Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska Riverboat or more for Alaska

I have a chance to buy an older welded aluminum boat very cheap.
It is a 19.6 ft. 8 ft wide beam flat bottom also twin 35 gallon fuel tanks, enclosed bow with access from the deck hatch and in side the cabin. The cabin is enclosed on three sides and open to the stern kind of low and all aluminum. It was a Yukon river boat the cabin looks like a lot of Yukon river boats do. It was used around the minto area, I was told. The trailer works but is well used and rusted,nothing that can't be fixed.
The engine is a 1983 135hp Johnson 2 props and a lower jet drive unit. Runs very good and looks clean under the couling.The age of the engine is the only thing that bothers me.
Should I keep looking or buy it and replace the engine when it is done.
Thanks for the help
Erich

If you don't have a boat already. Buy it


Only regret I have about buying a riverboat is not buying one sooner

Stop by the hardware store on the way to the boat seller and buy a garden hose so you can replace those old fuel lines right away. (I would plan to buy a newer engine ASAP depending on your ability to fund fuel as the price goes back up.)

Boats are good; money sitting around idle will only get you in trouble anyway.

My purpose for the boat is the Tanana River, Lake Louise and maybe the Copper River and a few others like the Tok River. And PWS around Valdez.
And yes I know a new power supply will be much more friendly to my wallet in fuel cost but a new Honda, Yamaha, Evinrude or Johnson will run $10,000 easy that is not in my budget right now. Plus a new outboard I am guessing will not accept the jet drive from this older engine.
By the way the asking price is $ 2500.00 cheap for a welded 20 ft boat. Thanks for the reply.
Erich

That will be pretty heavy for the Lake Louise/Susitna channel, especially this year. I suspect the water will be way low...

Balancing weight against tougher, thicker bottoms is always a hard call.

I have never put a boat in at Lake Louise is there no ramp right into the lake.
Erich

They just built a nice ramp not too many years ago... ramp is not the problem though. Going into Susitna from Louise requires you go through a shallow weedy channel after going over a longish stretch of fine sand that can get very shallow some years. Right after getting through the channel weeds get real thick.

You will get through it fine most years but this year is going to be very shallow...

That boat weighs enough that getting it stuck is going to be a problem... Getting it on step in shallow water could also be a problem.

That long and that wide dealing with shallow waters, you could put a large vehicle engine with reduction on it and put the prop well above the water....

Well Louise is not high on my list as it is 400 miles round trip from Tok.
rost495 did you mean an I/O type engine and lower unit. I don't understand (put the prop well above the water)
Erich

Airboat. LOL. Its what I run for shallow down here.

But it'll cost you more than the 10K a new motor would and no telling how heavy your boat is already... poly, motor, reduction and prop could run 20K easily.

I'd LOVE to take mine up there, but when we come home in the future for a couple of months in the winter here, to hunt deer/ ducks I'll be using it here.... ah the dilemmas...

jump on it

Buy it. Village folk are practical people that know their boats and buy specific ones for a dayum good reason. Dump the Johnson and replace it with a Yamaha 4-stroke in the 75-90-hp range. You don't need a 100+hp engine to push a 20ft flat-bottom to respectable speeds. A 50-60hp would be satisfactory. If you need a little more power to push a heavy load, change the prop to a different pitch.

A riverboat without a cabin is just a miserable place to be during long trips.

You'll be a more popular guy in many places up here sans wingless airplane.

Sorry, but I doubt it will run at respectable speed with just a 50-60HP motor, especially if running a jet. My much lighter 18' boat with a 75 and jet runs like a raped ape with a properly balanced load... add the weight and wind resistance of the cabin and add 400+ pounds of fuel and the extra drag of an 8' wide wetted surface and I see bad things happening.

Do NOT buy this! PM me that crooked bastid's phone #.....

I don't mind more ponys, you can always throttle back save some in reserve. The boat does have a strange plate at the stern I am not familiar with. The outboard is mounted on it and there is a winch mounted inside the stern that pulls a plate that lifts the motor. It is not like trims to tilt the motor in relation to the boats plane in the water. It just lifts the motor up and I assume gravity lets it back down. Oh and a little kicker plate on the stern for a little 10-25hp for trolling I guess. I might see if he is in a trading mood. I do like the boat a lot.
Erich
Thanks for all the help

las,
you a bad person. I tell you what I will make you a great deal you send me a check and we can share it. You can use it half the year say November-April and I use it the remaining months ( now thats fair) is the check in the mail yet.
Erich

The jet would sit at a different height in use and at different weights and speeds it is much more sensitive to motor height. Sitting deeper in the water allows the motor to be run higher reducing drag.

Does it come with skis? Should hold a bunch of caribou.

No skis - no deal.

True, if you are going to run a jet, you'll need more hp.All the years I've lived in the bush, I've only seen maybe two jets at most owned by villagers. Everyone runs props. As I said.....practical people.

I do have an old bravo in the back yard. Park the bow on the seat and good to go.
Erich

I can run a prop in the tanana river or most lakes and PWS but some small or shallow rivers are jet only. Maybe that boat is to big or heavy to run shallow water.
Erich

It will not go where my boat will... and if mine gets stuck it is pretty easy to move... that one would suck!

Many years ago a bet was won and proved that an airboat can be driven on the road from Pike's Landing to the Lonely Lady.

It also entitled the driver to a DUI charge.

Definitions of river boats are as precise as defining rivers in Alaska based on one example. (I have no idea why so many streams in Alaska are labeled as rivers. )

Buy it.
Get a good 12V winch…to pull you off ( if you can find something to tie onto) when you "read" the river wrong.
You never have enough gas …unless you are on fire.
30Gal/ blue barrels.
Course you know all that already.

Airboat frank passed away this year Mike

He lived across the road from us

Oh and as to hp

I'm running ancient equipment for a hull. One of big lake Bob's sprint boats with a tunnel added

It started out with a 115 hp evinrude which gave close to 80hp at the jet

6 seasons ago I put an Etec 130 on it same weight as the 115, few more ponies mucho better fuel usage

Best 10k I've spent in some time

Yep that's me a $2000 saddle on a $40 mule

But I learned a long time ago I only gotta make me happy with the gear I use

Airboat Frank sounds like he was an interesting character.

There are not many things that stop an airboat. But green grass and sticky mud and sand are 3 things that will right now.

Roads, gravel/paved etc...wont' even slow one down. Though they will wear your poly down quick, especially concrete.

If you haven't seen it, google the top gear TV show, and car vs airboat race.... the driver is a member of our state association and his son builds airboats for a living...

The joy of the airboat is often if you have enough boat and motor, you drive up to wherever, pull up the bank, and park it dry and go on... when you are ready you pull back into the water and go on...

The downside is fuel mileage, its how many gallons per mile, not miles per gallon. And the noise... though they are becoming more and more quiet....

I'll have to see if I can google the top gun run. Only reason he lost at the end is there was a tree line to close and he had to let off to stop the boat without wrecking at the last instant....I'm sure you are not supposed to beat the top gun drivers... whether you can or not.

I don't know how to imbed....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpYHj7bHZwo

He was indeed Jeff


What got him was the return trip IIRC.


Quite the character

IIRC, it was an alcohol-involved trip at about -20.


"Classic" AK story!

OP ...so the guys got a winch, hooked up to the outboard....is that redneck power tilt & trim ? 8' wide...dam that's wide! I'll stay with my 24'x60"..it gets on step > as fast as move ya the lever.

interestingly enough( and obviously there is a trade off at some point?)

The wider airboats get and stay on plane with less issue than the narrower hulls do.

Has to be something about how much is in contact with water vs PSI of the load...

Rost...my buddies a big time airboat guy he did all the math while running his air boats ,then built him the king of air boats ..10' wide FI 454.... Over did it he did,there is a limit!! When it comes to getting on plane with a prop or a jet it comes down to load placement, IMO long an narrow wins ..… reverse chine for me !

8 to 8.5 foot wide and 18 long would be my ideal airboat.

Current is 16x7. 454, but not really strong, around 425 HP we think... It struggles with a load to get and stay on plane in bad water or high winds. IE takes most of the throttle and not having 1000 rpms in reserve at all times is not good...

Thats why there is a 496 sitting in the barn next to the boat around 600 hp... but it requires otehr stuff I don't have the cash for at this time...when I bought the motor I didn't realize my carb, my reduction and my prop would not work IE hold up, with that extra HP... LOL.

When next we're up, look forward to hearing the story over a cold one Mike.

Seeing as the thread has run amusingly aground, question to you outboard guys. Do folks pull and rebuild engines like this, or is to design too old:

The engine is a 1983 135hp Johnson 2 props

Also, that electric winch sounds like a danged good idea! I'd mount it on something and make it so I could pull front or back ... of course, sitting in a a boat when a broken tow strap flies back would suck.

atvalaska,
It looks like a factory install, no bailing wire and duck tape here. The winch is mounted to the inside of the transom just above the bilge pump. The motor is mounted on a plate set in channels that are attached to the transom. Pulling the plate up or letting it down raise and lowers the motor at the same time.
Erich

Thanks for all the great comments

I think I am going to pass on this deal. The more I think about it this boat is to big and way to heavy. The yukon and the tanana river are fine for this hunk but most of the smaller creeks called rivers are not for this boat.
If anyone wants his contact information PM me and I will pass it along.
Thank to all
Erich

We need pics !...that way we can stand around like hank hill and the gang and solve the "not yet a problem"

atv,
Sorry no pics to post
Who is hank hill ? I am out of the loop.

Can't blame you for passing on this one Erich

Your reasoning is sound imo.

Unfortunately 1 boat hardly cuts it for Alaskan use

But living where you do I'd think an 18-22 ft boat with a min 115 jet would be the most useable

But even then it's not perfect. Places like tetlin lake with all the veg in it call for a prop