LF,
As far as having the pump on my sled, as I stated in the previous post it was underpowered with 155/80 Johnson. With the 150/105 Evinrude on it now it runs great. Max RPM on an outboard is between 5000 and 5500, with the 115/80 I had to run the sled at 4600-4800 just to keep it up on plane. With the new motor I cruise at 4000 RPM, the new motor sounds like it is just loapin' along where the old one sounded like it was working hard!! Mine is flat across the center of the transom as you stated. This boat was built to use in the salt and I had the pump added cause I wanted to go river runnin' also. It is a nice riding boat, but with the deep vee I cannot go where other sleds with less deadrise can. I feel safe with about a foot of water under me on step and can go in about 10 inches but do have a little pucker factor going on when I do. I can say that I have used the sled in all of the rivers around me (Chehalis, Satsop up to the east fork, Nooch from black creek down, Hump, Cow, and the Nisqually) just have to watch the level gages and know what and where I can go. I like to boondog and the deep vee makes the tracking of ther boat tough at times. I think that it is also harder to backtroll plugs because of that samr reason.
You ask what would I look at now, the Woolridge Sportjet 2000 (with an outboard) and the Alumaweld Intruders appeal to me as far as a forward console model. If I were to look at open sleds I think that it would be between the ThorBuilt and the Alumaweld SuperVee.
Buying boats are like buying stereo speakers, what you like or want will be different than what someone else wants and there are trade offs with every boat. The only real hard and fast piece of advice I can give you is before you buy take whatever you want to buy out with 3 or 4 guys and see how fast it gets up on step and how hard you are working the motor to stay there. I learned the hard way on that issue. eek If it's not on step within 3 to 4 seconds and is running above 4200 RPM to stay there it don't have enough power. Hope I haven't confused you guys to much. wink
Good luck and tight lines, Jeff

[ 01-18-2002: Message edited by: Jeffhead ]