeah I will for sure check the compression before I do anything else. I've not been able to see it in person yet, and just wanted to get some opinions first. It looks like a pretty nice boat. I for some reason was thinking the efi's were suppose to be more fuel efficient than the carbed models. Thanks for your input. Does anyone know a website that you can check on the boat values.
Check out [url]www.iboats.com[/url]
Cept the barges.
[url]http://www.boattraderonline.com/services.html?buyingguides[/url]