I decided on purchasing another boat this summer and decided to go with Ranger this time. After looking and looking at every aluminum bass boat brand for a few months the last one I looked at was a 2017 Crestliner VT19 at a dealership that was roached out bad and asked if he had any other brands and showed me a Ranger RT188. I loved everything about it except it had no cooler and he informed me about the 198 having an insulated cooler which he did not have in stock.
I went to Rangers website and built a boat and a few days later I got an email from Ranger saying there was 1 leftover 2018 RT198p near me for sale with a 150 Mercury Four Stroke and Minn Kota Fortrex for 29k with the upgraded trailer, Ranger Cover, dual console and options. So I went and looked at it and bought it on the spot.
However I did not even use the boat for almost 2 months. I am a Yamaha guy, always have been so I did not want to even start the Mercury to make it 100% brand new with 0 hours and 3 years of warranty to sell it faster and ordered my 2019 150 SHO, White Powerpole Blades, HB 12s, Jackplate, Hotfoot, Ultrex and while it sat derigged at the dealer I added more interior lights in all the compartments and livewell. I had to remove and cut the foot plate and modify it to make the hotfoot fit and work out.
I do all my installs so they just rigged the motor and jackplate and I did all the rest.
The one thing that bothered me was the livewell and there was nowhere to stow away the nav lights and only 1 interior light.
The livewell having only 1 lid door and after testing it out the fish culling was an issue because they would jump from one side to the other or try and shoot out. I ended up using 1/8" alumicore to make 2 separate doors under the main lid and still have a functional latch plus I added a dual air bubbler just incase it is too hot out or the pump fails and just use a weigh bag to keep filling it with fresh water every so often in the event it did happen.
I put 2 sets of rubber holders under the seats up high enough to where they won't get knocked off from stepping down.
I still have to install the 2 Humminbirds and take out the Hook 7 since I sold it to a friend already.
All in all, I love this boat for the simplicity, price and how well built it is. It is solid and very fishable. I am making a quick release slideout for the passenger console so next year during the Opens I can easily remove it and put it back in when I take my kids fishing.
I have had several Skeeters and I still love them but the price on boats is getting out of hand and I just don't like buying used bass boats for some reason.
We'll see how it performs next year. If it does well I will keep getting them. Hopefully Ranger will make a 20 to 21 footer with a 200 to 250 HP rating.
Here are some pics of it at the dealership with the Mercury and now with the SHO.
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Originally Posted by Bassin Bob71
