Recently sold my bass boat because I now live on a bayou and it just wasn't practical anymore. I found this boat locally and I'm curious as to how it would handle a 35 GTR on it. Only reason I'm considering this boat is because of the price they have it at and of all the accessories and extras it has. Plus it's the perfect size for where I live. It has a hydraulic jackplate if that makes any difference.

Plan was to buy this and sell the motor to a friend of mine, strip the carpet and put down hydroturf and remove the console and to have a nice rig to fish out of on my bayou as well as for setting lines and froggin. We have mainly vegetation where I am, not much mud on our bayou.

Rid of the jack plate. Remount the power poles to the transome. Measure the transome also. Might want too beef the transome up as well. Might need to build up your transom hight a lil bit too. Do you plan on keeping it a console steer ???? If so you will have to swap out the whole console rigging/ steering unit for a GTR .

What size transom is needed for the longshaft GTR? Why should the jack plate go? I'm only curious. I don't plan on keeping it console steer, planning on taking the console out after the motor sells. The only reason I'm considering this boat is for what they have it listed for and all the extras it comes with. Price is almost too good to pass up for what it all has, but I'm wanting a GTR not an outboard.

Take the power poles and the motor and scrap the hull. Junk. I'll never own another tracker product and I have plenty of buds that say the same. The carpet is probably the only thing holding the floor kit and everything else together. I will say the "hull" as a blank isn't bad but everything inside is terrible. If you gut it and start from scratch that's probably the best option. I don't know enough about mud hulls because I just bought my first rig but the best advice I never took was when a friend told me not to buy a tracker. I was counting the days to when I could sell it without losing my ass.

The '14 and newer Grizzlies look a little better but I can't ever go back. I took an aluminum boat in for repairs 4 times. Finally I just gave up with popped welds and rivets. The dealer would fix broken welds the the boat would find a new weak point to break weeks later. Thank god the dealer was good.

There's a reason it's selling so cheap. Take a peak under the carpet and pay close attention to inner welds.

If your just running shallows and not true mud flats you will be fine just beefing up the back end. Surface drives don't need a jack plate. Defeats the whole purpose of a surface drive. Use the trim lol. It's not a bad idea keeping the power poles selling the hull and getting you a hull better fitted for a mud motor. But if it's a good deal and tight on money just make sure you beef up that back end. I'm no expert just my 10 cents

I've never had an issue with welds and run a ton of stumps in Rodman Reservoir. This wasn't my first Grizzly and I know a few others that run them without issue. Hull has been bulletproof. It's not a true mud hull, but it does what I need. Gets 31 by myself and 26 with a full load.

His is a 10-12 year and they were absolutely horrible. Yours looks like the old design. Also you have the open floor plan. As a hull I agree it's been decent. But if you have a floor kit and platforms then they are terrible. All of us in that year range had issues. Plus the boat rattles terribly because of the hull flex. Anything older is pretty good from what I've seen. I have a buddy on here that runs a grizz like yours with a MB 4500. He's had no issues like you. I just gave up on tracker because they don't comply with their warranty. Fixed my boat once then when other weak points started popping they didn't warranty anymore. Then only offered me 500 bucks to buy it back. Boat was 6 months old.

The boat is a 2009 with a 50hp ELPTO. It has dual power poles, hydraulic jackplate, 36v Motorguide Tour trolling motor, two Lowrance Elite 4x graphs, on board charger, deluxe rims on the trailer and a few other miscellaneous things. What do y'all think this boat is worth?

I've heard this motor is one of the more popular ones that duck hunters like because it can be easily modded to a 60hp.

Holy crap, a 36v trolling motor? Shouldn't need a mud motor, just crank that sucker up and beat your way thru the junk!

Do like Root and split your bench seat, tracker boats have that wide ass bench that gets in the way when running a tiller motor


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Mine never had a bench seat. Always had just those two pods according to the original owner. The pods still get in the way a little but I use them for dry storage, switch panel mount, and seat, so I'll keep'm.

Forgive the highjacking.....but.....that's a mess of frogs!!!!

I'm going to test drive it this weekend and look it over a little more. I'm looking for something that I can use mainly for fishing on the bayou but also not have to worry about water lines, getting it dirty and bumping it off trees. I've been looking at other mud boats but none have livewells besides excels and custom rigs.

This is what I had done to my first rig to hold the weight of my pro drive. It was a 97 bass tracker 15/48 it ran 29 empty in deep water. So a 16/48 with a gtr should fly. I'd go for it as long as the price is right. Just get the transom built up. The only issues you might have is the transom angle, I believe it's supposed to be 20 degrees for a gtr.

My buddy has a 1648grizzly its likean 07 /08 model I believe only problem he had with his was a few rivets popped lose from the flooring. He replace them with some Ss rivets and never popped another one , boat still going strong. Probley gonna get me one.

Here is a video of a '88 I picked up that is in rough shape. Wet foam and broken ribs are a major issue with this vintage.

I hope you didn't give more than about $.40/lb for that one.

My 2004 1648 grizzly open floor hull is still going strong...I put in an alum floor myself. Of course I am only running a 27 HP MB LT on it, but it does the job inasmuch it is not a true mud hull but for my needs it works. The GTR 35 is heavy, that would be my concern, perhaps with pods, but in your environs should work fine. Test drive for sure!