Gorilla Hull on BassCat

[Taxin & Bassin]

Guys,

I have some hull damage to a Cat i purchased last year. The damage is from a previous repair the previous owner had done that obviously wasn't done right. I spoke with BassCat and this is not covered under the warranty, which I am not surprised nor do I blame them.

I have consulted with Toledo Fiberglass and they will do the repairs. Have any of you put the gorilla hull on a Bass Cat? This is a chance for me to get one with a lifetime warranty at the expense of the insurance. i have heard by many that it has improved the performance and speed of their boats, however none of these were on a Cat. My uncle knows Rick personally and he told him that without some performance work after putting the gorilla hull, there may be some issues.

Do any of you have any experiences with the gorilla hull on a cat or can give any advice on my situation. TIA

[pops77s]

From everything I have read Toledo Fiberglass will work the Gorilla Hull to bring it up to performance standards. IMHO I think it is an excellent option for your case.

[toledobasser]

I know of 3 guys over on the owner's board that have had it done by Al at Toledo Fiberglass....Keith King, Rick V and Josh Sikes. I'm not sure if they visit bbc or not but you can try to contact them over there. I'll look for a couple of links on the owner's board where the Gorrila Hull was discussed.


http://basscatowners.yuku.com/reply/...V#reply-169613



http://basscatowners.yuku.com/reply/...s#reply-181127



http://basscatowners.yuku.com/topic/...la-Hull?page=1

[Cajunhunter67]

I have a good friend that put it on his Pantera II. They do excellent work. He did lose a couple mph, but they worked the hull and its now performing as it was before. To me its a no brainer. Especially with insurance footing the bill.

[JDS723]

Yep, I'm one of the ones Jim is referring to, Josh Sikes. I had an 07 Puma that I put a gorilla hull on. It did slow the boat down just a hair, but I loved it. Never worried about rolling over stumps, rebar, concrete, ect. Just the peace of mind was worth it to me.

[Texlacat]

T&B, I have a buddy that had it put on onto a 2006 Puma FTD thru his insurance as well. He loves it. I see you are in La, if you are anywhere near Shreveport I am sure he would let you look at it. He can still run mid to upper 70s.

[BSSCT98]

I have a 1998 Jaguar that Toledo Fiberglass installed the gorilla hull on and I love it. It shouldn't slow your boat down, but as anything added you never know. I am running a 1997 225 EFI and my boat will GPS fully loaded 70 MPH. You will really love being able to go into the woods and not have to worry about your hull. To let you know you don't want to run over concrete or rebar, the gorilla hull has a lifetime warranty, but it is not indestructible.

[jaxson]

If you care at all about speed you will run from a Gorilla Hull. I was sold a 07 Puma that had a Gorilla Hull . Top speed when i got it was 69-70mph. Even paid the previous owner to take it to Toledo Repair for tweaking before i went to get it. I called and spoke with other BassCat owners who had this done and none of them were back to the original speed before having a gorilla Hull installed. We finally sanded the majority of that stuff off and got the speed back to 74.5. Knowing what i know now , i would pay what it takes to keep the hull as close to factory as possible. I could not find anyone
who said they actually gained improved performance, but talked to other Cat owners who had lost speed and handling including Rick V,who said at the time when we spoke his has never been the same since. Talked with Rick Pierce, and Ivan Williams on more than one occasion for any ideas to correct the speed and handling issues

. Rick Pierce later put a post on here regarding the Gorilla Hull. You need to find it and read it

[blakesfav]

Ha I'm surprised to hear Rick had any drop off in speed - the last time I fished the Red he passed me while I was fishing, coming out of a lock with a large group of boats. He was a quarter mile in front of every other boat in the lock and rolling pretty close to 80 when he came by me. That was post- gorilla hull. I know he had it worked a bit but I think he's happy with it. Find him on the BCB owners board.

[kking]

I'm also one of the guys Toledo basser talked about. I put mine on two years ago and love it. You may drop a couple miles per hour. Some do some don't. Piece of mind is worth the trade off for me. I know guys who have it on bass cats and still bumping 80. Customer service is excellent. Warranty follows the boat. Pm me if you have any specific questions.

[kking]

RickV ran up on a rod sticking out of a stump the other day. Made a pretty good sized groove. Dropped it off at the owners house on a Sunday and picked it up the next Friday. Couldn't tell it was ever a scratch. No charge. Warranty covered it. Prob would have been a major expense if you had to do fiberglass repair again not to mention time off the lake.

[Bill2e]

If you care at all about speed you will run from a Gorilla Hull. I was sold a 07 Puma that had a Gorilla Hull . Top speed when i got it was 69-70mph. Even paid the previous owner to take it to Toledo Repair for tweaking before i went to get it. I called and spoke with other BassCat owners who had this done and none of them were back to the original speed before having a gorilla Hull installed. We finally sanded the majority of that stuff off and got the speed back to 74.5. Knowing what i know now , i would pay what it takes to keep the hull as close to factory as possible. I could not find anyone
who said they actually gained improved performance, but talked to other Cat owners who had lost speed and handling including Rick V,who said at the time when we spoke his has never been the same since. Talked with Rick Pierce, and Ivan Williams on more than one occasion for any ideas to correct the speed and handling issues

. Rick Pierce later put a post on here regarding the Gorilla Hull. You need to find it and read it

I have searched and searched for Ricks comments with no luck. What did he say?

[Luke]

i have it on my 2003 Cougar. was on there when i bought it so no idea what speed it ran before it.
but i know the speed i got out of it after i bought it. with a 225 EFi 3.0L i got 72.6 was the best i ever saw. that was before i put the power poles, 36v battery system and starting battery, so got quite a bit of weight in the back and it will still run 69.5 now. so for me that will work just fine.

[neo]

I have searched and searched for Ricks comments with no luck. What did he say?

Found it this was from 05/02/2016 copied and pasted.

The folks at Toledo Fiberglass are good people who went from building products to repairing them. Their business was supported by a geographic area (region) that has a lot of underwater obstacles, and anglers who contact those while fishing. They found A niche and they have offered a service to those who might otherwise have limited options in recovering some of their dollars invested in their toys. Then there are some who are just cautious and preferred to go the ounce of prevention mode, and have a Gator hull installed.

Fiberglass and boats from fiberglass fatigue at varying levels, depending on resin quality, resin content, fiberglass quality and the construction quality of the builder. The more you flex a hull, the more prone it is to damages. Eventually that fatigue wears the resin out (cracking sounds) from sliding over stumps. The more ice breaking sounds you hear, the more damage your doing to the hulls resins.

At one time we preferred Lake Millwood Boats be run a while locally and suggested those owning them to sell them out of their area. Those hulls would last forever on a Ouachita or Bull Shoals, though not on Millwood. At that time we had about 85% of the local Texarkana Bass Club in boats. Paraloma Trail, Big Bertha and running the Gas Line were commonly heard names. Keith Browning's boat had the nose totally scuffed in brown stain marks, like paint on the front of your brush hog deck. That was from cutting through brush instead of navigating and being careful.

Millwood in the early to mid 1970's set a bar on damages no reservoir will ever challenge, not the Ouachita River, Felsenthal, Conway, Lake Fork, Cooper, Black's or even the Red River. Those other reservoirs in that region offered an opportunity to Toledo for a niche business model they developed. Others have done it regionally for various reasons. Here it's on those 20' river boat bottoms that miss the gap at White Hole on the White River. Refinishing and polishing those bottoms to only do it again is futile.

Toledo's Gator hull is a simple where they run a chopper gun, applying fiberglass to the exterior over the outer Gelcoat and recover it with a spray on gelcoating that does not require much finishing. It is not a technical solution, it is rudimentary and an initial laminate skin coat to many hulls. The strength gained is by sandwiching the Gelcoat between that laminate, and the added material they install exterior which adds thickness. The tensions on the fiberglass are all reversed and thus the strength is in that outer skin that now is molded in reverse to your hull.

Since your adding moderate weight, then no it won't be as fast. There is no surface face like a molded Gelcoat and thus there is no plate face to damage on the outer gel sprayed rough texture. The physical properties are all different. That same rippled finish exterior is a change to a finished molded surface, and it is also going to be slower. You can refinish the hull, though we are extremely critical to 1/16" and 1/32" in places on the bottom. Those increments of detail will be lost and odds are they already have been deviated from due to damages if your seeing Toledo Fiberglass. Little changes in our hull, or perhaps many hulls, make a major difference in handling and performance.

That is the fundamentals on Toledo Fiberglasses process and how it works, why it works and what our expectations are. We like the us at Toledo and we do understand how their little niche came to be in that area. Just like several handymen have done in other areas to save their hulls from a bone yard for, or on, boats for decades.

BCB

[Redngoo]

I am a old river rat! If that day comes(and im sure it will). Ive just been lucky it has not happened. This will be my resolution. Cheaper than a new rig. And us river guys just understand were going to bump and scuff objects. So as BCB suggested in the old post it is a resolution. I was figuring by now they had perfected the process to where they knew where any finish work needed

[Bass Cat Boats]

We tweak in tenths and hundredths of an inch to achieve performance we desire. Once they add glass over the surface and 25 mils of GelCoat, there is no way to perfect what was there.

BCB

[Bill2e]

We tweak in tenths and hundredths of an inch to achieve performance we desire. Once they add glass over the surface and 25 mils of GelCoat, there is no way to perfect what was there.

BCB

Thanks.

Since hitting a stump and doing significant damage to my hull I was researching all my options.

I found a shop to do the repair.

http://www.bbcboards.net/showthread.php?t=1148270

[Phil Addison]

If you are concerned of losing some mph then don't add.

[ChanceHuiet]

I’d rather lose a few mph and not worry about putting a gash in my hull every day of the week.

[AndyNegus94]

I have it a 2006 cougar with gorilla hull and and 250 merc. With a good 26 fury I borrowed, my boat ran 78, I had a chewed up 25 fury and it ran 74-75 consistently.