New SL210

[jejb]

We picked up our new SL210 last Friday. It is a new leftover 08 with new F225 motor. We got it through the 2 hour breakin on Saturday and have about 4 hours on the boat now. Even caught 3 bass in it on Saturday while the wife was sunning on the back deck. Pretty happy with it so far.

A couple of disappointments, though. The gap where the walk through windshield meets the drivers side windshield is too wide. I can run my index finger all the way down it. So when we hit some bigger bumps on the lake, the windshield edge would end up behind the drivers side window and be stuck solid. Tore up the edge of the window a bit, and scrathed up the gel coat on the dash area. I had to remove screws to slide the window up and out, and the reattach it. Happened 2-3 times so we ended up just running it open. Getting the run around a bit on getting it fixed, too.

The other issue is the owners manual. I'm a big manual reader and the Skeeter OM is very inadequate, IMO. They lump all the boats together in one book, and the SL series is just the red headed step child of the bunch. For example, they show no livewell system in the book even remotely related to the ones that come in the SL's. Skeeter acknowledged that when I called them, and said they're "working on it".

But overall, it's a smooth and dry running boat, and very quiet and fuel efficient with the F on there. Happy to be a Skeeter owner!

[itsakeeper14]

Nice rig. Welcome to the skeeter family. Don't give up on getting your issues fixed and also don't show my wife that skeeter makes boats with full windshields and second row seating....

Tight Lines.

[fishin couillon]

[blackknife]

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by jejb &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> the SL series is just the red headed step child of the bunch.

</TD></TR></TABLE>

Hey.....I resemble that remark!! Seriously, nice rig, and that's a cool pic of your dog in mid jump! I hope you get your issues straightened out, and I think you will. Just keep on top of it, and call SKeeter directly if your dealer jerks you around. Welcome, and enjoy!

[jejb]

Thanks guys. Sure been enjoying it so far. The windshield gap has been closed up so the windshield problem is gone, but they still need to do some fiberglass coating work to fix the scratches, and probably replace the windshield walk through part. But we're not pushing them hard before the 4th on that stuff.

I don't know if it's the boat or not, but I've sure been kicking butt on the fish since getting it. It is much easier to position the boat than my old Crestliner in any kind of wind or current. Stronger trolling motor and lower profile mostly. Whatever the case, I've had some hot G. Loomis poles of late! Caught a 3.5lb smallie and a 4lb walleye on Saturday. I knew those were in the lake, but had never caught either before that. Both gave me a great fight on spinning setups.

Just over 9 hours on it, so I'll be doing the first oil change pretty soon. Fuel mileage remains incredible, even with the 4 blade M25 on there. I broke it in with the Vmax 3 blade 25". I've seen 63mph on the GPS in a short burst with the 4 blade. Didn't really test it with the 3 blade. I will at some point.

Fuel gauge is WAY off. It indicated 1/4 tank was left when I filled it yesterday, but it only took 20gals, so it was exactly 1/2 empty. I can lift the rear hatch easily to see the fuel level, so I won't have to completely depend on the gauge, but still, you'd think it'd be a little closer than that.

[BrianFLA]

Nice looking Skeeter,, great dog you have there,, I have one also.

[jejb]

Yeah, she owns the front platform when I'm not fishing on it. Quite the protector. We had two Shepherd's but the 12 year old passed away a couple of months back. So the 2 year old shoulders the load now. Had her out swimming yesterday. Sure was hard to see her jumping into the new boat soaking wet, and shaking all over the place. But the boat got a bath and cleaning today, so all is well.

[TGravo]

Great looking rig! I am a skeeter fan as well and looked hard at that boat. Great buy. I'm sure you will enjoy it for your family and fishing pleasure.

[jejb]

I was waxing the boat today, which brought up a couple of questions I thought I'd run by y'all. How the heck do you wax the part the trailer bunks are on? My old boat was on a roller trailer, so I could just hook it up to the truck for stability, leave the winch strap attached with a few inches of slack and push it back enough to get the roller spots. No way on this one. So is that just an unwaxed area with bunk trailers?

Also, I could see the wood that the bunks are made of from underneath. Some of it had some black areas. I assume it's marine grade lumber, and maybe that's just what it looks like. But this is also a hold over 08 brand new boat. So could the bunks be showing some rot already? I'd sure think and hope not!

Maybe I just need to get more used to this style trailer as time goes on, but I sure miss my roller trailer. Much easier to load and unload the boat from, especially in shallow areas.

[skeet210]

You may want to rethink waxing the to much of the bottom of the boat. There has been several post on BBC showing that a rougher surface closer to the rear pad will help you gain some speed. Just a suggestion.

[skeet210]

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by scoobyskeeterfx210 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">You may want to rethink waxing the to much of the bottom of the boat. There has been several post on BBC showing that a rougher surface closer to the rear pad will help you gain some speed. Just a suggestion.</TD></TR></TABLE> here is the website.http://www.bassboatcentral.com/don'twax.htm

[jejb]

Learn something new every day, I guess. The last article in the link says it doesn't make much difference in a 65-70mph boat, which is what I have. But I'll maybe leave it unwaxed going forward.


Modified by jejb at 6:45 PM 6/26/2009

[skeet210]

yea, but every little bit helps

[1moretoy]

That windshield is quite a bit different from my 06 sl210. looks to be a bit taller with less wrap around on the sides. Is this new style or are there different options?

My 06

[Darth VMAX]

That is the "Tall Window" option on the SL. It is not as sleek and sexy as the regular window but it actually protects you from the elements unlike the standard window.

[jejb]

Correct. When we first sat in an SL210 at a dealership, we could see the windshield was not built to actually shield wind from our faces. So we located one with the tall windshield option. Maybe doesn't look quite as sleek, but we sure prefer the heck out of the taller glass.

Something else I noticed about our boat Sunday while we were skiing with it. I'd never looked that closely at the max HP plate. On the other 08's we'd seen, they said something about Max HP of 200, except the F225TLR could also be used. But our boat just says "225 HP". No caveats. Not that it makes any difference. I have exactly the motor I want, but I guess a guy could put a 225 Vmax on some of these too, depending on how it's labeled.


Modified by jejb at 5:16 AM 6/30/2009

[jejb]

The windshield gap has been closed up, but they were too busy to do the work on cleaning up the scratches on the console and window edge. Said after the 4Th. So that's fine, at least we can run down the lake with the windshield closed now, if we want to.

The only remaining disappointment is the live wells. They are really simple/cheap designs, which I did not expect coming from a bass boat company. They have separate switches with manual and auto settings. That's okay, but I'd have preferred a timer rheostat. The problem is that the level tube is just a piece of PVC that plugs into the drain hole. So it's passive. And if the boat is not moving much like when I am finesse fishing plastic worms, the live well overfills and the water runs in the splash well or rear compartment. Thank goodness I have the auto-bilge pump float! Plus when it's overfull, the incoming water is not doing any aerating, either. Bad for keeping the fish alive. In my old boat, it had the overflow out the side of the boat, so it could never overflow like this. I need to figure out what options I have in this area. There has to be a better way w/o cutting holes in my new boat (I hope!). I don't have the recirculate deal, either, but I guess that's a matter of buying the parts and installing them, if I want that.

[jejb]

My windshield saga continues, unfortunately. The windshield doesn't fold inside itself like it used to, but now the lower corner of the windshield on the passenger side will actually pull out of the lower track/gasket completely, leaving an air gap. This has happened twice now, both times on rougher water with the windshield closed (which is what the stickers on the windshield frame instruct).

Skeeter wants to bring the boat back to the factory to figure this out. The dealer that sold us the boat has another customer with the same optional higher windshield that has the same issue. Skeeter offered both the other guy and us the shorter, standard windshield as they have not had any issues with that. The other customer took that option, but that is unacceptable to us as that was THE reason we bought this boat over the other SL210's in the area.

So finally a question. Has anyone had the experience of having their boat go back to Skeeter for work? How was the experience? How long did it take to turn it around?

Thanks.

[Darth VMAX]

Well that stinks That is so frustrating to have your brand new boat have issues like that. I hope everything turns out OK and this issue can be resolved permanently.

Still am curious to see what one of those can run with a 225 Vmax HPDI

[jejb]

Thanks. It is very frustrating to think of being w/o the boat for a month or three while Skeeter has it. I've spent a LOT of time in the boat since buying it. But it seems Skeeter just doesn't have enough experience with windshields, at least not this particular one. Which I kind of understand since not many of their boats have wrap around windshields on them.

I'm not sure if I mentioned it, but the max hp plate on my boat does not have the "225 but only if it's an F225, otherwise max is 200". The other SL210's we looked at did have that warning. Ours just says max is 225, with no other caveats. So I could've put a 225 HPDI on it, it seems. Not that I would have, even given the choice. I'm SO happy with this F225. I for sure make the right choice for my requirements.

Newer pic: