reviews wanted pro or con for tracker boats

I was wondering if anyone would share their opinions on tracker boats. I am looking at a 2002-2005 17 ft. deep-v w/a 50 mercury. any info good or bad would help me a lot. thanks, eelpout

It’s a entry level boat that is generally underpowered. If in good shape it will be fine if not underpowered.

Dutch,thanks for taking the time to reply. I thought the same thing about being under powered. I was thinking a 90 should move her good enough not sure about a 50

On the coast guard plate it will list the max hp allowed.

eelpout wrote:

I was wondering if anyone would share their opinions on tracker boats. I am looking at a 2002-2005 17 ft. deep-v w/a 50 mercury. any info good or bad would help me a lot. thanks, eelpout

I agree with Dutchboy on it being underpowered. I had a 17′ Targa with a 90 HP and eventually bumped it up to a 115 HP. Big difference. I highly recommend going with the max HP that the transom is rated for. Otherwise, these boats are great. Just be ready to get pounded a bit in big water with big waves!

I have a 2011. It’s what fit my budget at the time. I’ve always stored it inside and I haven’t had any issues with it other than the trolling motor was under powered. With that said, certain parts aren’t as well made and storage isn’t great but like anything, take good car of it and it should last you a long time.

i own a 2005. 165 with 50 Mec(max 29mph) i think the boat is good,nothing wrong but after few years i want to upgrade :Lund or Alumacraft because all friends and neighbors own them.! Dutchboy is right ,it’s a entry level boat.

I own a 1999, 16ft v-hull and I’m very happy with it.

Pros:
-Gets you on, and moves you on the water
-Lower purchase price compared to other aluminum boats, especially in MN where Lund, Alumacraft, and Crestliner are considered the best.
-Generally good layout of storage and fishability (I love the layout on my Tracker, top reason why I purchased my boat, after price)
-Lightweight which is nice for loading/unloading, towing, and maneuverability
-Price doesn’t break the bank

Cons:
-Generally underpowered
-You won’t fit in with the almighty Lund and Alumacraft crowd
-Some people say some parts/components are cheap (I personally haven’t had any problems)
-Lightweight, can be a rougher ride in bigger waves and can get blown around easier than heavier Lunds.

Personally, instead of looking at the name of the brand, I’d suggest finding a boat that fits your comfort well with good storage and easy to fish out of based on your fishing style, interior is in good shape, motor runs well, trolling motor and electronics are decent, and the price is right. Often it seems that people put too much emphasis on the name. In the end, the fish don’t care what your boat looks like.

In a 10-15 year old boat, the condition will be a critical factor. How much was it used, was it stored indoors or out, was it kept covered, etc.

Trackers get bashed a lot on the interweb, but IMO a lot of this is unfair and lacks a basis for comparison. First, since they are an entry level brand and sold nationwide, there are a LOT of them out there. Therefore, everyone seems to know someone who has something bad to say about how thier brother in law’s cousin got a bad one… But all this doesn’t necessarily mean they have any more issues per 1000 boats than any other brand.

From the ones I’ve seen, I’d say they are reasonable boats for the price point.

Underpowered or not depends on your needs and goals. Personally, I don’t need or even want to be doing 50+ MPH in a boat. All the guys running around with 250+ HP on the back of a fishing boat can rarely, if ever, use it because if they did both they and their boats would be beaten to a pulp. My advice is match the HP to your needs and what you want to use the baot for. 50 HP may be plenty, or it may not be enough. It depends on you.

In this day/age of bigger, bigger, bigger, I find it interesting to note that while it seems now to be common knowledge that you have to spend $50k to get a serious walleye boat, the guys I personally know who are racking up the most poundage in fish caught are running boat that are nothing near that expensive.

If you find a good one that you like, I’d have no issue buying a Tracker. Way better than no boat at all, and getting on the water in a Tracker is way better than sitting on the couch wishing you had something else.

Grouse

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

In a 10-15 year old boat, the condition will be a critical factor. How much was it used, was it stored indoors or out, was it kept covered, etc.

Absolutely, and that goes for any brand of boat. I’ve seen plenty of very well used/abused boats with pretty high asking prices on Craigslist, because they have Lund stuck to the side of the boat.

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

My advice is match the HP to your needs and what you want to use the baot for. 50 HP may be plenty, or it may not be enough. It depends on you.

Agree. Assuming this is a side console model? If if gets on plane with 2 people and a full tank and live well probably good to go. IMO Maxing out a tracker would only be important on a new boat that you plan to sell in a fairly short period of time. (3-4 years.)

These base model trackers typically come new needing upgrades. Keep money in your budget to upgrade the bow mount, batteries, tires, trailer jack and other easy to swap out items. NADA prices are on the high side IMO.

My buddy had a 17 ft Tracker SC. (Cant remember HP) I liked the layout. It was a decent boat for the river. Not so much on big water.

Good luck.

-J.

Plus side, in a short few years there will be a good network of tracker dealers up here.

Hey, I want to thank everyone for your input here. definitely some very good points were discussed. all this will help me in my decision. if anyone has anything to add I will be following this thread closely. Thanks again for all your replies! Eelpout

It’s not a fair comparison but before my current boat (2001 lund pro sport, bought used in ’13) i had a 1992 tracker prov16 from 2009 to 2013.
positives- it was far cheaper than the lund, was a big upgrade from my little f14 with a 15hp evinrude and handled bigger/rougher water than I would take that little thing out in. Good boat to learn how to operate a wheel boat, gave me something to help determine what I liked/didn’t like in a bigger boat, storage space, was actually better than my current boat but was a trade off I was willing to pay
negatives- motor it had when I bought it was way underpowered in rough water(40hp and no power trim) but I was able to get my hands on a 60 hp with p.t.t. (max for that boat) and made it much better, wet ride in rough water though a lot of that can probably be blamed on my lack of experience in running it, boat always seems to plow in water but again probably user inexperience, hardware used in that boat was just galvanized fasteners (hopefully they’ve gone to s.s. now) I had to take off the front deck and ended up having to basically bore out all the old fasteners as they were too rusted out to remove and then made a new front deck.
My biggest reason for switching was i wanted a windshield boat for added protection for my wife and young son, which was no fault of the tracker and secondary reason was a drier ride which was probably a mix of my lack of experience and the design of the boat. I love my lund now, but I’ve had a lot more time in it than I did in the tracker and far more experience in how to operate it so it’s hard to say it’s the boat that handles that much better or of its my knowledge of how to handle it. The lund definitely is built more like a tank than the tracker was and it fits the way I like to fish well but were I looking to get into a boat, I wouldn’t ignore looking at tracker again.

Bought a new 2019 tracker pro 175 txw , really nice boat . dealership I bought it from r great people , but tracker customer service not so much .after I had for about 2 week noticed top of pass seat had small tear , dealership told me no problem they would help anyway they could until tracker denied the warranty . they say a tear was not a defect and THIER installers do not make mistakes like that and if I wanted they would sell me a new seat , now I just paid cash for this boat and tracker wants me and the dealer to pay for error in THIER install . its not about the money and its a brand new boat with a small issue and no help from tracker unless I want to give them more money , hope I don’t have a real issue since they don’t make mistakes , so this is my opinion if buy a tracker u will enjoy and love it but if u need help from tracker I feel sorry for u , they proven to me they don’t care they have ur money and u have ur boat

Your dealer should of just taken care of it. Let them deal with tracker

Yea , but that’s what kinda pisses me off , tracker is the one that advertises the tracker promise , the best warranty and service on the market , this to me was a small issue that should’ve been taken care by both. Dealer an tracker , only dealer offered to help , tracker 100% refused to do anything but sell more

I have a 2000 Tracker Deep V17. Like others said it is a good entry level boat, it is my first big boat purchase. I have a 2006 90 hp Optimax on this one and I would definitely recommend the Extra power. it does about 40 mph max

Overall fish-ability is pretty good and it is plenty good for lakes around the area and performs well on the st. croix river when the wind is under 15mph. Rod storage is not very good in my opinion and I rarely use the rod locker due to the layout and accessibility (the passenger chair gets in the way and 7ft. plus rods you have to flex the tip in order to get them in) I haven’t been on big water with it but would suspect a little extra beam width would be nice. other storage, live well and bait well, are in good locations

Freddie coutee wrote:

Yea , but that’s what kinda pisses me off , tracker is the one that advertises the tracker promise , the best warranty and service on the market , this to me was a small issue that should’ve been taken care by both. Dealer an tracker , only dealer offered to help , tracker 100% refused to do anything but sell more

Freddie,
You obviously have access to the internet, it takes maybe 30 seconds of research to see how historically bad Tracker’s Customer Service is/has been. Why in the world would you take the risk and purchase from them?

HRG

It isn’t nice to kick a guy when he is potentially down. Price point is the major draw for tracker boats. Heck, I once bought a Chevy Tahoe. I don’t know if I had much internet access in 97 though, but I digress.

Hot Runr Guy wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Freddie coutee wrote:</div>
Yea , but that’s what kinda pisses me off , tracker is the one that advertises the tracker promise , the best warranty and service on the market , this to me was a small issue that should’ve been taken care by both. Dealer an tracker , only dealer offered to help , tracker 100% refused to do anything but sell more

Freddie,
You obviously have access to the internet, it takes maybe 30 seconds of research to see how historically bad Tracker’s Customer Service is/has been. Why in the world would you take the risk and purchase from them?

HRG

Friends Don’t Let Friends Buy Tracker Boats

I’ve had a couple Tracker boats. My biggest dislike was that both middle seats didn’t swivel to face the back as in catfishing in river current. For most other fishing the stationary middle seats probably aren’t an issue.