Re: What is better for a lake finshing boat?
Re: What is better for a lake finshing boat?
Agreed. Conditions will dictate your needs. Lake Erie is a lot different from the pond down the road. However, very generally speaking, aluminum boats are a bit cheaper and easier to maintain. You can fix practically anything on them with materials and tools form the local hardware store. They also tend to handle scrapes, scratches, dints and dings better. Kind of like blue jeans vs. slacks. On the other hand, fiberglass boats are shinny, pretty, and have nice smooth edges so they may be a bit more practical for the wife and kids.
As far as motors go the debate between 4-stroke and 2-stroke motors generally comes down to gas mileage and maintenance. Again very generally speaking, 4-strokes get better mileage and are quieter like modern cars, BUT they are much heavier than a 2-stoke of equal hp and use lots of black box, electronic wizardry to squeeze all they can out of the fuel, which means if something goes wrong, you probably won't be able to fix it yourself. They also tend to cost more upfront and there isn't much of a "vintage" market for them for parts, etc... Instead, your motor's magic black box, will have to talk your the mechanic's magic black box and then he'll charge you $150 for an "hour" worth of labor before he's even picked up a wrench. 2-strokes are generally simpler, lighter at a given hp and have more torque on the low end than most 4-stokes. However, they can be a little louder and eat more gas.
Again, these are broad genralizations and there are of course exceptions to every rule, but aluminum/2-stoke combos are a bit more utilitarian (there's a reason Jon boats are generally aluminum and not glass), whereas f'glass/4-stoke combos tend more towards the pleasure boat side of things.
Let the debate and dissent begin!
P.S.
There's a reason you don't see many folks here in the forums trying, or able to save their old 4-stokes, but the old 2-stokes just keep going, and going, and going.... My 20 hp is 12 years older than I am and still running strong
Plus, all the old timers at the dock get a kick out of it, and I usually start in pone pull and leave the dock while the fancy, 4-stoke guys are still trying to fire up their stealth bomber of a motor and scratching their heads.
