Hands down a boat! bought one two years ago and love it. Absolutely love it. Of course, I see no joy in camping in an RV/Camper and I live 4 blocks from a lake so it is easy for me.My wife and I are finally at the point where we can consider getting one or the other, but we're having trouble making this decision, so I thought I'd try to get some advice from the cyclone faithful.
Have any of you already gone through this process and if so, what did you decide and why? Keep in mind that we're just starting out and are trying to find something small/affordable or a good deal. Any tips on how to find a good deal would be helpful too.
Thanks in advance fanatics!
Hands down a boat! bought one two years ago and love it. Absolutely love it. Of course, I see no joy in camping in an RV/Camper and I live 4 blocks from a lake so it is easy for me.
If I dodn't live near a lake/water, I wouldn't get a boat. I have friends that have them and never use them. 5-10 times a year isn't worth it to own a boat. you could buy an RV and rent a boat and come out ahead.
We trailer ours everytime. My wife an I argue about it all the time. She wants a lift and slip at the local marina. I argue, that the slip isn't very secure and we would have to haul our stuff from house to car to boat to car to house. With trailering we can store stuff in the boat and only have to haul from house to boat. To me it is 6 one way, half a dozen the other so why spend the $. Besides my wife doesn't trailer the damn thing, I do.A boat is great if you can leave it on the water. It's a pain to have to trailer it and put it in the water every time you want to go out. The down side is that when you leave it in the water you have a mess on your hands at the end of the summer.
An RV, I can't think of a worse thing to do. After you factor in cost, fuel mileage, driving something the size of a barge, sleeping in a glorified tent (The cheap ones), paying to park it, being next to other RV'rs, etc. It would be cheaper to just stay in a 4 star hotel every night.
So let me ask you this - do you think you'd use the boat as much if it wasn't a pontoon? If it was a smaller 16-17' fish/ski boat, would you get as much enjoyment or are you really glad you have a pontoon?
i bought two years ago as well. Fell into a hell of a deal from a friend. Many good websites out there. Boattrader, boat.com, boatexchange. I have had more than one friend have great success on ebay but you need to know what you are looking for. Also check marinas and tell them what you are looking for.did you buy new or used? any good tips for going through the buying process for a boat? did you use any good/reliable websites?
did you buy new or used? any good tips for going through the buying process for a boat? did you use any good/reliable websites?
Boat. You can use a boat if you have 3-4 hours of time. Camper you need 48+ hours of available time. Also, the campgrounds around us have so many site that are reserved you either need to a)- plan your camping trip 2 months in advance or b)- Pull in on thursday to ge an open spot.
did you buy new or used? any good tips for going through the buying process for a boat? did you use any good/reliable websites?
It all depends how often you are going to use each?I own an open bow 24' run-a-bout. I have also sold RV's for the largest dealer in the State for the past 20 years. I do not own an RV if that tells you anything. The boat is one of the last things I would give up. RV owners generally are trully "happy campers" so everybody has their own thing. I read on here comments that you can always "rent a boat". Well yeah, but it is very expensive. Boat rent = $500 per day. Room rent = $100 per day. Financially, owning a boat makes more sense.
Would second looking outside of your area. Had a friend go to Milwaukee, WI for his Ebay boat but saved thousands to get it.We bought ours used. Found a 2006 pontoon with less than 30 hours on it so we were pretty pumped about that. TazClone is right about boattrader, etc being good sites to look at. I found ours on Craigslist, being in the twin cities there are always tons of boats for sale on CL there. If you use CL expand your search area, I found ours in Bloomington, IL and it was well worth the trip for what we saved on it (3,000 less than anything comparable around here).
Wow. you need to find a different lake. I never wait. Time from house to boat in the water is 20 minutes max. Also never let the wife back up the trailer or drive the boat onto the trailer. EVER. It just isn't necessaryOh I've owned watercraft so don't give me that 20 minutes thing.
Yeah lets sit here for 30 minutes in line to get in the water.
Now spend 3 hours at a counselor talking about how I shouldn't yell at my wife about her backing up skills while I'm trying to put the boat in the water.
Now when your done for the day go back and get the tow vehicle.
Now spend 3 hours at the counselor talking about how I shouldn't yell at my wife for not being able drive the boat onto the trailer.
Luckily I still have a wife but if I wouldn't have sold our last PWC, I'd probably be single.