I believe a .100 hull is fine for tin boats up to 19' and a 115 hp engine. But larger 20-21 ft boats with 150 hp and up probably need a .125 hull.

Totally agree....👍

19ft and shorter .125 , 20ft and larger .190

It depends if the boat is welded or riveted, I’d want it thicker if it’s welded. The lund is a .125 bottom, .205 front area.

My 2003 Fisher Pro Hawk 180 is .100 and has been run in rough water it's whole life. I had it stripped to the hull during my renovation.....not a single bad weld.....solid as a rock. The primary reason, IMOP, is that it was running a 75hp when I bought it (very well built too, good welds). I'm now running a 115hp strapped to a 6" JP and am watching it very, very carefully....so far, so good.

I think tin boat manufacturers were overly optimistic when they decided to run 150hp/200hp + engines on .100 - .125 tin hulls. ESPECIALLY the shallower V hulls which aren't all that far removed from a flatbottom hull. Then add HJP, poles, etc and you're dumping on awful lot of weight on the transom. Load up the bow with an 90#+ TM, multiple graphs, 360, LS, etc etc etc and that's a lot of weight to carry through rough water..... stresses on the hull.

One other thing, again IMOP, just because you can weld doesn't make you a "welder."

One other thing, when I was trying to figure out which boat to buy for my lil project I studied a bunch of em. I narrowed it down to the Tracker Tournament V18/Fisher Pro Hawk 180 which are essentially the same boat. One of the primary reasons for this decision was, unlike most others, I couldn't find a bunch of complaining about broken welds.

Grand, again I'm just at the onset of this project, but do you think any of the group of these boats that I am going to look at are still riveted hulls?

Great point on the "welder" comment, friend of mine has said you know what they call the person that finished dead last in their medical school class.....Doctor. So curious have you fished your boat around a lot of timber and if so have you dinged it there?

I thought I saw a pic of a 1875 pro v bass on your video, I think that’s the only one. I am considering going back an aluminum boat myself just because you can get the extra row of seats in the xs models on the Lund. I look forward to all your results, just like the glass boat videos you did, I would’ve judged stuff differently- but you put a lot of thought and effort into that I think everyone can appreciate.

Thanks, I try to be as objective as I can but we are all colored a bit by our experiences and the experiences of our friends!

I’d say whatever specs Tracker uses should be the standard

I looked at rigs at the top of this category and I believe most if not all where .125 inch.

.190 for sure for the bottom, I have a Gatortrax with .125 gauge and it looks like a waffle it’s bent up so bad but I run a lot of timber. If your going to be in any timber .190 gauge is a must.

Nellie which model do you have?

One other factor that I'm learning in this is if the boat has "bends", meaning it doesn't have really long wide flat pieces of aluminum in the hull or sides they tend to be stronger and not flex/bend as much. Those bends, ridges and corners actually add some strength...maybe not the exact correct way to say that but the big flat pieces of metal are apparently where you see the most dings and dents