Does anyone have any experience with aluminum center consoles (xpress,g3,etc.)....quality, how smooth or rough the ride is on a choppy lake, etc.

Thanks

I had a Lowe Roughneck 18 feet center console. I liked the boat. I had it on Tawakoni a few times and it did ok but rough water is really not its strong suit. Then again I had the thought that if the water was too rough for that boat, it was too rough to be fishing, at least for me.

Rough ride is the experiences I have had in them. My cousin has a Lowe Roughneck 20' CC, that I have run a lot, and it will rattle your teeth loose in medium chop. A good friend has an Xpress 20' with the Hyper Lift Hull, and it rides better than the Lowe, but is still rough. They have their place, but rough open water is not where they shine. Sea Ark and Boat Right make the best two tin boats I have seen.

I got one. I like it. It will handle rough water, but you have to slow down from a fast that isn't fast. Mine is set up for shallow water, I like it for that.

I had a G3 that I ended up not liking and selling. I have a Seaark and love it, but just about any tin boat is going to be a rough ride in the chop. Deadrise is also going to have a lot to do with the ride in rough water, three degrees being the roughest.

Look at the polarcraft outlanders it will handle ruff water and lots of storage

My XP-18CC is like any other mod-v, it's a beating where the severity imcreases in direct proportion to the size of the chop. It's just a question of which type of person you are, the kind who rips the band-aid off quickly or likes to peel it off real slow. Because in moderate chop, once you go about 15mph the beating is about the same as 35mph. In rollers it's torture, but it's a Mod-V, that's to be expected.

Ride did seem to improve a bit with the addition of the jackplate, the hull generally rides higher now and seems to skim smaller chop better than it used to.

After four years of use, and a few battle scars, my Xpress seems tough enough. Have a buddy with a G3 that's closer to 10yrs old, he's pretty rough on his and it is still in good shape.

Sea Ark is known to be tough, and Alumacraft is another one to look at as well.