Greetings all,

I am a brand new member and this is my first post. I have been doing an enormous amount of research on boats to help me decide what to buy. I have been trying to keep an open mind and have no brand loyalty. I will be making this same post in other brand forums as well. My delimma is this. I have about $25K to spend on a new rig. This will be my first bass boat. I have narrowed my choices to NITRO Z-7, Triton 18x2 or TR-186, and Stratos 285XL. All three boats are in the 18.5' range and running a 150hp. The Nitro would be a 2009 model for $25K. The Triton 18x2 is a left over 2008 that I can get in the $23-24K range. The Triton TR-186 is also left over 2008 that I can get in the $22-23K range. The Stratos is actually a left over 2007 that I can get for $19.9K. As I said, I have never owned any of these brands, so I have no personal knowledge of their capabilities. I have been doing a lot of reading on BBC forums and it seems that NITRO has a bad reputation. I like the Z-7 looks and the spring fishing bonus of $1000 BPS card. I am also active duty military, so I will get an additional $750 BPS card. This is very enticing. I was hoping to get some honest feedback from STRATOS owners about theirs and the other brands I am looking at. Thanks for your help!