Posts: 1189
Location: Bagley,MN 56621 | Ranger does not make Stratos, Mark H. is correct, they are owned by the same parent company Genmar. Ranger is built in Arkansas, Stratos in Tenessee..............usless something major happened in the last 2 seasons since I have been out of the "boat sales loop".
I am going on my 3rd summer with a Stratos bass boat and love it, season previous to that I owned a Ranger bass boat and loved that, no doubt it was "the" cadillac of boats. It was a 19' with a 200...........next season I wanted to go bigger to a 20'/225H.P..
I had access to both as a boat salesman and went with the Stratos.........saved approx. $8,000 ( on the equivalent set up 20'er/225 to 20'er/225) and havent regretted it.
Are they different? YES
Is the quality significantly less? NO, not in my terms anyways.
The ride and rough water handling is awesome, boat control with a similar (not exact) keel forward design is excellent, more "rod friendly" tubes on the Stratos-dont have to "horseshoe" them into the rodlocker in front of the passenger console-Stratos provides a more direct access from the side of the console to get rods in the tubes, tackle organizer for the large series plano boxes.
The only negative (actually not a negative to me, but it is a major difference in construction) is that the Stratos is not 100% foam filled, meaning below deck at the bottom of the storage boxes is airspace vs. being completely solid to the bottom of the boat. I had mice get into my locked compartment last winter and finally figured they got in through the rod butt holders near the passengers feet, where the passenger would put their rods when going from spot to spot............without being foam filled they had access to the "bilge" area of the hull and got into one compartment...........lesson learned, will plug everything tight next winter.
Is the 100% foam filled a nice feature? yes, but the Stratos comes with enough for flotation so it's not an added value to me. I feel safe enough.
There are things I love better then the ranger and things I don't..........much has to do with the layout of a bass style boat and me being a 100% musky slinger.
I love the layout of a bass platform for musky fishing, but as my style changes I would like a more comfortable trolling position. Stratos has come out with 2 great new models in the last few years that when I sell/trade will jump into.
They are crosses to crestliner/Lund's but made out of fiberglass and priced not far from those aluminum boats.
The 375XF and the New 385XF.
385XF/E-tech here we come..................
http://stratosboats.com/index.htm?id=1451
Edited by GregM 7/12/2006 9:42 PM
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