Love the thread!!!! Everyone says its beating a dead horse but people are lining up to grab that stick! I just wish I had one of either. I fish off a 17' astro. Kinda like fishing from a golf cart!

I have had both and personally for my taste and preference they are the best two platforms to fish from. Both companies have great quality, great customer service and a strong mix of performance and fishability. You can tell that both brands had a lot of thought put into them and were designed by fishermen. Loving the Ranger and I have zero complaints about either brand. Would run either in a heartbeat and will probably always own one or the other as long as I own a boat. Tried a LOT of other brands but these two just fit me best.

Can cutter or Cajun with evinrude

Guides need a boat that is dependable, safe, and fishable. Most guides I've ever been out with have a ranger.

I want to know which model skeeter can touch a newer ranger z521

I've riden in 3 types of boats and here's my thoughts.

Ranger - Heavier on the water but smooth ride. I can fish all day out of it on the lakes or choppy river You lose 5-10mph top speed wise but then again that depends on the prop pitch, configuration etc.

Skeeter - Lighter boat. Ride quality isn't as good as the Rangers. Fast boat. Alot of deck space. Lower gunnels = better for short people pitching.. haha

BassCat - Long, skinny, fast and light but doesn't handle rough water well. We fished a river bass tourney and had to switch to my ranger because it handled the rough river/wind better.

Those are just purely my opinions. Treat it as such.

You cannot go wrong with either boat....but it's Ford over Chevy all day long. It would be a landslide victory if Ford would ever fix the front end problems on their trucks. :-)

People always say that Rangers are heavier than comparable Skeeters. just not true these days. When I was reseaching my Ranger before I bought it I was surprised to find that when comparing the Ranger Z520 series to the Skeeter iClass boats(which are similar class premium tournament rigs) the Rangers are lighter in every size class even though the Rangers are all a tad longer than same length class Skeeters.

Z520- 1825lbs(20' 9")
20i- 1850lbs(20' 2")

Z521- 1900lbs(21' 3")
21i- 1930lbs(21' 0")

Z522- 1940lbs(22' 4")
22i- 1980lbs(21' 8")

Ride in my ZX 21 then.

I would go with anything that floats and dosent need a repair every other time you take it out.

I really like the Ranger though!!! That ranger z521 that Jersey Dan is talking about its a fine piece!

You know what's best about these threads???? It's that they get more replies than any other topic discussed on this forum. Further more the majority of those replies are people who detest these posts and wish them banned or not asked because they are a waist of their precious time to respond to. Yet they keep on replying. ??????

Ranger Z521.

Skeeters aren't bad boats at all, but Rangers are just a little better at everything in my experience. I've fished out of a buddy's Z521 multiple times, another friend's ZX250, and an FX20 about 3 days (30 hours). The Ranger's fit and finish is just better than the Skeeter. Little things like seats, controls/console, live well size, rod straps, and storage hardware (latches) is just bigger/nicer/better. That adds up.

No slam on the Skeeter. I will consider one once its time to upgrade boats. I'm poor folk and have to buy used and find the value. A used Ranger will cost ~10k more than a comparable Skeeter. You can find two or three I-Class Skeeters in the used section right now that are under 5-6 years old and between 25-30k. That's a hell of a bang for the buck.

Both are great boats.

Both are great. Skeeter are cheaper and good boats, while ranger are better with some models, but a lot more pricey.

If you have the money and are very serious go ranger. If you want a great boat and are lacking in the money area go skeeter.

I just bought a used ranger...and for me it came down to where I "felt" I found the best deal for the money while taking all the options into consideration such as electronics, pp's, HW, TM, etc. I looked at rangers, skeeters, legends, bass cats, triton, basically all of them. They are many great boats out there and my only requirement was that it had to have good electronics, PP's, and need to be 19.5' - 21'.

I just looked at the cost of purchase less what I thought I could get for it in a couple years to determine actual cost of ownership. So for me it basically boiled down to pure economics and how good of a deal I got on the initial purchase.

And after looking at many boats (a lot of boats) I thought I found a bug priced low enough that drove down the overall cost of ownership and went with it. It just so happened that this time it was a Ranger, and I like it a lot. But my next one may be a skeeter, or other good boat.

I took more of a pragmatic approach because I felt myself being drug into the Chevy vs Ford scenario...so I went with straight up economics. This may bite me in the future....not sure yet, but it is they way I went about it.

What do you prefer, real or implants? That's about the range of answers you are going to get with an open ended question.