Ranger 619 and 620VS owners

What are your likes and dislikes of your rig ?

HSP ? Where do you mount your electronics? What kicker, if any and how do you control it ?

And by all means lets see your pictures of your rig

I have a 620.
I love it. I would have to say the only drawback I have found is the tendency to spear waves. Once you get used to the boat it is pretty easy to avoid this with your driving technique.
Kicker…Yamaha T8 hands down is the best kicker out there. I have it set to steer from the drivers seat. If you are fishing primarily lakes like Erie or Green Bay you might want to opt for a 15hp or bigger kicker in case the main engine dies in rough water.
I run 2 units from the dash and one from the bow with GPS on the dash and the bow. Gotta have GPS in both places to control your speed precisely with the trolling motor.
You won’t be sorry with a Ranger, 3 years with mine and not a single second thought.
John

I have 619 and it’s great. I have a Johnson 9.9 and it handles the boat well, unlike buckshot my kicker has a tiller handle and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I haave the lower windshield so it sucks in the rain, just remember the glasses. I have an x19 w/gps for the driver and a garmen upfront mounted in the steel plate(by ranger). The cover is the best I’ve seen. This 619 may be for sale later in the year.

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I love it. I would have to say the only drawback I have found is the tendency to spear waves. Once you get used to the boat it is pretty easy to avoid this with your driving technique.

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Dave,
Buckshot hit it on the head here with his statement. In big windy water, the 620 does take a bit of practive if you have never driven one before. I speared a couple waves in my day and can honestly say that most if not all could have been prevented with patient driving techniques. These boats are the smoothest boats out there in rough water in my opinion and you believe you an conquer anything out there. Well, you are still at the mercy of mother nature and must respect that. My 620 has been flawless in big water performance and the 620 will be the only boat I buy from this point forward!!

Good luck buddy in your quest for a Ranger!

what about the rivers ? Ease of trolling, anchoring upstream from wing dams, shallow water(how much water do you need to opreate at a slow speed)

thanks guys …

and where are those pix ?

Spearing Waves I have only speared two waves in my day and each time Buckshot was with

As others have said, I have been very happy with all my Rangers so far. River or lake they work well. Very nice if you are a handliner!!! Also, the lower profile makes them nice for trolling as Wind does not catch the bow as bad as with some of the other boats. Great Ride, you would be very happy with a Ranger.

I dont think buckshot has never been so scared in his life, it even looked like he peed his pants .

I run the 620 as well with yamaha 225 hpdi and 8 hourse kicker with operation from the drivers council. The only changes I would make would be a full windshield (personal preferance) and “maybe” a tiller mount kicker. I am not happy with the controls on my kicker when I turn left the rps slow down and when I turn right they speed up. Ive had it in several times for this with no results. Ive been told to change the cables out to a softer cabel that will flex a little better and that will cure the problem??????????? Just dont think you should spend 40,000 and have to swithch cables when I no others arent having this problem. And yes I have speared a few in my boat as well, just need to learn the boat. Thanks to scott I have learned what to do in a bad situation like filling the boat full of water say 500 gallons, I could have put myself in a bad situation if not for his advice.

I have owned both a 619 and a 620.

The 619 I ran for 2 years and loved it – when my transducer would read .9 feet and headed shallower, then the boat would get stuck – found this out in the backwaters of pool 3… these boats don’t need a lot of water to float in…

I like the tall sport windshields (plexiglass) I don’t think the full are made well enought to withstand a season of fishing.

I run a global map (GPS only) and a combo sonar/gps unit on my dash with two different receivers to the dash and have both an in-hull and external transducer on the to the dash. I like redundancy so you can help yourself in a hurry if you have a problem. I run a combo unit on the bow because there are times when you need to stay on an icon or watch contours on the GPS screen also.

I put my 619 through a lot of big water – Erie, Saginaw Bay (4-7′ one day…), Lake Sharpe, Mille Lacs, etc and it performed flawlessly. Does it spear waves – any boat can. As I got comfortable and more patient (key word) I learned that you can still run in big waves safely and comfortably.

Here’s a shot of it for you Dave!

ted

I ran a 2004 620 last year – a little different. This boat rides the waves differently, I suspect due to the longer length, more width, more engine set-back and slightly different hull, etc. I ran suspension seats and really liked them. When you are pre-fishing for 5-6 days straight and then head into a 3 day tournament you do your best to be fresh – this was one of my keys last year (I am not getting any younger or magically in better shape – unfortunately!). There are larger storage boxes in the 620 and 2 additional rod tubes – both huge adbvantages to this boat in my view.

Stillakid was with me for a rough day last year on Mille Lacs pre-fishing for the (then) RCL League event – he had a nice post on how the combo of the boat and suspension seats (www.laketamer.com) made miserable condions on the water a ‘non-factor’. I had the boat in honest 8-9′ at Bay de Noc in early June during a strong blow from the SE as I ran back from fishing south of the Cedar River to the Gladsone access (yes I know that I could have launched at the Cedar River, but how fun would have that been?) and never speared a wave – I did get wide eyes a time or two though…

The comments Scott made about the low profile are definitely an asset – less work fighting your boat while positioning your baits and more time fishing. The keel seems to extend farther towards the front of the boat to help keep you on course whether you are trolling or jigging…

I really do love these boats and for the record, I am sponsored by Ranger. I approached them in the fall of 2001 looking for assistance to start fishing Pro-Am formatted tournaments. Prior to that I had the experience of 30+ days riding with other pro’s over the course of 4 years as an amateur and evaluated many of the boats on the market. I chose to target Ranger as I felt their boat gave me a competitive advantage. Today I still feel the same.

For 2005 I am running a 621 with Yamaha’s new F250 4-stroke. My expectations are that this rig will continue to provide a competitive advantage to my tournament fishing.

For 2006 ??? Who knows, it will be a Ranger and I will have a Yamaha on the back – as to what model??? they all catch fish!!!

Here’s a shot of my 620…

Feel free to PM me or email me at [email protected]

ted

ok…another question for the Ranger Guys …and gals !!!

What are the minimum temps you put your Rangers on the water ? What about Ice ?

I just bought a 619 and have had it out 3 times in the last week. And mine wasnt the only one out there! I wouldnt worry about the temps. BUT Just like any other boat drain out all the water!

The ice, well DONT hit it!

Now thats A nice looking rig Brian ! What all do you have on it ? What HSP ? This is the one you’ve been talking about …right ?

It has a 200 on back. I am pretty sure im going to go with a 9.9 kicker but havent put one on yet! I have a x15 on dash an x85 up front and a x67c in back for trolling.

Heres a ? for all the ranger guys when your wide open whats the max RPM you will go to! I was told 55. But I was also told my boat will only go 55mph and Ive already had it at 60 mph solo at 55 rpms hmmm.

Dave, I have fished next to the ice so I would imagine the water is still pretty cold. I do not have any pictures of my new rig because it is in production. Ordering your first Ranger can be a little confusing because there are so many options and features you can add.

One thing you may want to do is take a look an RCL package and see what options are on that boat. Usually those options are ones you would want on any boat.

Here is a pic of my rig after taking a midday break from the walleyes to let my yellow lab Bailey run around on the sand bar. I have run this boat nearly all winter last year. I do not worry about the ice too much, as long as you drain everything out like Brian mentioned.

In most situations, fiberglass is more often than not cheaper to fix without a doubt. I love these boats! I am ready for a new one soon!

Here is one more shot of boat with the rear platform installed. This neat little feature turns this walleye rig into a very versatile multi-species boat. Takes 5 minutes at the most to put in or out of the boat.

I have a 617 tiller with a yamy 80 four stroke. I have never got my boat to spear a wave but it does like to land a$$ end down when jumping crusier wakes on the river .
the only down side to my boat is that the live well is in the back and in rough water it leaks and soaks your pants and shoes and the guy sitting in front of you if you are good RANGER the best there is …………….

Dave,
I’ve had my 620 for a year now and absolutely love it. A couple of things to keep in mind. One, stay away from the full glass windshield unless you plan on doing the “Sunday drive” thing. My partners 620 is proof of that. I have the tall individual pods which work great for blocking wind, rain and bugs. The low cuts, in my opinion, are NOT the way to go. It’s like a low cut windsheild on a snowmobile, they look cool but serve on purpose.
Second, if you plan on doing a lot of back-trolling, the counsel 620 would not be a very good choice as it does not have much for splash protection to prevent 3’+ waves from coming over the back. I would like to hear what other 620 owners have to say about this. My 620 does have a 6″ jackplate which seems to make the rear end of my boat ride about 1″ lower than normal, but I don’t think 1″ should make that big of deal.
I personal to not backtroll that much so that did not concern me. The 620, however, is a trolling machine, and that is the reason I bought one.
I forgot to mention one bad thing about the tall pod windshields. They will snap in half when 100 gallons of water hits them from spearing a wave. . . . ouch.
Good luck Dave on your Ranger purchase.

I do remember your rig Shaggy…but do you got any pix of it ?

And where in the Heck were you for the GTG on the ice down here ?

one more question…what is the difference between the VS and the DVS ?

single console (VS) dual console (DVS) if i’m not mistaken

I am proud new owner of a 620VS!

Nice! Nice! Nice! Do fish for swamptrout out of dat boat der?

Swamptrout only when the eyes are not biting!!!

Nice boat Ranger29. Won’t forget what that one looks like. I will surely know when your around. I think the color’s pretty cool

I have a question to add for you Ranger guys. When you have the rear casting deck in, can you still only have 2 seats in the bottom of the boat? The ereason I ask is 2 years ago I had a complete order ready to go for a new one and decided not to as a 2 person boat doesnt do much good for me on a guide trip.

OK – I will try to answer the latest round of questions, others feel free to correct me.

VS – single console DVS dual console

Backtrolling – contact wave wackers and have a custom splashguard made (~$300) that kept most of the water out of my 619. I did not run one on my 620 because I primarly fished water where forward trolling or jigging off the bow was the presentation and sold the boat after using it for less than 6 months. This splashguard is removable and mounts like typical wave wackers to a piece of extruded aluminum channel that is mounted to the raised glass portion between the splashwell and the rear livewell: here’s a shot of it off the Yamaha website via the starboard side: http://www.yamaha-motor.com/products/otb/WalleyePro/600/Ted_Merdan_038.jpg
here’s a shot from the port:
http://www.yamaha-motor.com/products/otb/WalleyePro/600/Ted_Merdan_033.jpg
I personally liked how the Rangers backtroll after being a tiller man up until the last few years- I feel like the hull really lifts up and over the waves not trying to crash through them. The splashguard keeps most of the waves out and the 2 bilge pumps take care of the rest while keeping my feet and the carpet clean.

Rear deck and guiding: when I was running bass trips (shhh… keep that queit) with 2-3 customers on board and the rear deck in, I would have them sit on both the storage boxes and a throwable while holding onto the stainless rails beacuse there is only 1 mounting position left (the center one) when you intstall the rear deck.

Hope this helps,

ted

5200 rpm for my mercury.Tom

Dave,

I thought maybe you could post a pic of my high speed fly-bye on Erie last year. Oh man was that a blast out there.

Sorry about missing the GTG, I really dropped the ball on that one. I’ll email you will the details.

5900 RPM EVI H.O., 21 pitch 3 blade SS = 60.3 on the GPS

Ok guys here is another question for you!!! When you trailer your boat or running on the water, how do you keep your kicker motor in place?? How do you strap it down to keep it from bouncing around? That is one thing that I have not figured out yet?