Quote Originally Posted by AugerIn00 View Post
Sorry for the lack of reply. I had to hit the mountain today.
First, I appreciate all the advice. I guess I need to spend some time tomorrow talking to an audio shop or two. I expected that spending the money to have the factory install the stereo, vs. taking the new boat to a shop would get me a good system without the hassle of taking it to a secondary shop, but I will do some further investigation.
Thanks for the tip about having the bow speakers cutout from the factory without ordering the option. That was one of my concerns. I suspect that you need speakers in the bow to make the system sound good, and wanted to make sure I had speakers there, so that's why I chose that option.
You guys also picked up on my other main question of the walkthrough. My wife fell in love when we saw the tige walkthrough on the outside portion of the sundeck, but it seems that having the walkthrough through the center of the boat kind of eliminates the sundeck being used as a lounge area. Any additional thoughts in this area would be welcome.
To answer Deerfield, the boat will be used in Eastern Washington, on the Columbia River. I originally thought that a depth gauge would be a must have option, but after talking to a few people that run the same portion of the river, that they have too many false alarms going off that they would rather not have it. (I suspect due to milfoil, but I didn't clarify)
Heater is the other option that my wife would like, but I don't see us using it much. We will mostly be using the boat in the heat of the day. My brother has a ski boat that we will be using as the early morning water ski boat, so I don't know how much a heater will benefit us, but we are still considering that option as well.
mmandley, thanks for the advice on color... I am with you, I have no problem spending the time taking care of my boats. I have been taking care of my fathers 1991 Ski Ray since he bought it brand new, and it's still in stellar shape, even though it lives 100% of its time on the salt water.
Any additional advice on anything before I pull the trigger in about four weeks would be greatly appreciated.
Good to see another from the Eastside of the state. I live in Spokane and make a few treks yearly down to Lake Roosevelt (Columbia).

As far as your options I would say also ditch stereo and do yourself, shit if you live in Spokane I could hook you up and install it for you. Heater system is cool, but I find mind doesn't get used much, because around here we don't do much spring or fall boating because low humidity and temps drop so fast. Mine came factory with one, but I installed a shower among a zillion other things and the shower is one of my favorite upgrades and can be had for a few hundred if done yourself.

Don't spend the money on bags, stereo, or bolt on items. Swivel racks would be a great idea from factory, but other than that try and go bare bones and spend half or less doing the same upgrades on your own. I'm sure you have some handy friends who would love to help if they wanna ride with ya.

Best of luck man and maybe will run into one another if we boat at the same spots.

Kyle


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