New Boat Set Up

Bud Kennedy · June 30, 2016, 08:16:25 PM

It seems like more often then not when someone reports they just purchased a brand new boat that within a couple weeks they are trying to correct performance problems. Many of these problems are purely set up related. This makes me wonder just what the heck are the boat dealers thinking when they deliver a new product to a customer without at least having it set up properly.

Is it because most dealers are not bass boat people and just don't understand or are they just careless in their preparation of the boat. What ever it is, it certainly is not a way to treat a customer.

My BOO of the day goes to those boat dealers out there that just don't give a damn about their customers.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

West6550 · June 30, 2016, 10:47:30 PM

My poor dealer was a Mercury guy and had no clue about the deep v Ranger aluminum I ordered.. with a Evinrude lol

I mean I did order a "muskie" boat in Central FL...

But he did a great job getting her ready for me and the customer service is excellent.

I think us bass guys are very picky anyway about or passion. I joked with my dealer and he definitely agreed fishermen aren't the easiest to deal with because we are so picky.

Oldfart9999 · July 01, 2016, 06:08:07 AM

Some of it is as West said but I think a lot of it is folks buying package rigs like Trackers or Nitro or others, everybody has them now and they do cost less. The problem with a package boat is they are a compromise, add to that because of what you take fishing and the setup you use may not work for me so I'd have to change it anyway. Don't think it's easy selling fishing and bass boats in particular.
Rodney

Pferox · July 01, 2016, 06:25:50 AM

Dunno, after talking to a few guys around here, about three names always come up as the place to buy a fishing boat, and three or four names of places to avoid like the plague.

On the coast might be a little different since there is so much of a market, dealers seem to specialize on types of crafts a lot.

Hey West, nice boat, AND you aren't the only one with a Musky boat in that area, I used to see a LUND sitting in the water on a lake we inspected weekly, the owner loved it.

31airborne · July 01, 2016, 07:05:52 AM

I bought all of my bass boats from bass boat dealers. The techs were very experienced in bass boat set-ups and in fact had a huge hand in helping me get things set up correctly. There are probably 5 pleasure boat dealers out there for every bass boat dealer. While the techs have ~the same background when it comes to set-ups I'd venture to say that the pleasure boat businesses require and focus on a very different set-up experience. The two are not always interchangeable. I used a dealer in northern VA that specialized in all boats. He had techs on staff who did one or the other but not both for this very reason.

All this said, there is invariably some element of tweaking we all require on our new rides. It's all part of the feel process IMHO. Props, jackplates, and other performance related issues are often best addressed after having driven the boat for a bit. All the more reason for the experience thing above. In these cases I would seek out a dealer and tech who sell/know my boat and motor brand.

Mike Cork · July 01, 2016, 07:07:43 AM

A big part of it is the boats are set up from the factor for ease of driving and control. A bass fisherman wants to go as fast as possible and that requires tweaking. Also a dealer doesn't really do much but un-strap it and pull the travel cover off. There is no test drive or functional checks.

What bothers me are New about Bugs. All those little things, graph shuts off, live well is intermittent, deck lid loose, carpet corner coming up. People pay more for a fully rigged bass boat than a new truck. But these things are excepted and even expected with a boat, if your new truck was giving you fits, after 3 times were screaming Lemon Law!!!

Pricing to product delivery we are the ones that let it get out of control

and they took advantage

Pferox · July 01, 2016, 07:09:56 AM

Lets look at this though, how many discerning boaters are there compared to the weekend warrior who wants a boat, hasn't a clue about tweaking it up and is very happy with the stock set up.

I bet there are a lot more who just buy and drive than the ones who keep coming back for tweaks.

Mike Cork · July 01, 2016, 07:11:40 AM

You're absolutely correct

Princeton_Man · July 01, 2016, 10:20:22 AM

Don't get me wrong, before I chime in, I think the world of my Evinrude dealer. It's a father and son operation and he's been in business for something like 45 years. Evinrude dealer since the beginning. As long as they're in business, I won't take her anywhere else.

That said, when I re-powered last May my new setup was lousy. Just going from a carb'ed motor to a HPDI changed everything and it took quite a bit of tweaking and changes to get her back where she was. I prefer to think that the reason it was that way is there was no testing on the water. My dealer is at least 30 minutes form the nearest lake which means they'd have to tow the boat to the lake and to be efficient they'd need two people. With a manual jackplate and maybe two or three props, it might consume quite a bit of time. I'd guess most of a day in some cases.

I would think that after some period of time tweaking and properly setting up enough of them, the amount of time required would be reduced. At least until something changed with the motors or the boats.

Another thing to consider is the liability issue of taking a customer's $50-$100K boat out to test.

I do think it should be a part of the sale for any new rig. As long as the water isn't too far out, at least offer to go out with the customer and take a couple of props and maybe a couple of wrenches. Just good customer service.

Bud Kennedy · July 01, 2016, 04:21:07 PM

Jim, the final tweeking is on the back of the boater. The dealer however should at least perform the basic set up that is known for the boat. In many cases they don't even do that. Some of the set ups I read about are just ridiculous. Any respectable boat dealer should know better or should know how to get the base line information and then apply it to the boat they are rigging. They also should be very upfront on a re-power to let you know what to expect. That is their business and failure to do that is not good customer service. Simple prop to pad relationships and prop selection calculations should be core to their business.

Lee Smith · July 01, 2016, 04:40:04 PM

I ran into this a few years back, had a very good dealer, loaded up went home, loaded my stuff and went to the lake, 60 mph out of a 70 mph boat

I called they said bring it by, I showed up, they took all of my floating tackle store out and we went 73

Then we moved some stuff around and I ended at 69. Learned my lesson and I was p'd when I got it on the water the first time, but now I realize, it's on me.

I can understand how someone would want a guy to spend a day on their new boat, what should happen is they say, "load up your normal tournament/fishing load and bring it back so we can set it up for you"

Any thing else will be a disappointment to the customer. A dealer could spend 3 days with that boat on the water, but it will never be set up properly until the load is put in. Fuel/supplies/2 people/all fishing stuff is a lot of weight and has to be balanced throughout the boat.

flowerjohn · July 01, 2016, 05:37:45 PM

Quote from: Pferox on July 01, 2016, 06:25:50 AM
Dunno, after talking to a few guys around here, about three names always come up as the place to buy a fishing boat, and three or four names of places to avoid like the plague.

On the coast might be a little different since there is so much of a market, dealers seem to specialize on types of crafts a lot.

Hey West, nice boat, AND you aren't the only one with a Musky boat in that area, I used to see a LUND sitting in the water on a lake we inspected weekly, the owner loved it.

You're not going to go wrong with a Lund. You will pay the price but the quality is there. I agree that some want to just find the bass boat of their dreams and they get a whole load of hunk a junk sent their way in terms of what it will do. Bass boat owners are finicky to the extent that they have been told what to buy and the reality doesn't often match up to the expectations because of the marketing. I've seen a lot of the same complaints my way too and I've been on some of them and they just aren't great boats.

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