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Trotlines

Also, it's my first time buying a jon boat. Appreciate some advice. Here are the specs. It's a 15 foot long by 36 inches wide aluminum flat bottom 1976 model Fisher jon boat. Has a 18 hp Evinrude Fastwin tiller handle motor in excellent condition. Thing looks brand new inside. Includes the trailer too. Asking price - $1600 obo. Should I haggle? Is that a good price? Any suggestion on an offer?
 
Also, it's my first time buying a jon boat. Appreciate some advice. Here are the specs. It's a 15 foot long by 36 inches wide aluminum flat bottom 1976 model Fisher jon boat. Has a 18 hp Evinrude Fastwin tiller handle motor in excellent condition. Thing looks brand new inside. Includes the trailer too. Asking price - $1600 obo. Should I haggle? Is that a good price? Any suggestion on an offer?
@Nutterbuster you know a lot about boats, what you think?
 
@Nutterbuster you know a lot about boats, what you think?
I'd run it before I gave him dollar for it. Period. If it leaks or the motor does anything other than crank right up and run like a scalded dog, I'd be out regardless of the price. Put it through the paces. Forward, reverse, neutral, slow roll, wide open...try to make it do wrong. I hate fixing boats and motors, and my experience is that bargain boats are a bargain for the guy who gets rid of them and doesn't have to fool with them ever again.

Keep in mind johnson and evinrude are both out of business and while aftermarket parts still exist, they're drying up. None of my local mechanics will work on them anymore because customers complain about paying more for labor and parts than what they paid for the used motor. So down here at least, it's on you anytime the cowl comes off. I'd call around to see who works on them before I bought one unless I was positive I could handle rebuilding the thing.

Welded or riveted hull? A 50 year old riveted boat has issues. Those issues may be some pinhole leaks you can live with or cracked ribs and a rotted transom. I wouldn't buy an aluminum boat I couldn't see the ribs on. Cracked rib is a deal breaker.

I bought and sold a lot of old boats and finally said "screw it" and bought a brand new weldcraft last year. It'll outlive me barring theft or a catastrophic accident. I scimped and bought a diy mud motor kit for it but plan on also picking up a new 20hp tiller steer at some point. For me at least, the joy is in running the snot out of them, and not so much the fixing them up. I've put 80 hours on this one with no fiddling except for changing the oil and gassing it up. I don't think the last 4 boats and motors i owned before that gave me 8 straight without some issue cropping up.
 
Also, it's my first time buying a jon boat. Appreciate some advice. Here are the specs. It's a 15 foot long by 36 inches wide aluminum flat bottom 1976 model Fisher jon boat. Has a 18 hp Evinrude Fastwin tiller handle motor in excellent condition. Thing looks brand new inside. Includes the trailer too. Asking price - $1600 obo. Should I haggle? Is that a good price? Any suggestion on an offer?

I’ll chime in on this as well as I’ve done my fair share of purchasing used water crafts... there are a bunch of things that can go wrong on a motor. There are a few that can go wrong on a boat.

First, the obvious, check to make sure the motor runs. To be more specific, be sure the motor doesn’t have any kind of miss of lug down when at a certain speed. This could be something as simple as a clogged hi speed jet in the carb or as complex as the head leaking pressure. If it runs and everything checks out there. Make sure the motor is peeing(water hold coming out of the back of motor).

Next I’d move on to the lower unit. After you finish running it, I’d ask to see the lower unit oil just to make sure there isn’t any water in it.

Check the prop to make sure it’s spinning straight. There should be a small dimple in the middle of the prop shaft that you can spin the prop and see if it spins true.

I’d also bring a compression gauge and see if it’s high or low.

Nutter and my opinion varies quite a bit on whether or not to buy. If the motor didn’t run very well and had good compression, to me that means it’s likely a fuel issue and could be easily solved with some new fuel, fuel line, carb cleaner, or carb rebuild(you can do all of those). If it ran bad and had a low compression, I’d tell the guy I’m just interested in the boat.

Be sure you know the laws on getting a boat registered in your state. Here in LA you can’t get a boat registered unless you have the registration on it. So if I buy a used boat I try my best to be sure it has that. Sometimes the deal is too good to pass up due to not being registered and then I have to try to work a few loop holes to see if o can get it registered.

Also, my primary hunting boat is a 1978 Duracraft that’s riveted and it had a few pin hole leak.. nothing a drill, a rivet gun, and a few rivets can’t fix.


My primary fun boat is a 1991 alweld I had repaired and put a new motor on.. I just wanted something nicer.

Let me know if I can’t help you in any way.

God Bless



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
@DanielB89 makes good points. I guess I would mostly agree with him provided you are ok with knowing that you will at least initially spend more time working on things than running the boat. But, given that you are asking a forum if the price is right and what to look for, I'm going to assume that you're where I was when I bought my first used boat. Smart enough, but not particularly outboard engine savvy.

A hunting boat is in my mind much different than buying a pleasure or fishing craft. You're gonna use it in remote areas when it's cold and dark. It HAS to work. Stalling out halfway back to the ramp after you've spent an hour or two getting a deer out of the woods is no bueno. The list of people who will come help you out at 9pm when it's 20° out is short.

Everything has a life span. A 50 year old motor is not getting better with age. As long as they have compression and you can get parts, you can make them go. In theory, anyways. If it was that simple you'd see a lot more of them running and fewer sitting around going to heck in people's back yards.

Just seals are an "easy" thing that can become a royal PITA in the real world. If, say, the seals on your carb are trashed, easy fix. But if one piece of rubber is gone, others are probably not doing great. It's like light bulbs. One goes out in a fixture, and they're probably all gonna go out in the next few weeks. So how's your lower unit seal? What about your head gasket? Fuel line is rubber too, and you might as well replace that while you've got everything apart. How's the spark plug wire? Impeller, well it's just a given that you've gotta replace that. Yank on the pull rope to fire her up and....the dang thing just broke. Sounds like a comedy routine, but it ain't that far off from my experience with old OMC motors in my meager budget.

You can quickly drop a couple of hundred bucks on $10 parts, and that's to say nothing of the labour you'll put in. Still a good deal?

If you do buy it, I'd go ahead and spend the $50 to order the manufacturer's service manual for that time frame and horsepower range if they still have that offer. I had to buy mine through a place that prints one-offs of out of publication manuals. Buy a spark gap checker and a compression gauge, and at a bare minimum plan on new foot oil, new spark plug, new impeller, and a carb rebuild.

Oh, and check those trailer bearings before you ride off into the sunset with your new summer project.
 
I'd run it before I gave him dollar for it. Period. If it leaks or the motor does anything other than crank right up and run like a scalded dog, I'd be out regardless of the price. Put it through the paces. Forward, reverse, neutral, slow roll, wide open...try to make it do wrong. I hate fixing boats and motors, and my experience is that bargain boats are a bargain for the guy who gets rid of them and doesn't have to fool with them ever again.

Keep in mind johnson and evinrude are both out of business and while aftermarket parts still exist, they're drying up. None of my local mechanics will work on them anymore because customers complain about paying more for labor and parts than what they paid for the used motor. So down here at least, it's on you anytime the cowl comes off. I'd call around to see who works on them before I bought one unless I was positive I could handle rebuilding the thing.

Welded or riveted hull? A 50 year old riveted boat has issues. Those issues may be some pinhole leaks you can live with or cracked ribs and a rotted transom. I wouldn't buy an aluminum boat I couldn't see the ribs on. Cracked rib is a deal breaker.

I bought and sold a lot of old boats and finally said "screw it" and bought a brand new weldcraft last year. It'll outlive me barring theft or a catastrophic accident. I scimped and bought a diy mud motor kit for it but plan on also picking up a new 20hp tiller steer at some point. For me at least, the joy is in running the snot out of them, and not so much the fixing them up. I've put 80 hours on this one with no fiddling except for changing the oil and gassing it up. I don't think the last 4 boats and motors i owned before that gave me 8 straight without some issue cropping up.

Who are you and what have you done with [mention]Nutterbuster [/mention]
 
@DanielB89 and @Nutterbuster thank you for the advice. I saw it in person Tuesday and saw it run in a barrel of water. We are meeting tomorrow’s and are taking it out on the water to give it her paces. After talking to the guy I’m thinking I can get it for about $1300. If she runs like a scalded dog (love that analogy @Nutterbuster) she will give me some fun times and lessons from the school of hard knocks to help me on my boating path. If I just start with a good one, I won’t know what I’m missing. I do like to tinker so working on it could be fun. In the end the price is right enough that if it’s not the path I’m looking for or I decide it’s time to upgrade, I should be able to get most my money back by selling. I’m buying it with a buddy so the price is even better and any cost/work is shared. I’ll keep you posted.
 
@Bama_Xander, that's one of my strategies too.. When I get something new, I try my best to be sure it's at a price where I can sell for at least what I have in it.
 

Sarah has turned into the deadliest catfisherman i know. She's been 3 times and caught fish every time. Can't beat a 100% success ratio!

I will definitely be running more limb lines this year. I usually get a really great hookup rate on them. Last night I had fish on 3 out of 5 lines we set. Last year I had a few nights with 70 and 80% catch rates.
 
No trot lines, but smacking the white perch pretty good. Today is supposed to be close to 70 and the tide is going to be perfect all afternoon. Knocking out risk assessments and timesheets for work, then it’s either to the river or to the boat project.
 
No trot lines, but smacking the white perch pretty good. Today is supposed to be close to 70 and the tide is going to be perfect all afternoon. Knocking out risk assessments and timesheets for work, then it’s either to the river or to the boat project.
Nice. I knock off at 12 today, bit it's because Sarah's grandad has been in a bad way for a while and is in the ICU right now. :(

But...the heathen in me wonders if we'll wrap up visiting and have time for a sneaky little boat ride.
 
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