Tracker 175 Rebuild: Fix the Finest

[mnmbw]

My fiancée and I have browsed this forum many times looking for information while disassembling our boat, and we thought it may be useful for others to start a thread detailing our experiences with it.

We acquired this 2016 175 TXW this past winter. After owning a few different boats, we were on the search for an aluminum boat over 16’, a floor over 56’ wide, and at least 60HP, and capable of crossing open water with some chop. This boat popped up for sale 6 hours away, and after about 800 miles of driving we had this boat in the driveway.

Here’s how it looked before disassembly. At this point we had installed a terrova, flip up cleats, guide ons, and a 93SV at the drivers seat.

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Much smoother ride than previous boats we have had.

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Ample deck space was a welcomed addition too.

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First step was pulling up the carpet on the inside of the storage to see what the construction was like. At the minimum we were thinking of pulling this carpet out in particular because the dry hatches do not properly drain all the water if the boat is rained on, and drying out the carpet afterwards either required the compartments open for days or drying it out with multiple towels.

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Didn’t take much for this carpet to peel off the walls.

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Carpet cut off the plywood floor.

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Next step was to remove the side walls. They are screwed into the framing from the side, and drilled into the wood floor.

They are shorter than the actual storage area height.

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Side walls and carpet fully removed.

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More to follow.

[Mechanic Bob]

Nice work!
Extra two thumbs up for the Fly Rod in hand!

[jcyoung517]

Good job!

[Jfish]

Good job!

Agree, thanks for sharing.

[Tim Kelly]

Very nice

[mnmbw]

Didn’t take much for the carpet to pull off the wood. A single piece of carpet is applied up the sidewalls and down the wall of the bulkhead. The seams on the side are covered with polymer flashing tape. I’m not aware of what the grey tape is named, but it is very sticky and hard to remove.

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First exposure to tracker build quality. There were more crooked screws than straight attaching the deck to the frame. All of the screws into the wood through the framing are self tapping screws, and most required an impact screwdriver to remove. The more crooked the screw, the more difficult it was to remove.

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You’d think they would have a way to consistently cut plywood to match the shape of the boat. Here, they stapled in a piece of wood to fill in the gap.

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Accurately drilled holes for these rivets

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Side hatches off. Deck is made of 5/8 ply.

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Entire deck off. The framing you see is screwed into the angle on the rear bulkhead, and sits in a cut out channel on the forward bulkhead.

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[jcyoung517]

You got this

[Crab orchard renegade]

[Highcentered]

What prompted you to start tearing this boat apart? Nothing on my 2016 175txw has gotten wonky yet and it gets fished hard.

[mwdilday]

As I understand it the lifetime deck/hull warranty is transferrable to a second owner in the first five years of ownership. If it is a 2016 it may be within the first 5 years. If you bought it from a first owner and purchased 30 days or less ago it may qualify.

[mnmbw]

What prompted you to start tearing this boat apart? Nothing on my 2016 175txw has gotten wonky yet and it gets fished hard.

We are rebuilding the boat because we live about 4 hours from any body of water worth fishing currently, but next year we are relocating and I want this boat to be ready to fish and not need work. A few things we wanted to change about the boat and might as well get the work done now rather than wish it was done later. The fit and finish issues existed from the factory.

As I understand it the lifetime deck/hull warranty is transferrable to a second owner in the first five years of ownership. If it is a 2016 it may be within the first 5 years. If you bought it from a first owner and purchased 30 days or less ago it may qualify.

4 months of warranty left, but looking at the paperwork the hull and deck are for the life of the boat for the original owner. The 5 year warranty includes "all electrical components, livewells and plumbing, stereo, gauges and switches, console, seats, steering system, carpet, fuel system, and gelcoat". All of those are fine and did not need replacing. Also, we live about 3 hours from the nearest two tracker dealers.

[Highcentered]

With the price tin bass rigs are starting to go for I sure do hope I never need that lifetime hull and deck warranty but if I do I hope they honor it. Might try to squeeze 40 years out of my hull and just freshen up the seats and carpet and hang a new motor on it when the time comes

[mnmbw]

With the deck off, you can see how they wired the front electronics. Excess masking tape just left under the floor, split loom secured with masking tape, scrap carpet stuck in the pour foam, real high quality fit and finish

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The wall that the seats are attached to wasn’t the easiest to uninstall. First, the bottom parts of the seat and the piano hinges were removed. In hindsight, probably better off to leave the bottom cushions on so you have something to sit on while dealing with these screws.

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Locating the screws in the wall. They are scattered across the top of the wall, two in the middle and one on each corner.

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The wall the seat backs are attached to is actually a .1 aluminum removable wall, carpeted and drilled into the welded, non removable wall that is in front of the livewell. Combined with crooked self tapping screws, this made removing the screws extremely difficult. Using an impact screwdriver, it was still a very slow and tedious process because if you slip out of these screws with your bit just once or twice, it will probably be stripped enough that a bit won’t properly hold. Trying to use normal screwdrivers on these, and most of the other self tappers in the boat, was an easy way to strip the screw.

There is a screw right underneath this part of the console that is a real PITA to remove without removing the console. My fiancée somehow got it out, really need to be careful not to damage the head of the screw when applying such angled pressure. Those cheap adhesive wire tie mounts showed no lack of adhesion after rain exposure and being on the boat for a few months.

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The seat center cushions were held on with velcro. Remove the cushion and you gain access to the screws holding the main part of the seat on. These screws again were incredibly resistant to moving.

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With all these screws removed, the entire panel should lift out.

[mnmbw]

To get the plywood subfloor out of the cockpit area, the side wall had to go. Starboard side was screwed into the console, and the floor. With these screws removed, it easily slid out. More carpet underneath it with foam against the wall.

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Port side was much more difficult. With the screws removed, the adhesion between the pour foam and the wall was strong enough that it simply would not move. Without knowing what was exactly behind the wall, I didn’t want to sink a cutting tool into it and accidently cut part of the boat.

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It’s honestly impressive how angled they installed some of these self tapping screws.

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I have some thin plastic car panel pry bars that were useful as a non marring tool to pry on these areas without scratching them, and the relative lack of strength of the plastic prevents you applying too much pressure on the boat.

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I knew the top side was hollow based on a small gap I could see through, and since I am not reusing this panel I started cutting away with tin snips to get a better look at whats behind.

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I slowly cut off sections of the wall with a cut off tool set just to the depth of the aluminum, and with each section cut there was less adhesion between the panel and foam. Once I cut enough of the wall to determine where I could cut without issue, I made longer cuts until the entire panel was able to be popped off. The foam is about 1.5" thick.

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Once removed, you can see how the entire back side area is covered with just masking tape and is void of foam. Close to the color of pour foam, guess tracker thought it would blend right in

Flap of tape

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Flap folded over showing empty area

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[mnmbw]

Getting the cockpit floor out took me a bit. The screws in the floor were rusted, and some of them being crooked made removal even more difficult. Impact screw driver and cutting slots into the bit, and being extremely careful not to damage the heads. The heads were very prone to chipping due to the rust.

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With the screws out, the floor was still glued in the boat due to adhesion with the pour foam. I was expecting some of the foam underneath was compromised and planned on replacing it. Referencing a picture of tracker construction and digging out the foam around where they pumped the foam in, I was able to calculate safe areas to drill with a hole saw. The pilot bit was used initially to get the hole saw started, and removed when the hole saw had a path to stay in. The pilot bit would penetrate no more than ¼”, and everywhere it was used I knew the thickness of the pour foam was much higher. The areas I did not know the thickness of the foam, I took a piece of plywood with cut out holes, secured it to the deck, and used the holes as my drill bit guide without the pilot bit. One hole after another, it finally came off.

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While trying to determine a plan for removing the livewell, I noticed something odd through the gap in the floor. Can't wait to see what it is, it is inaccessible without taking the livewell out.


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[mnmbw]

The storage area floor. First step, removing the screws.

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Every screw looked this bad.

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I had many of the screws crumble after trying my hardest to preserve them and using multiple techniques. I struggled with figuring out how to get the deck off with these screws still stuck in the framing, and I recalled that I owned a set of plug cutters from harbor freight. I was able to effectively core out the material around the broken screws with these plug cutters, without contacting the aluminum underneath.

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The floor didn’t fit as tightly as the cockpit floor, so I was able to get my hands underneath it and it came up pretty easily.

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A look at the foam underneath. Just a cup of standing water sitting in this low spot. Boat hasn’t see rain or any other kind of water in many months. Water seemingly gets into these areas in the boat and has no way to properly drain.

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[jcyoung517]

just about right where you are, carpet showed up friday. livewell and fuel tank out

[bluephone]

Do you have any photos of the lids without carpet on them? I am considering tearing my entire front deck out to lay it out the way id like better, but would require me making/ modifying the existing lids, I am curious how they corners of the lids are made? welded? riveted etc?

[Slicefixer]

I feel for you as I just totally rebuilt mine. Hundred of hours of work, etc. I found a few quality control issues with my Fisher Pro Hawk 180, but jeez, NOTHING like your Tracker. I'm really shocked to be quite honest. No pride in the workers I guess, both personal and for the company they represent.

Keep at it....fight off the burnout....it's very rewarding once the project is complete.

[mnmbw]

just about right where you are, carpet showed up friday. livewell and fuel tank out

Are you using the same tank? I looked at smaller tanks to gain more storage space but didn't see any that I thought would add much space.

Do you have any photos of the lids without carpet on them? I am considering tearing my entire front deck out to lay it out the way id like better, but would require me making/ modifying the existing lids, I am curious how they corners of the lids are made? welded? riveted etc?

They are .100" aluminum sheet bent in a brake. The seams at the corners are not welded, there is a gap that measures roughly .100" at these corners. I can post a pic of it in my next post.

I feel for you as I just totally rebuilt mine. Hundred of hours of work, etc. I found a few quality control issues with my Fisher Pro Hawk 180, but jeez, NOTHING like your Tracker. I'm really shocked to be quite honest. No pride in the workers I guess, both personal and for the company they represent.

Keep at it....fight off the burnout....it's very rewarding once the project is complete.

I still have a few more posts to write up showing the breakdown, luckily i'm near the finish line and approaching the rebuild stage. The issues on this boat were 100% avoidable if there was more attention to detail. I'm not sure who is to blame in the equation, but these boats are clearly made as fast as possible, with little concern of how long the product will last. That being said I certainly could have used this boat for a decade without knowing what was hiding underneath the carpet. I'd love to tear another brand of boat down to the core, and I'd bet tracker isn't the only company hiding poor build quality underneath carpet.