I have always fished with my dad who has an 18 ft Xpress with a 125 hp Mercury. I am starting to look at boats for myself and I am curious about the speed difference between Xpress aluminum boats and comparable fiberglass boats (skeeter, triton, or nitro). Does anybody know the speed difference between:

18 ft Xpress with a 150 and an 18 ft fiberglass with a 150?

or

20 ft Xpress with a 200 and a 20 ft fiberglass with a 200?

I know that different fiberglass boats have different top end speeds but I am just asking in general. If anybody has any pros and cons from experience with Xpress boats and fiberglass, I am all ears.

Thanks for any help.

I have 19 ft xpress with 150 that runs about 64 at 5600.

Really depends what you want to fish...if you want to go deep on a windy day, the answer is pretty easy.

There will not be a lot of speed diffence in the hulls as long as your talking about the padded Xpress hulls aka: Hyperlift. Holeshot will be blistering, but top end will be about the same as a glass rig.

Pros -- All metal construction will last forever, tough in stumpy lakes (Aluminum will dent, Fiberglass will crack) Shallow water draft (the Xpress I had would float in 4" of water if you used a push pole, as the neither the TM of big motor could get water)

Cons -- Light and sits high in the water, so wind will blow you around on the TM, rougher ride in choppy water, usually narrower beam / smaller front deck compared to same size to Glass rigs.

All in all, I have owned and operated both. I would not hesitate to buy another Xpress as they are nice rigs, but I believe I like the glass better. In shallow/stumpy water I would take the Xpress all day, but I fish deep 10 months out of the year. If you spend a lot of time offshore fishing, you will like a glass rig better.

I had a X19 TS and regaurdless of what they say there is no such thing as dry storage. lol

As mentioned above they blow around quiet abit in the wind while fishing. They are a great starter boat as mine was. The xpress is solid and I had zero issues with the hull. They are great for going shallow aswell.

As far as speed.....The hole shot is awesome. Top end on my X19 with 200 yamaha best i ever seen was 77(at which point i couldnt control it and had to back out).

Over all they are a good boat.