What is Steel Flex? I am looking for ways to fix my boat if the company don't.

I suggested that to you in my earlier post along with poly (which is the "airboat" stuff you mentioned in a later post)

Steelflex is a product that puts an epoxy coating on the bottom of the boat. It is very slick and helps you slide over obstacles, and maybe helps "toughen" the hull a little. You put down a filler that fills in all the dents and hooks and then coat it all with the Steelflex. As I mentioned early, your metal is already stretched, so there is some school of thought, that it is better to put it on after you have dinged it up (like you) than before. Don't know on any of that, just thoughts for you. PM poker1, I believe his boat was pretty banged up and he used the filler and the steelflex and he can give you a report on how it is holding up. He runs the same crap (if not worse) than you do.

Poly is a solid sheet that you put on the bottom of the boat over the top of whatever is already there. Can be screwed down or some are using adhesive.

Neither are perfect "I will never have another problem" solutions, but that is a reality you have to face about where you run. You are going to dent the boat and time has nothing to do with. Whether the boat is 1 hour old or 5 years old when you hit the right obstacle in the right way it will dent. The obstacle and boat don't know how old the boat is and therefore make no judgment on whether or not to dent your boat. It just happens.

As far as your lake being worse than others, that is just a naive statement in my opinion. In the ark-la-tex lakes you are seeing pics of, there are the same if not worse stumps. The pics you see are only of what is above the water, it is twice that below the water, not to mention areas like the LA side of caddo where you can hit old oil well parts-METAL parts not stumps. Heck one time on one of the lakes we even ran up on an old asphalt road bed when the water was down. They just left it there when they flooded the lake. Everyone wants to say "my area is worse", but the reality is there are bad spots everywhere. Some are rocky, some are stumpy. They all tear your boat up.

As far as the .100 gauge war eagles, one I bet they tear up, but two I have a theory that I have never really shared with anyone, and it may be completely wrong. That is that the "old style" ribbed bottom boats don't hook as bad sometimes due to the strength and configuration of the ribs. I think that helps them slide off and gives the bottom alum some strength that helps it. There are other issues that it brings to the table that I don't want so I don't have one, but it is the "in-between" that gets you. Almost a mud boat but not quite there yet.

We have all come to realize that you are just going to tear them up in this neck of the woods and that is part of it. Best you can do is try to prevent some with a 3/16 bottom and extra bracing.

As far as your 18k you keep mentioning, please remember that 18k included the trailer, motor, and accessories in addition to the boat. The boat was only a part of that cost. And you still have the boat, and it still floats and still goes to where you need it to go. The hooks will only effect your performance a little.


Anyway, good luck man-hope it works out for you.

I agree with your theory on the W.E.
You're also right on the cost, that included all my neat little gadgets.
I don't think this lake is worse than all others, but the guys that don't run stumps just don't know what damage they cause.

I am gonna research some more on alternatives if the company don't do anything. Thanks for the info you provided.

In my honest opinion. excel boats are not a duck boat. They should never have a MM on them.. Real nice hull inside, I personally hate the look of the outside, especially the semi V, but they are built like crap..

Why are they built out of 5052 aluminum. I think they are the only company building out of 5052. Is it just to cut costs? I dont know how they expect a .100 guage 5052 hull without crimps in the bottom to hold up to much of anything. Is the 5052 just easier to bend or something?

i just found this forum and im commenting on the war eagles. i have put mine through absolute hell for several year, it doesnt leak a drop and still gets me anywhere i need to go. I will say tho that the bottom of it looked like a damn washboard untill i worked on it. Definately gettin a different boat next time i can afford to buy.

Hmmm what do I base by my knowledge on. Oh wait I work at a custom alum boat shop. I have worked on or repaired most major boats. The worst mud boats I have see are Gator trax and excel. The gator flats transom was about to fall off with a 75 yam 4 stroke on the back. The excels were just cracked to hell at he transom front deck and floor. As for the trim issues. The high and low pressure you are talking about must be the transition from trim to tilt. which if that is the case the trims need to be built with a constant pressure ram. Not a 2 stage outboard tilt & trim. I have not seen any service bulletins from merc saying there could be a possible soft spot in the trim. I called merc tech support just to see what they has to say. They don't know of any high or low pressure zones. I could care less if it was kyle, kp, warren, or g len. Its still bs. I guess keep shaking your head cuz mb only had like 6 different trims. You guys assume that when a person buys a boat that they should know every thing about it. I see it all the time at work a guy buys a production boat and it starts falling apart. The conversation starts out like " well the dealer said it was a life time boat, cant tear it up, ect ect". Last time I checked all it takes to own a boat is money, and plenty of dealers will say what ever it takes to sell a boat.

Gary, I hope you are bracing for the pm you are about to receive.

I guess I will put the shim on and see, I based that decision on the fact that the dealer told me that it shouldn't make a differance. We will see. Why make something that needs to be modified?.

I wish a certain select person could keep their inappropriate comments to himself. Again, just my opinion, but I am 22, and new to forum, so my opinion may not be good enough?

So if you don't want to go custom... The cheaper alternative is Excel....

The boat building business has gone from open layouts to fully customized hulls w/ all the bells & whistles.

The first thing I notice when I look at the Excel boats is just a lack of attention to detail. The finish on them just plain sucks.

Gary, you dont have to be in the game long to realize that excel isint the best made boat.. Get your cute little mb panties in a wad all you want, Ive seen 2 excels not including this one that have been dented to hell as well.. A guy that we always meet at the boat ramp has a f4 and the bottom looks horrible.

My uncles buddy jacob has one, and he actually had a few cracks and leaks in his.. just going off of other peoples experiences.. its all the same, just because I havent owned one and experienced it doesent mean I dont know.. Im sure alot of people on here will agree as well...

I wish a certain select person could keep their inappropriate comments to himself. Again, just my opinion, but I am 22, and new to forum, so my opinion may not be good enough?[/quote]


Not sure who that comment referred to, but....

If you don't want comments or opinions, then don't post on a public forum in two different places.

If you just want to whine or vent about your problem and don't want any feedback, then go to http://www.whinesalot.com
and post what ever you want.

Has nothing to do with age or new to forum, but experience and understanding what is going on.

Believe it or not, people are trying to help you if you pay attention to what they are typing.

More to the point-have you talked to excel directly yet? what are they saying? have they offered you any solution?

I would remain on hold until that person is not busy & while on hold I'd be using the cell phone or office phone to blow them up even more!

New pics on the "Boats and Blind" page.

Got in touch with the guy at Excel. Waiting to hear back, again.

I wouldn't hold your breath.

I finally got through to the guy at Excel, and we came to a very reasonable agreement regarding my boat.
It took me a little bit to explain, and get him to understand.
Through it all, he was really nice about it. We talked for a long time, and figured out a solution that would make us both happy.
I wish I could've talked to him back in September when all this started. It could've saved a lot of trouble.

I want to thank everybody again for the advise and support. Persistence finally paid off.

THANKS AGAIN.

Who says you can't fix STUPID. excel boats just did.

The questions is now are you gonna sale your New Excel and buy somethingdifferent and buy something different.

Wow that's what I get from typing on I little bitty screen can't see what your doing.

Just curious..... What are they doing to remedy the problem?????

Still on the drawing board right now, when I know something for sure, I will keep yall posted.

[QUOTE=G]For everyone's edification, Excel is replacing the customers boat. We worked out a compromise and are selling him (at a great price) a boat that has a thicker hull, plus the customer is upgrading his engine to match the size of the boat so it will stay on step in shallow stumpy areas.

This or any other boat can be damaged. The .100 hull he purchased for his intended use was not a good match. We don't replace abused and severely damaged boats with numerous and massive impacts, no more than Dodge will buy me bumpers for my 1 ton Dodge, but we are happy to work with customers to get them into the boat they need for their environment and manner of use. This customer requires another model of boat we offer and we are pleased to help.

Anyone has my permission to repost this entire response anywhere they like.


G[/QUOTE]

Glad they were able to work something out.

Man you are one lucky guy!! I cant belive you got a new boat? That company went way above what any would do for you in my opinion. Good luck with the new boat. If i were you i would send that guy a Christmas card this year. Also pay it forward and do somthing good for someone else. After reading how this was solved i would have no problems buying an Excel boat. cheers, terry

Haha. I got banned from the mudbuddy forums Im sure from just posting on this thread.

Really?

We have worked out a deal, it will not be completely free. I was not expecting it to be. I am thankful he was willing to work with me on it, and I couldn't ask for a better deal. He was really nice about it, and I am looking forward to receiving the new tougher boat they are gonna be building for me. Thanks again everyone and G.... at Excel.

[quote="Barroll"At least mudbuddy/excel did the right thing and helped speedaddict out with his situation. Overall a mission accomplished for him. I guess he finally raised enough hell online to draw the attention of *****, the owner of MB/Excel[/quote]

Maybe you're right. But then again a number of people on here, many who clearly don't like G1enn at all, thought speedaddict made an unwise decision on hull thickness and was naive about the difference between "surviving a hit" and "no damage." By their view, he wasn't owed anything. Looking at it that way, did G1enn just "do the right thing" or did he go beyond that and cut speedaddict some serious slack? So, maybe it wasn't the amount of hell raised. Maybe two reasonable people had a conversation and came to an agreement. It happens, you know.

Why hello Gun Doc. Welcome to the party.

Maybe he just did it because I've seen this shit on other forums and he didn't want the bad publicity.

I have no dog in this fight and understand both sides of the issue.