Got the new boat home today.

It's finally home. Gonna start rigging it up tomorrow. Really think I'm going to hate this Ultrex though, probably going to ditch it and sell it. It just takes up too much deck space, and you can't take the foot pedal off of it, because that is where the power comes in at.



Tested the interior lighting after the sun went down.

Oh man, that is one nice boat!



Congrats!!!

I see you got the bench seat option. Sweet!!

I was checking them out, looks like they have a neat optional forward storage compartment that doubles as a step. Did you get one? It looks really cool.

I bet you can't wait to take her out, but the weather looks to be challenging this week.

I notice it has a double axle trailer. How long is it?

Overall, it's almost 26 feet from prop to hitch, with the transom saver on.

Yes, also has the forward storage/step. Another reason i really liked the way the boat was ordered. You can see it in the pic with the led's on. That's the second latch.

Ooooh, that's a big area of real estate to fish from.

I


It's also much deeper than I thought it would be. Nearly as deep as some of the deep V boats I was looking at. Got to take it out yesterday on lake Hamilton in Hot Springs, where I picked it up. Handled 1.2 foot of water with ease, and ran 48 mph with four people in the boat. Thing handles like a go cart. These 2072 Excel Stalkers have a fit and finish that's much better than some of the other 2072's I was looking at also. Got a lot of folks asking about it when I would stop for fuel, food, or bathroom breaks on the way home. Another nice thing, since they are right on the lake, they were able to do the break in for me, before I even picked up the boat.

Very nice!!!

Well done Z. Nice looking rig there. Looking forward to seeing it rigged and ready for battle!

Congrats Z. Love that new boat feel. The anticipation of getting it rigged and on the water is a killer!

Nice boat!

Love the rigging up of a new War Horse! Your gonna want to sleep in that thing!!

Nice congratulations!

Congrats

Very Nice! Looking forward to seeing some pics of how you rig it. Oh, and I remember telling you that you could take the foot pedal off. Sorry about that, I think I got your Ultrex confused with the Ulterra.

No biggie, I'm going to call Minn Kota tomorrow and ask them if it will void the warranty if I cut the cord ahead of the foot pedal, and just wire the power cord there, of if they have some way of taking it off I can buy.

Of course, that's IF I can get through to customer service. Definitely won't be the first time I've been on hold with them for hours, and/or not gotten a return call when I left my number. Their customer service lacks much to be desired. But, I like their products.

Have you got it on the water yet??

Nope. Still waiting on MSO for motor. Spoke to TPWD today, and they told me I could go ahead and get it out on the water, as long as I had copies of the boat MSO. Dealer got the boats and motors in before the received the MSO, and Yamaha is draggng it's feet.

LOL, I figured there'd be a rooster tail flying from behind that thing about thirty minutes after that phone call!!

Nice rig

Nice!

Taking it to the Brazos tomorrow, to hit the sand bass run.

Finally got the boat out yesterday. Absolutely love it, fast, smooth dry ride, even in the 20 mph head wind we encountered in some parts of the river. Hate the trolling motor. Electronic steering is the worst idea ever. Give me a cable any day. It also seems to me that it has almost no power at all. Even with a tail wind, it would barely break 1 mph. The 12V 55lb thrust on my pontoon felt like it had way more guts than this Ultrex. And of course, it's so massive I broke one of the plastic shaft support brackets off first day out, when my pants leg got caught on it, and about threw me off the bow of the boat. Naturally, you have to just about disassemble the entire motor to change out one piece of plastic. Doesn't affect the performance, but looks like garbage.

Guess I also found one of the drawbacks of having the biggest motor you can have, put on. About as slow as it will pull the boat idling is 3 mph. I was hoping I could get at least 2 mph out of that Ultrex, but no way Jose.

Congrats Z! Glad you got the maiden voyage out of the way. How was the Sand Bass run?

The electric steer takes some getting used to, for sure. Especially if your a used to cable. I don't remember the size TM you have, but guessing it's a 24v/80lb. I'm surprised it wouldn't pull closer to at least 1.5. I get 1.5 out of mine. What's the dry weight on that thing?

Z, I'm surprised that you're not getting more thrust out of that Ultrex. Mine is a 36V/112lb and it flies. I know mine has more thrust but I've got a 20' fiberglass bass boat that's super heavy. The power steering took some time to get used to. I really don't like the noise that it makes and there's no control over the speed of the steering. Sometimes I just want to make a slight adjustment and it seems like it turns 90 degrees in a split second. I think I would prefer a cable if they could engineer some type of spring assist for it. With the cable steering you almost have to be standing to be able to turn it easily.

My biggest gripe with the Ultrex is the spot lock. If there's a little wind it has no problem locking onto a spot and staying locked on, but if there's no wind you can forget it. It'll wander all over the place for a few minutes and every single time it'll spin all the way around and kick off. Maybe I don't have something set right, I don't know. It is better than what I had so, there's that!

Glad you got it out though. Like Tim said, how were the sandies? I caught a few of them last week in the river above Grapevine but I don't think they're in full swing yet.

The boat is light, it only weighs 1300 lbs. I've seen these units on video, and the steering flies on the ones on video. Mine is extremely slow, and the delay with the remote makes it even worse. I got 1.7 with zero wind out of a 12volt Powerdrive, 55 lb thrust on my pontoon, and it weighed almost 400 lbs more than this boat. And yes, it's a 24/80

All of the ones I've watched on video, are really loud, and spin fast when you steer. Mine is dead quiet, and slow to steer. Almost like it's running on 12 volts, but it won't even come on if the voltage is less than 22, according to Minn Kota. Plus, I know it's wired right. Jumper from one battery positive to the other battery negative, and the trolling motor hooked one battery positive, and the other battery negative

Sandies for us were tough. I threw everything I had in the boat at them and only managed two big females and two dink males. I think part of the issue for us was the inability to troll at the right speed. it was either 1.1 mph with the trolling motor or 3.2 with the big motor. Guess I need a trolling plate on the big motor.

Slow for us bud, managed two big females, and two dink males. We were marking them, and trolling through them, but they didn't like anything I threw. All of them except one came on a 3/8 red eye shad rattletrap, the other came on a silver spoon. Like I mentioned earlier, I think part of our issue was inability to troll at the right speed.

Man, there's gotta be something wrong with that thing. As light as your rig is, you should be able to really move. If it's slow to steer there must be something not right somewhere. I wish I was close to you and we could do some testing with a Fluke. It's quite possible there's some kind of wiring defect or something. You should take it in a get it tested. After everything you've done and spent you definitely have the right to be satisfied. I hope you get something figured out. I know what it's like to be in your shoes. It's like getting a pizza delivered and finding that they forgot to put cheese on it. but on a much bigger scale! Like after you've been stranded on a deserted island for two years....

Yeah, I'm gonna call Zack at Southwest marine electronics tomorrow and run it by him, and see what he says. It's gonna be right, or it will go back, and I'll put an Ulterra on it. The lazy man's trolling motor...lol

I was going to say you might should check the batteries. I've seen brand new ones go bad before and if one is just slightly bad, it will have a significant negative affect. No reason at all it shouldn't pull that weight 2mph or probably more.

Checked the batteries already. Found the problem though. Somehow I missed they had the positive and negative off the trolling motor, on the same battery. And I even intentionally looked for just that. Took a reading off the plug, and yep. 13.73 volts

similar story, when I got my V16 the bilge wouldn't pump. I started thinking wow this is a tight boat. Then I figured out after I found some rusted tools in the storage bin that they had crossed up the bilge pump out tube with the drain tube from that storage box. So when I would switch the pump on, it was just filling that storage compartment with water. I switched the tubes and all was good after that. Only casualty was an old pair of pliers that rusted solid...

Good looking boat! Hope you enjoy it.

Ultrex work much better with 24 volts. Was able to open it up to nearly 3 mph, on the trolling motor, easily managed 2.2 on speed 7. Thought it was really sucking the juice from my batteries till I realized we trolled over 4 miles yesterday, and used spot lock numerous times as well. Also, part of that trolling was against a 16 mph headwind.

Good you got it sorted.

How are you liking the boat, power, handling, space etc?

Absolutely love the boat. Handles like it's on rails, the hydraulic steering is something I'll have on every boat from now on. Gets up on plane almost immediately, and runs about 48-50 mph in just about any conditions. 52-53 in perfect conditions. About the only thing i gotta put on the deck is my bait tank, or a cooler. most everything else stays in the boat all the time in a designated spot. We were running in a 16 mph headwind the other day, so water was definitely not smooth by any means, handled it like a champ, without beating me to death. And in super shallow water, it will go right through it. Got up in about a foot the other day in the Brazos, looking at new spots, up in some coves, and tributaries.

Only thing I'm going to add to it, is some sort of trolling plate for the big motor, so I don't have to use my battery power up when trying to troll for sandies, or striper.