Thanks, glad to have you with us.

Sooooo
Back to aluminum boats?
What the diff in the materials or thickness from an xpress to a gaudet , scully or the other custom boats?

Xpress hyperlift full is 0.125"

And pretty!

Sent from my Desire HD using Tapatalk

^^^ Nice Boat!

In my experience they will hold up in calm waters. Pounding them in rough water it will only be a matter of time before it will crack or pop a weld. This is the case with nearly every factory built aluminum boat. Now the shop built boats like hanko and others mentioned will take a beating and last a lifetime.

The biggest reason shop built boats hold up better is the amount of ribs they use. More ribs the less flex you will have in rough water. I know hankos uses 3/16th aluminum with a double bottom on their boats that will take a beating.

Thickness of the aluminum has a great deal to do with how much abuse it will take. I've had a few aluminum boats both factory buil and custom. Also with thinner metal it will flew more and leads to cracking welds if not properly braced and if you really pound one it doesn't matter how its braced when it thin(1/8th inch or less). My current boat is 21foot bay boat built by Sportsmans Fab in morgan city.the hule is built out of all 3/16th aluminum and a friend "bumped"his fiberglass mud boat against it at the camp and needless to say he needed fiberglass work to repair the damage and my boat barely had a stratch. Nothing against Xpress but a custom boat will usually take more abuse and last longer but they're more expensive as well.

I remember seeing a big offshore all aluminum boat at the Nola boat show bout 5/6 years ago.
It was like 42 ft by 10 ft
They had pics of the build process

Loads of "ribs" on the whole boat!!
It was impressive.
Would like to find pics of it.

Freeboard = Winning

PureBay- was it a Gravois? They stopped building boats for the public due to a government contract but have started selling to the public again under the name Metal Shark. They build some fine boats.

Jamie gaspards boat I believe

Metal Shark is the name they are using for the government boats.We saw the 40 footer with quads built for WLF in venice when we went tuna fishing last year. Giant boat! Gravios son makes bay style hulls for the public now. Name is american aluminum. They are sweet boats but big bucks. I want to say a 24 footer rigged out with a 300 is right at 80 grand.

Yes, gravois!!
Love them boats!!
See a lot of those in Houma.

What's a 24-26 ft with twin 150 $$$$??

Got it on $$$
We posted at same time

I've seen used Gravois hulls(just the hull and tralier) being listed for anywhere from $20,000 to $50,000.

If I was getting a custom aluminum boat, I would go around Morgan city. It seems like they build a lot of aluminum boats there. I went hunting over there and we launched at the berwick boat landing and there was about 6 acres full of trucks with trailers. When we picked up on Sunday, I didn't see a single glass boat out of about 50 people at the launch. It was all either duck skiffs with mud motors or custom built aluminum boats. They had some nice ones too. One was even built to go offshore, it was pretty cool

Guys thanks for all of your opinions . I was looking at another aluminum boat because thats all i've ever owned . My old boat has had more fish in it than a eighteen wheeler could haul . So i don't buy the therory that aluminum boats scare fish.

I also am looking at the Xpress. One thing I noticed is there was a change in the 2012 models. The XP20 (HD hull) is now made with .125 gauge aluminum and has 26" sides. While the H20CC also has .125 gauge, but only 22" sides. I like the extra side depth, but do you sacrifice the ride?

HUGE difference in the ride! I have the hyperlift and a buddy of mine has the HD. His boat runs shallow but pounds the crap out of you in any kind of chop.

What's the draft difference between the two hulls?