cr0ck1....when ya wanna go?...i got a AB. i go out of suwannee all the time
guys, i was thinking about saving up for an airboat which will be used for hunting hog and getting into those places. what should i look for when buying one?
It depends on where you intend on running the most. If you look around long enough, you'll see that airboats tend to follow designs that can be loosely associated with common regions throughout the state. For instance, The guys running around Kissimmee and Hatchineha and that central Florida area like the "Polk County" style boat....glass hull, front driver, rear double passenger on a "Russell Jacobs" style set metalworks or some variation on this genral theme.
The guys just a little farther east over towards the Upper St. Johns have a slightly different style but you see more aluminum hulls and a different style of metalwork.
Down south there's higher metalworks with a totally different style to them plus the hulls are yet again different, more sleds and less glass hulls.
All along the west coast you see the higher sided, bigger aluminum boats like GTO makes.
Now, this is just a generalization as boats of different sorts can be found all over, but the guys who are successful builders tend to stick with what they know and like that's what you'll see in their areas.
If you plan on running areas with rocks and such, a glass hull isn't the best choice unless you intend on getting good with patch kits or have some damn good polymer. If you intend on running dry for extended periods of time then a heavy aluminum boat with thick polymer isn't going to perform the way a light glass hull with slick bottom will.....it's all give and takes in the airboat game. AND WE DIDN"T EVEN TALK ABOUT ENGINES YET!!!! :cheers
