seapro 3.4m heavy duty

[hydroforce3]

Hi guys I'm looking into buying a new sib and found the above boat online, I spoke to my local boat store and told me to stay AWAY from SEAPRO!!... as they are cheap Chinese crap, they look nice and better made than the sib I currently have but can't find and reviews or anything online, the boat I'm looking at is a 3.4m heavy duty with an aluminium floor and 20hp engine capacity,

What are your thoughts and experience with these boats are they any good?

advice greatly appreciated guys Cheers

[Max...]

Presuming you will be trailering it?

[hydroforce3]

no i have a launch trolley that goes into the back of the van and we build it up when we arrive and hand launch the boat on the trolley down to the waterfront or slipway

[Mikefule]

I have a Zodiac. My local marina/boat shop told me to "stay away from Zodiac" because they were not as good as they used to be. Surprisingly, I found out that they were telling me this shortly after they had stopped specialising in Zodiac and started selling another brand. Moral: be wary of what any salesman tells you.

Before I made my choice, I spent a lot of time researching, and I also applied my experience of owning 2 previous SIBs and using various others.

During my research, I initially liked the look of SeaPro. They have various features that I thought were attractive and suitable. However, the balance of reviews that I read was generally negative and put me off.

Why are you looking at an aluminium floor? There are pros and cons, but if you want to store the boat deflated and reassemble it at the launch spot each time, I believe you are likely to find wooden floors easier to assemble - and of course easier to replace, modify, add fittings to, and so on.

That said I have never owned a Seapro, so the above is all "second hand" advice.

[hydroforce3]

I want to find out about the boat quality and manufacturing are they a decent well made boat or will it fall to pieces?

[Fenlander]

Your dealer was talking like a dealer who wanted to sell you something else!

Sea Pro are Chinese and compared to a Zodiac they are cheap... but rubbish... not at all. The 3.4HD is near identical in design, features and quality to the Honwave 3.5AE which has served loads of folks on here inc myself very well.

I see the main SeaPro dealer wants £899 for that 3.4HD whereas the Honwave 3.5 can be bought for £819. I reckon as they have a bigger name the Honwave may hold its price better.

But in the end if you fancy the SeaPro colour or the dealer is nearer you etc then I'd happily buy one.

In the UK for average leisure use the Chinese SIBs are standing up well and the SeaPro has a 3yr warranty..

[hydroforce3]

awesome guys thank you very much for your thoughts and advice guys cheers think il go for it as looks loads better than my current sib

[Max...]

Check the sticky (which SIB) for thoughts on airfloor vs hard floor, re-sale when the boat doesn't work as you hoped etc.

Think carefully if you really want/need a hard floor.

If spending that sort of money and assembling it every time then for me (personally - only an opinion ) I'd run a mile from a brand new Chinese SIB and buy something like the much discussed Humber (or an equivalent Avon etc) on the 'SIBs on eBay' topic.

http://www.rib.net/forum/f50/sibs-sp...tml#post750666

Unbelievable quality in comparison and you get so much more boat for your money that will soldier on for decades, looks a million dollars and will lose you absolutely nothing come resale.

[rossymtb]

Well that's possibly answered my question to. I'm looking at a 3.8m aerodeck hydroforce.
What do you think of the hydro force boats? Obviously it's a sub thousand pound boat. So not built like a zodiac but maybe similar to waveline?

[rossymtb]

I will add. I've also owned a few different ones now.
2.3 slatted
2.7 aero
3.8 aluminium
3.3 plywood

I now fancy a aerodeck between 3.3-3.8 haha

[jeffstevens763@g]

4.20 m Seapro HD Heavy Duty inflatable boat Brand new! aluminium floor 430HD

look half decent to me bit like the quiksilver brand table with the range on the link
all i would add is when they say HD they are much lighter than other makes but of course you start paying more

[breezeblock]

nothing wrong with seapro yes they are Chinese but they aren't crap china does make some decent stuff as well ps some British stuff is very poor quality i.e. the car industry of the 70s we had ours for 3 years and never had a problem the only modification we did was fit a 2 piece ply floor