Well after a long wait and some bad luck, I was finally able to get the boat finished and in the water this weekend. On Thursday I got the call saying the motor was on the boat and ready to go, so I took a half day, picked up my buddy and we rolled out on our way to Loureauville. We were on I10 west bound in the fast lane on the downslope of the overpass just past the Grosse Tete exit when traffic stopped. So we are sitting there bullshitting when I heard a loud sound. I look in my side mirror and all I can see is the front grill of a loaded down semi. The guy must have been hauling ass when he came over the top of the over pass because he couldnt stop so he tried to pass us on the left side between us and the guardrail. Needless to say, it wasnt quite enough room. SO that ruined my truck and my plans to pick up the boat. Fast forward to friday morning, my dad and I very carefully made our way to Prodrive in his truck to go pick up the boat. Now on to the review:

Rundown of my setup.
Trailer
3500 lb axles (probably overkill but it pulls great)
Full catwalk down the right side of the trailer
Put the 3" x 16" bunk slicks on the 2x6 boards as well as the 2x4 side guides
Trailer is pretty long and we may end up shortening it, just havent decided yet.
Blue Water LED Reverse lights
For those guys with gatorglide, to keep the boat from sliding on the trailer, I mounted two retractable transom straps in the middle. The straps crisscross and grab on the opposite grab handle on the boat. I find this setup works very well to keep boat from moving.

Boat
Length 17'6" with pointed bow
Bottom 48"
Beam 61"
Sides 20"
Hunt Deck 18"
3/16" bottom and 1/8" sides
48" front deck with storage
Twin rod boxes that will hold 7 ft rods
Center Console with dry storage seat in front, tray and cup holder on top (Thanks to BlueShamu, I stole some of the console ideas from your build)
Two Mossy Oak Shadow Grass Tempress Seats
Driver seat is mounted to a spider base so I can easily pull it out and replace with ice chest when fishing.
Bowfishing light rail with 12 27W LEDS
Poling platform with 4 pole holders
Camo Paint along with Gator Base and G2 in Marsh brown on the bottom
Start battery is mounted under console next to the hydraulic pumps.
Trolling Motor Batteries will mount in front hatch
Minn Kota Riptide SE70
LED Shark Eye Nav Lights
RGB LED strips under the catwalks
White LED strip that will go in the storage boxes
SeeLite 12" Double Row Light Bar (not mounted yet)

Motor
GEN 3 Prodrive 36 (Non EFI, possibly add after the season)
Remote Steer
Hydro Trim
Hydro Reverse


Ran the boat a few times. With a light load I ran 25-26mph.

Added the two trolling motor batteries, and my dad. Speeds did not really change, still ran 25 occasionally bumping 26.
Even with that weight plus the poling platform and the light rail with all the lights, it ran over 25 mph.
Boat gets on step fairly quick and I find that it doesn't lose much speed in turns.

So far i like the reverse, it doesnt take very long to get the boat into reverse and back into forward.

We ran in some Lily flats and this thing just chewed it up and spit it out. With the gatorglide it felt like the boat sped up when running over the lillies.

Will post more review after I put some more hours on it.

Man that sucks about your truck hate to hear that, but congrats on the boat and thanks for a real review

Sounds like a trip! That trailer is slick

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1377088887.562111.jpgImageUploadedByTapatalk1377088904.374651.jpgImageUploadedByTapatalk1377088918.342857.jpg

Boat doesn't draft nearly as much water as we thought it would.
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Very nice looking rig man.

Even let the ole lady drive a bit on Sunday.ImageUploadedByTapatalk1377089483.353254.jpg

I would have almost hoped homeboy would have totaled my truck so you come out with a brand new truck and boat!

N just be thankful that didn't happen with your brand new boat in tow.. That would have been a bad situation..

Believe me, I wish that was the case. Now I'm in insurance limbo while they try to figure this shit out.

I'm pretty sure id be in jail if that boat would've gotten destroyed.

Nice setup!

I saw your boat at PD man -- good lookin rig --- I was diggin that trailer with the catwalk on it

Nice looking setup!

That's why I was curious to see what his RPM's are doing. Mine, when new, would only hit 3950'ish RPM's to get the 25-26 mph speeds in deep water. Now, with the worn out prop, I can bump the rev limiter and maintain those same speeds......with no load.

Add a load....huge difference for me in deep water. Takes a couple football fields to get it to break over on a step unless there's shallow water nearby. Shallow water load carrying has not been an issue for me. It's the deep water stuff that I really want to improve. Looking at prop change right now...at least waiting on one. I am curious to see what it does for me.

Rpms were around 4580-4600. And I have the "old" new prop. They are working on the props as we speak and haven't released the newer versions yet.
My next test is to add a third person and see if I see any speed drop.

I may have missed it but who built the boat?? That rig looks sick!!! Nice Setup

Darren Heltz built the boat for me. He's a local builder that does it on the side.

Took the boat out a few time this weekend. Wanted to make sure I could still make it to my duck hole with the longer and wider boat. The console steering took a couple turns to get used to in the tight swamp but after getting the hang of it I love it. No more handle getting ripped out of my hand every time the skeg hits a log and believe me there are plenty of logs. Spotted a few teal and some whistling ducks once I got back to the pond. Overall I'm impressed with the boat/motor combo. On Sunday I took it to the spillway to test the new trolling motor (Riptide SE70) and try a lil bass fishing. No luck with the bass but the trolling motor is great. There was a north wind so the access to the lake was a little choppy. With the trolling motor set around 10-15 it would hold the boat in place pretty well. Crank it up to 100 and the boat felt like it would get on step.

Also worked on putting in the radio and camoing the motor.
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Finally put it in the water at night so I could test out my light bar and the bowfishing lights. Ended up with 5 catfish. Not too great but we had a good time drinking and shooting the shit. The Seelite 12" bar definitely throws one hell of a beam. As far as my bowfishing lights, I put the yellow film on 6 of the lights to compare. The film really helps to cut down on the glare off the water. In the picture the lights on the right have the film.ImageUploadedByTapatalk1377866110.254211.jpg

Way out after scouting, listening to some tunes.


Videos of the Light bar in action on the way to the blind