1988 Maxum 20ft 125 Force Outboard, need opinions

[roscottjr]

I am looking to buy a 1988 Maxum 20 ft bowrider with 125hp Force outboard. Everything seems fine with the boat and engine. It has had the plywood floor properly replaced and new carpet installed. There are a few minor tears and cracking on the interior but nothing like I would expect on a boat of this age. I can get this boat for $2000 and just wanted to know what others thought about this boat and engine and how the price sounds. It also comes with the trailor which is also in great condition.

Robert

 

[john from md]

Re: 1988 Maxum 20ft 125 Force Outboard, need opinions

This should be posted in the non maintenance topics.

John

 

[foodfisher]

Re: 1988 Maxum 20ft 125 Force Outboard, need opinions

Take it from someone who has yet to float the boat, pretty carpet can hide a lot of ugly. Lift the ski locker lid and look under with a flashlight. Test ride is a must! Look in any hole that will let you see any wooden structure. If you smell gas, RUN.

 

[roscottjr]

Re: 1988 Maxum 20ft 125 Force Outboard, need opinions

LOL, I like that response. I had already planned on doing what you have sudgested along with a compression test. If I smell gas then I would definately not light a cig but knowing me I may spend a few minutes looking for why, then again, if it smells like Im at a gas station then Im outta there.

What do you mean by "have yet to float the boat". Do you know what boat I am reffering to or are you talking about 1 you have?

Robert

 

[foodfisher]

Re: 1988 Maxum 20ft 125 Force Outboard, need opinions

Yes, it's the great deal I bought. So far #1 transom, #2 fuel tank and associated decking #3 tilt trim rebuild #4 all items in awakening a stored motor #5 misc. strapping and tie down hardware. Next up #6 fiberglass #7 transom saver #8 bimini top material #9 ramp fees and shakedown cruise #10 any new discoveries. Beware and take your time incl. a thurough inspection.

 

[roscottjr]

Re: 1988 Maxum 20ft 125 Force Outboard, need opinions

Well, to be honest this will be the 9th boat I have purchased. I still have 2 of my previous boats but only because the hulls are excellent as well as the engine. 1 has a 1978 Evinrude 35hp and the other has a 1964 Johnson V-4 90hp. I am working on restoreing these 2 boats.

All the previous boats I have purchased were purchased knowing floorboards needed replaced and mostly no interior. 1 even needed a new transom. They were all just parked and left for unknown number of years. This Maxum I am looking at is currently registered, has tune up receipts, and has been in the water several times in the past month. I havent looked at it in person yet but to be honest I really hope when I get there to hopefully pick it up then it fits my expectations. I am hopeing I dont find anything wrong with it but Im not going to just go get it without checking anything. I will be takeing a compression tester with me as well as stethoscope to check the lower unit gears and other tools to test other items. Oh, and like the compression tester I will not forget the voltage/ohm meter to check the electrical system.

I plan on finding some issues although I really hope I dont find anything. I just mainly thought Id ask to see if anyone had any particular information on this boat and motor. Ive heard parts are hard to find so I have already been checking on parts and I have pretty much made my list of things to check by obviously the major items as well as items that are hard to find.

I look forward to any other opinions and will update after I make the trip. It may be a few days as our god daughter was just born and they are still at the hospital. We are planning to go get the boat after they are released and back home.

Robert

 

[foodfisher]

Re: 1988 Maxum 20ft 125 Force Outboard, need opinions

:redface:Way ahead of me. Hope it works out.

 

[roscottjr]

Re: 1988 Maxum 20ft 125 Force Outboard, need opinions

Well, I did go ahead and buy the boat. The Force 125 runs excellent. No unusual sounds from gearcase or anything. In fact, he also gave me the receipt where he just had the gearcase replaced last year thanks to a log.

Now for the not so good news. Contrary to what I was told, the floor was not properly replaced. The good part about this is we are not really happy with the lack of storage space on the boat so we are not too upset about haveing to tear the floor and everything out to replace it correctly. They just from what I can tell got out most of the rotted wood and put treated on top of the rest. Also, the seats are in a little worse condition than we noticed in the pics we seen. Here again, this is not a big deal because we noticed the way the seats are designed that we probably wont be able to use them when we change things around to have more storage.

Now here is my final thoughts on the boat. It needs work. Quite a bit of it I may add but we can take it to the lake right now if we wanted to. The hull has the expected scratches and such on it and I did notice a few Gelcoat chips but to be honest in my experience with my dads fiberglass shop, those chips look more like defects than damage. The hull does not leak.

Here is the best part. I originally got him down to $2000, however, my final cost was only $1500.

For the time being, the wife and I feel we got a great deal. The kids love the boat even with the seats not being in perfect shape, they said they can throw towels on the seats, lol. And later when we take care of the issues it has we will also be makeing the boat more user friendly with more usable storage space so it will actually feel more like a remodel job rather than a repair job.

1 last thing, I love the look and the design of the 88 Maxum, BUT, is it just me or does it seem like when the boat was originally built there was a lot of dead unusuable space in the boat? For instance, there is a shelf under both concoles but under this shelf looks like they simply closed the area off. Rather than have that extra storage it appears to be sealed off and unaccesable. Are all the 88 models like this or is this something an owner changed somewhere down the line? Also, the rear storage areas, 1 is a battery area so I can overlook that one but the other is open to the bilge area so if you put anything in there it will just find its way to the bilge. From what I can tell the took care of this by dropping a plastic pan under the jump seat but this also cut out a good bit of storage. Im going to take pics before I clean it up so we can document everything and will post pics of the changes we make later when we start that project.

Robert