Steplift First ride
 

I have a confession to make; today was my first ride in a Steplift! A bit of a chop, wind from S/E , cool/cloudy.
The water here is still too cold for stripers (50 * F). We are probably 2 weeks behind the NY/NJ Folks.
I have to say very pleased with the V20. Took the chop well, very comfortable. Looking forward to a great season! We are lovin' the Steplift-nice ride!

Congrats on the first ride. Great looking boat. Nice pics... thank you for the boat porn. :) If you don't have them already, I would suggest trim tabs. They make a world of difference on the ride of these boats.

Very nice ride Bill, to this day it amazes me how I find myself starring/going over the beautifull lines of the v like when I noticed one for the first time in the early 80's ,Enjoy !!

X 2 trim tab will make a big difference I have a few 20 since I got the disabled but would like to get another one someday good luck and welcome to the site

Bill, The boat looks great!! You will enjoy it for years to come. My cousin bought a 1973 V new and he still has it. I have loved the looks ever since. so much so that I have had 4 of them. Good luck with yours.

I will likely run the boat for a while and decide on tabs. We had them on our Grady and agree they helped quite a bit.

Thanks to all for the assistance on this project! Looking forward to a great season.

Bill

Best of luck with the new boat - lots of useful info on this site if needed.

Why am I not surprised, It's a great boat bill and me to I love the looks and the lines of the steplift, and to prove it to you just look at my name Steplift 20 Need I say more Nice looking boat too

Nice looking boat! Nice pictures! You're right about the ride, never been in a better riding 20ft.boat. Ive had mine since 06 and this year its 40 years old. I wouldn't trade it for anything out there!

Good looking V.

Thought I'd up date this thread now that we have put quite a few ours on the V. The family is loving it, we spent a lot of time this summer running a round the bay.
Some intermittent overheat issue kept me from running off shore...but I believe that is behind us now after replacing all cooling components, some gaskets, etc, etc...
So...our Son and I finally had a chance to run off shore this weekend...first time on the outside! Keep in mind I have run many boats over the years from Whalers to a 42 Post...I have to say I was very impressed with the handling on the open, felt very confident. We had a great day, caught some fluke and blues (stripers quiet right now?) and really had a nice Father/Son day.
For the first time I can really say I got an accurate fuel burn...with the 2000 Johnson 150 Ocean we burned 6-7 gals/hr. A little better than I thought. I was pleased with this.
We ran 3900/4000 at 28 mph out the bay, 3500 ~ 24 mph on the open, and trolled for a good 1.5 hrs looking foe stripers after fluke drifting.
All in all a great trip, building a lot of confidence in this boat now and the Family really enjoys it for how we currently use our boat.
Thanks to many of you for all the help/advice over the past year.

Sincerely, Bill