I go through what its like to own this boat for 1 year and 4 months. The ups and downs and a few things that I have done to increase its value to me. Instagram- Thrashing Outdoors
Great overview, and because of your honest candor, I went to my local Tracker dealer yesterday and looked at the 2021 Targa V18 Combo and I will say it is a beautiful machine. Videos like this really give folks a lot of confidence with all the Tracker hate out there. After watching your videos and seeing it in person I will say the Targa is an extremely solid and well built boat, and am ordering the 2021. Watched your crank riser video as well and will tell you it appears they upgraded the construction of that riser (but only slightly). As far as the cover, even the dealer admits that the cover will take a beating during trailering. Awesome video. Can't wait to get mine!
@@hpcam1 if you buy a show room floor could be 2-4 depending on how fast everything gets done but if you order to be built specific I think it was 6-8 weeks
@@hpcam1 just ordered mine this morning in the Charcoal Grey.. Gonna be 4-5 weeks before it comes in....which is fine because everything is Frozen here in Wi !!!
Really great review. Good job. I'd like to see them add a welded transducer bracket to the transom so you don't have to drill into the transom to mount transducers and such. Maybe even a stern saver to mount stuff to.
Hey Thrasher. Nice job on the review. My 2020 has been great so far. Some little crap that was irritating but overall, loving it. Regarding the winch post, I mentioned on one of your other vids that I found a guy that makes a gusset for that. It's an ongoing problem with the Targa trailers, so I wouldn't trust it for a long haul. I do alot of wilderness lakes where access can be miles of dirt roads. One place I went in Maine was 37 miles of bumpy, rutted, dirt road. Knowing this has been an issue made me uncomfortable hauling that kind of terrain. The gusset was cheap and I installed it in 15 minutes. Well worth it for the peace of mind.
Shotgun Willy, do you have pictures of the gusset or can explain what they look like / accomplish? I'm in Maine and will be traveling primarily bumpy back roads with my boat and would like to know how to prevent this.
@@ryanf7249 Hey Ryan. I can send you some pics if you want to send me a private message w/an email addy. And I know the back roads of Maine. Went to Moosehead this summer, drove 30ish miles of logging roads to get to the cabin.
@@shotgunwilly4685 I am new to the RU-vid account. Not sure how to send a private message on here. If you know how to please send me one and I'll send you my email. I really appreciate it.
So. I have a 2018 Combo Basically same boat. Absolutely love mine. I have upgraded mine some. Added a 3 bank charger. Added deck lights. Two fish finders. Rod holders. Had to tighten the threw hull fittings some. Was taking on a little water. Like I mentioned before, bought the hydraulic seat pedestals. Added an auto bilge. Upgrades to a Terrova. But all In all love my boat. I want to add the Vessel View too. But it Does all I want. I added an Amazon hour meter to the spark plug wire to keep up with maintenance.
Rivets last longer than welds, air planes and space ships are riveted. When you have any turbulence hitting sheet metal, the metal NEEDS to flex so it can withstand it. Welds WILL hold but not as long. And when/if a rivet breaks it’s super easy to fix,
Great video. I would move that front bow safety strap. Put a new one on that's long enough to reach around the front of the trailer itself, probably around the tongue in front of your winch. I would never trust my boat to something that's held on with 4 bolts. And think about the force at the very top of that winch if your boat were to start moving back. The crack you had doesn't surprise me. That's a pretty heavy boat. The connection point needs to be lower. Just a suggestion.
I just want to add to this, great video I agree with most everything and have some others. We have a 2020 V-18 combo. I have noticed the left glove box fills with water like crazy when it rains so don’t put valuables in it and forget them. A little foam seal like on your house doors or windows can help. I also notice the battery trays in the center floor for the trolling motor hold water really well when it rains, a small hole drilled in the bottom and it drains fine. The center storage compartment under the center rod holder does the same. No place for water to go. I did upgrade my rear tie downs to the larger boat buddy buckles all it took was a tap from a dead blow hammer and fit just fine. I did see someone mention the screws that hold the consoles down on both sides coming loose, that is correct I had it happen twice the little nuts with built in star washers do not hold up well. I switched them to nylon insert lock nuts, not one problem this last season. Another upgrade I did was install a removable slide plate for the trolling motor for when I just go out boating and don’t want that bouncing around up there. Minnkota makes it. I have had this for two years and it has run like a charm every time. I have the 150 xl and full fuel and wife and kids and coolers and beach chairs and still hit 44-45mph.
Thanks for some of the tips. Will have to look into the nylon washers for sure. Have not noticed water in glove box or battery tray yet. I’m kinda interested in the trolling motor plate.
@@8michael7 here is the product from cabela’s/bass pro Minn Kota Trolling Motor Quick-Release Bracket MKA-16-03. To me best thing you can add for rolling motor so you can remove it when you want and also put a lock on it if you’re worried about it getting stole.
Great video! Thank you! We are also looking for a fishing and family boat and you pointed out some great points to look for. We just started looking, saw Lund, Crestliner, starcraft and Lowe. Tracker seems to be the best fit for the price. If you can think of anything else we should consider or have another boat brand to look at we would appreciate it. Thank you for your time and happy fishing!
Sorry to be so offtopic but does someone know of a way to get back into an instagram account..? I stupidly lost the login password. I would love any tricks you can give me!
@Adriel Derek thanks so much for your reply. I got to the site thru google and im waiting for the hacking stuff atm. I see it takes a while so I will get back to you later when my account password hopefully is recovered.
Thanks for the review. I have been eyeballing the Targa for a while and you convinced me I should get one. Hopefully you will be able to convince my wife too! Lol. I like to go night fishing and take a nap every now and then. Is there enough flat floor space for a 6-2 tall guy to lay down?
great info.....have the same boat w/ 150 MERC, just not the combo, for 16 months now. home made versa track inserts to hold santee style rod holders, added 2 more depth finders ( Garmin ) ,vessel view, VHF and wireless MOB kill switch. love the boat, have had it 25 miles offshore ( NC ). does well. My complaint is no easy access to bilge. If you add your auto pump let me know how to gain access without removing entire rear deck.
Thanks a lot . I have been searching to do an auto bilge but yea the access is terrible. It’s looking like only way is remove deck. Not looking forward to it
Thanks for the review! I have two questions. First, how does the compartment doors handle rain? Is everything flooded and wet when it has been raining alot? I mean, do you have to clean and dry every compartment? Secondly, do you know if they have a better cover for traveling?
Rain will find its way to the bottom of the boat where the bilge is so if it rains a lot and you don't bilge it out it will fill up into the bottom floor compartment. But all other compartments I don't think I can recall much water getting into them if any. As for covers I have not done any research. My plan was to reach out to a local upholstery shop that does custom covers and seeing what it would cost me to have them make me a good one. Thanks for watching.
Mess up the threads on those boat buckles, and keep the originals on the boat. I have heard of people stealing the boat buckles off of peoples trailers. I actually came back to put my boat back on the trailer after fishing once and some ass clown stole the bolts out of my bunk board. Busy parking lot and nobody saw anything. When I got my boat buckles I installed them and then mushroomed the ends of the bolts to make stealing them difficult and I keep the original straps on the boat in case someone cuts them off. Eastern PA has some shady people.
I ran a v175 combo in puget sound for 5 years and put a lot of hours on the boat. This is salt water and have ran in water most people wouldn't even think of. Never had an issue with hull. The plastic through hull fittings suck. Carpet sucks in the salt. The sounds the hull makes when you hit real chop made me cringe but it never failed. The pro guide has a thinner hull then targa. The main plus that no one talks about on any review video is how easy it is to find replacement parts for the boat. Ebay and great lakes skipper are 2 examples. I patched together my entire boat top/enclosure off parts from ebay and saved a ton of money. These are things you can't do with other boats. This is where no other boat can compete with. Unfortunately my truck and boat were stolen 6/22/23 and boat was stripped all the way down to the floors 😢 I knew the boat from bow to stern and did evey repair and upgrade myself. I used my bow mount and kicker 99% of the time on the water and my 2012 boat had a 2016 merc 115 that was brand new when I bought boat. I had 510 hours on motor just before it was stolen. Who knows how many thousand of hours I had on this boat and most of it was in the salt.
Thanks for your vids! I'm wondering if you could do me a huge favor a measure from the ground up to the top of the windscreen? I might buy one of these but I don't know if I can get it into my garage, and there are so few of these in Sweden so I can't ask anyone here to measure.
Hey got the boat back today and did the measurements for you. Ground to top of windshield is is right at 7' maybe 7'2". The hand bar for the front step measures 92" (7'8"). hope this helps
I bought them from bass pro but I can’t find the exact ones for a link. I believe the strap is 1 inch and break strength is like 2500 per equally 5000 together. They were like $55-60
Have you found a comfortable way to fish from the middle of the boat, fished out of my buddies and was put in the middle and ended up netting fish for both the front and rear fisherman. The seats do not swivel and the twin console leaves little room to fish comfortably.?? Thoughts?
My seats swivel 360. Do you have the same boat? Targa? My driver slides forward and backwards and all swivel 360. I fish from the center a lot but I like to sit on the gunnel and jig off the side. As for bait casting the windshield does get in the way a lil but just have to work around it.
Great info. Not a lot of of reviews or good reviews on the Trackers. I’m in between the 175 or the V19. Just me and sometimes the wife. She actually likes fishing, don’t even know when that happened. LOL. So I’m thinking the 175 would be just fine for us. Down in Va so no big lake stuff. So little lighter and less $$$. Great info on the cover. Definitely want one and was wondering on the factory order ones or just get one , but I want it to be road worthy and hold up. My boat too will have to stay outdoors. Was that cover the Premium one or the regular rope ratchet one? 200.00 dollar difference but if it was worth it i would do it. Any advise?? Going order in Jan to have by Mar. or at least in Mar if behind. Thanks Ed
Yea if it is just you 2 fishing 175 will work great. I went bigger because of the family aspect and being able to ski and pull tubes. I dont know which cover { i think Rope Ratchet}I have but personally save the money and have custom one built that will fit nice with better material. If it is sitting in the drive way for a while not being used I throw a big thick 200$ tarp over the whole thing just for added protection. Hope this helps. Let me know if there is anything else. Good Luck
@@8michael7 Hey thanks for the reply. Went to bass pro today and I’m right back at the Targa V19 again. Just really like the layout better and the new 2021 dash moved gauges to the right and lots of room for larger fish finders. Think that happened in 2020. The 175 dash drives me nuts. So after this salesman I do have a couple questions. He confused me on the trailer brakes. Sure the V18 has same trailer. Now I know its surge brakes which It’s spring loaded in tongue of trailer but the I said the hubs are drum brakes and then it went south. Ask how the brakes don’t engage when backing up. He said they just don’t. Ok this info can’t be right. I thought that the pressure of slowing down pushed on trailer tongue cylinder and that engaged the drum brakes. Ok he was saying that on the tracker trailer the rear brakes are surge not drums. Ok since tracker doesn’t even tell you you what the brake upgrades on online, yep called and found out but not a lot of good info online. So I see there is a pin to pull to disengage. But then he said if I had V19 with 7 pin connection I don’t have to do that. I’m really iffy on his info. Because I don’t see how that would work. So what’s the deal with the brakes and backing up.
@@nonrevhogan8938 My drive way is a 4 to 5 degree incline and i always back my boat u it. Never had a prob. The Brakes are dum surge brakes but you littereally have to slam on the brakes hard to get them to engage. So backing up small inclines I dont think will engage them. They are meant for emergency braking only. As for a pin, its not to pull. If you are worried use the pin from the clasp and push it into a hole on the toungue. That will keep them from engaging but like I said I having had the issue yet.
You mentioned that your boat filled with water, while docked during a storm. Silly. Question: Does the boat still float when full of water, or will it be like the Titanic? Thanks!
It does still float. I dont know how much it will take but I believe the bilge is a 500 GPH pump and I can remember letting is run for almost an hour the morning after a big rain. I would guestimate 250 - 400 gal was pump out.
Hi. I just got a 18’ targa w 150. I’m just curious if you have noticed any of the issues I’m noticing with the new motor. First of all it steers very differently left then right. Maybe prop rotation… idk. And I have to rotate the steering wheel a lot to make minor course corrections. I assume there is some kind of a hydraulic issue but the dealer is telling me everything is operationally normal. The other thing I noticed is motor shake. At idle in gear the boat shakes enough to make the graph on the consul almost hard to view contour lines. Have you noticed anything like that? TIA
Yea I don’t have any issues with the steering. Prop rotation can give a lil more resistance turning one direction but the hydraulic steering kinda gets rid of that. As for the motor shake I did have that problem and it was because I had a down cylinder. Had a plug that was bad. The motor barely moves at idle. So that is def an issues if it is shaking that bad.
@@8michael7 thx for feedback! I understand prop rotation. Maybe that’s it but I need to go down the rabbit hole of bleeding the hydraulics before I let it go…. Seems like I have to turn the wheel way to much to make minor course corrections. Like if air was In The lines - It’d cause low pressure for the movement of the motor. Idk. I should make a video of all this…. Did you do any docking light mods? I need to add deck lighting too…. Seen some vid of LED installs…
How tall is the tallest point on your boat I want one but it has to fit In my garage I seen it has the package height online but it looks like the trailer pole is the highest point I could cut that off lol thanks for any help
Absolutely. It will handle normal weather out there. Now if it’s calling for a real crappy day. Erie can get pretty nasty and I wouldn’t take it out in that.
Hey Brother, I am sure you have been busy since you haven't posted in awhile but would you be willing to chat with me in detail about the boat. I'm thinking about picking one up in the next 6 months or so.
Both items I have not added yet but I do want to. Not real sure if I want to go stock Bimini. And the pump I have been procrastinating cause I think the back deck gonna have to come off to install it
One would think a weld is stronger then a rivet but when it comes to boats they need to be able to flex. Welds don't allow for any flex but rivets do. For example air plane wings are all riveted together because they need to flex under the pressure that is put on them. Boats are the same way when you are pounding waves with them. If a rivet does leak you can simply drill it out and replace it but if a weld breaks being that it is aluminum you have to find someone who is an expert at welding aluminum and thats not going to be cheap.
@@8michael7 no problem. Im a mechanical engineer so i have spent a lot of time studying different forms of connecting metals together and the applications they will be used for.
@@donjohnstonjr2647 no I don't but I'm a mechanical engineer that has taken a few classes on material strengths and bonding techniques and which is best for certain applications.
The VX 1788 is the exact same hull, built in the same factory, has the exact same warranty. Only it costs $6,200 more than the Tracker and if you want a walk-thru windshield...it's $7K more than the Tracker. The Ranger fit/finish is better and I do like the recessed trolling motor petal and wood free deck. But I like the fact the Tracker is rated for 200hp while the Ranger is only 175hp. You can also put a kicker engine on the Tracker and the Tracker has 6 pop up cleats while Ranger only has 4.
Thanks for telling us how you feel about it, but 30 minutes and you didn't show ANY of the actual features of the boat. I'd like to see more boat, less you.
