Lund Explorer 1800 SS

Finally getting to a point of seriously looking at boats. This will be the first real boat I buy, have fished out of Alumacrafts, Lund alaskan, and a variety of glass boats in the past. Most of the use will be on Sakakwea in ND and variety of lakes in Ontario and Manitoba.

The boat is a 2004 with a 150hp Suzuki 2 stroke. Anything in particular I should look for on the boat and motor? Transom? Soft floor?
It has been stored inside and the guy says the motor runs great. I will insist on a test drive if it gets that far.

Thanks!

I ran a 2004 Lund Angler and it was a great boat for a long time. You’re on the right tract but I might have a mechanic do a compression test and check out the motor. I don’t have any experience with Suzuki 2 strokes but the 4 strokes are pretty bulletproof.

You might want to see if the guy has service records if he did any work through a shop. Check the transom, floor, look for missing rivets, etc. Also good to make sure all the wiring looks sound and the accessories work. Sometimes guys add stuff and do a pretty sloppy job on wiring – that can be a pain to deal with.

Good luck!

I own a lund 1800 explorer tiller (2004). It’s a good size boat but overall light for it’s size and less hull weight compared to similar sized lund models. A benefit of that is great gas mileage and also easier towing. Good boat for small to medium size lakes. I’ve fished my boat in larger bodies of water (lake pepin, red lake, and chequamegon bay lake superior). It does OK at best. A 2-3 foot chop you’re bouncing a lot and getting wet. Not sure if I would take it out in more than that.

I ran a 2005 1800 ss with a 140 Suzy. Boat was great, no complaints. I don’t have any experience with the 150 2 stroker. Only reason I sold it was to go to a full windshield.

Bought that exact package new from Crystal Pierz Marine back in 2004. Ran it for seven years. Loved the boat. Handled big water fine. If you’re expecting it to be dry with just a single bubble then you will be disappointed. My passenger routinely sat behind me to stay out of the spray. Fished mostly Mille Lacs so had a mix of wave types.
The motor I had was not my favorite… would just fly when it ran. The needle and seat in the VST tank cap vent would never seal and forced extra fuel into intake manifold causing it to never idle properly. Would load up and stall in the most poor of instances. Ended up learning it was a casting defect from Suzuki and finally fixed it by taking a cap from a blown up motor that actually idled. Dealer had replaced the tank cap four times and couldn’t find a good new one. Also had water in the port cylinder bank that were rebuilt three times under warranty. The second summer it was at the dealer for eight weeks because port cylinder jugs were scarce due to that issue. Last time I looked on Brownspoint.com which is a huge Suzuki dealer on the east coast that I routinely got parts from, they were unavailable. I finally figured out that the water was coming from the exhaust covers on the side of the cylinder becoming loose due to no lock washers or thread locker on the mounting bolts from the factory. You could see the water streaks on the gasket that sealed the water jackets in the head cover and would leak water into bottom cylinder. Final straw was a blown stator that cost me $1500 the last fall I owned it. I had figured out the low speed electrical circuit was bad and wouldn’t start. Took it into local dealer(different than original one) because I didn’t have tools to pull fly wheel and wasn’t interested in that mess, they confirmed my diagnosis after asking to borrow my service manual since they didn’t have one for Suzuki two strokes.
I probably got the one bad motor out of a thousand good ones. I didn’t get too upset since the original dealer really went the extra mile to try and get that motor fixed.