Things I should or Should Not have ordered with my Tug

[Dream Catcher]

We took delivery of our R25 last fall and absolutely love it. It is the LE edition so we have heat and a/c. We ordered ours with all options except sun shade and transom grill. My one regret is the aux motor bracket. I was told when ordering the boat that if I ever wanted to add a kicker it should be done at the factory. This kicker idea was just a thought and I wasn’t sure if I would ever even add one but decided to order it just in case. When the boat arrived I was shocked and in disbelief. In order to add the kicker bracket, the factory cut off half the port side swim platform. I was not told about this when ordering. I thought it was a bolt on bracket but instead half the platform is gone. I wasn’t even sure I needed it. So do some home work and understand what it entails and what you will sacrifice for the bracket. I would not have ordered it if I knew how it was installed. I would much rather have the full sized platform on both sides. This platform was one of the selling points of the boat for me.

 

[steffmcgonagle]

Dream Catcher,
Thanks so much for your insight on the Kicker Motor bracket option. We are much more likely to use the swim platform heavily with our grandchildren then we are to add a kicker motor to the pre-installed bracket. I will look into this some more.

Do you mis the sunshade, or did you have someone local build a custom one for you?

Thanks
Steff

 

[Regulus]

We are picking up our R25 in a few weeks. We opted in for Autopilot and radar of course. We are not able to get the lithium upgrade unless we went LE, and we wanted to keep the NW edition for the options it gives. This means we will do the lithium upgrade after delivery. If you are going to be on the hook for more than 1 night I _highly_ recommend you upgrade the solar panel at the very least. It's an easy and fairly cheap upgrade. We get a 160w panel at delivery and we will be upgrading as soon as we can. We will be installing AIS transmit/receive after delivery as well, it's not a hard install. I may not need it, but I thought it would be really interesting to have. We didn't opt for the kicker as we wanted to keep the entire swim platform for doing maintenance on the motor, but that is a personal choice of course.

 

[steffmcgonagle]

HI Regulus,
Congratulations on the new R25. I think we are going to remove the Kicker mount upgrade from our order sheet for the same reasons you elected to avoid it. Looking at the pictures I can't tell if the swim platform is one piece or three pieces. Some pictures seem like there is s single piece fastened to the transom, then a secondary portion extending the platform on each side of the motor. I may reach out to Ranger for clarification on this before finalizing the order sheet.

Good suggestion on upgrading the solar panel. We will look into that as well.

Have Fun
Steff

 

[Regulus]

HI Regulus,
Congratulations on the new R25. I think we are going to remove the Kicker mount upgrade from our order sheet for the same reasons you elected to avoid it. Looking at the pictures I can't tell if the swim platform is one piece or three pieces. Some pictures seem like there is s single piece fastened to the transom, then a secondary portion extending the platform on each side of the motor. I may reach out to Ranger for clarification on this before finalizing the order sheet.

Good suggestion on upgrading the solar panel. We will look into that as well.

Have Fun
Steff

PM me your email and I’ll send you the build pictures. We live in Seattle and just visited the factory a couple days ago. Shows clearly the boat build in different stages.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Todd_D]

I don't have a Ranger Tug - Yet, but I am shopping for a 25 or 27 inboard. I am on the Maine coast and have been for the last 28 years. I have had radar most of that time, but have also gone many seasons without turning it on except to test it. If it is foggy, I just don't go out and almost no one boats at night here. Of course, I don't have time constraints so not taking the boat out or sitting somewhere until the fog lifts is not an issue for me. I do not have an autopilot. The only time one would be nice is when I need to take a quick head break. Locally running on autopilot is inviting a fouled prop because there is so much lobster fishing gear in the water here that you can't look away from the water for more than a few seconds and in some places looking away for even a few seconds is a big mistake. I have been on other peoples boats with autopilots and they had the remote out and were constantly making course changes. By constantly I mean every 5-10 seconds. One guy I know stands on the bow of his boat with the autopilot remote constantly making course adjustments. The only boat I would want autopilot on here would be a boat with a jet drive.

From my perspective autopilot might be a selling point as would radar, but for me neither is needed. I also don't use AIS since there is almost no large commercial traffic here and few pleasure boats have AIS transmit.

A reliable holding tank monitor would be nice. I also think that a battery monitor (Victron SmartShunt) is a very good idea.

 

[steffmcgonagle]

Todd D,
Thanks for the response. Hope you find a Ranger in time to enjoy it this season.

I would like to have Radar and plotter for those times weather blows in before we can get back to the marina. We like evening cruises on the finger lakes as long as we have good moonlight. I think radar and plotter would be good enough for these situations.

I am not thinking we will be on the great lakes but a few times in the life of our ownership, so I am not feeling a need for AIS or Autopilot at this point. Currently I am feeling that Autopilot is an expensive option that we are not likely to use, but if our style of boating changes in a way that would benefit from autopilot, it may be unrealistic to add it later. This may come down to a coin flip just before paperwork is finalized.

I suspect someone makes a decent aftermarket tank monitor if we decide it is really necessary. Adding the battery monitors is a no brainer and will happen soon after the boat shows up.

Thanks
steff

 

[Submariner]

Had I know about Yamahas new “Digital Electric Steering System” when we ordered our R25 I would have asked about it. Ive seen it at the boat shows and I’ve seen it on a few of those big Florida center consoles with quads and triples. It looks very impressive ! It comes in different versions, I personally would only be interested in the auto pilot feature. It would be nice to have the steering system be an integral part of the outboard. Based on what I see in the web literature I don’t think Ranger is offering it at this time.?.? It might be something worth researching and asking Ranger about.

You Tube link https://youtu.be/WBarcC4pC1Q

I have asked about DES on the Yamaha F250 and F300 for Ranger Tugs. I was told it's only available on the Solara models from Fluid Motion.

 

[Mike_B]

Had I know about Yamahas new “Digital Electric Steering System” when we ordered our R25 I would have asked about it. Ive seen it at the boat shows and I’ve seen it on a few of those big Florida center consoles with quads and triples. It looks very impressive ! It comes in different versions, I personally would only be interested in the auto pilot feature. It would be nice to have the steering system be an integral part of the outboard. Based on what I see in the web literature I don’t think Ranger is offering it at this time.?.? It might be something worth researching and asking Ranger about.

You Tube link https://youtu.be/WBarcC4pC1Q

I have asked about DES on the Yamaha F250 and F300 for Ranger Tugs. I was told it's only available on the Solara models from Fluid Motion.

Ok, thanks. If I’m not mistaken Yamaha offers a DES retrofit kit for the 250 and 300 4.2 liter. This retrofit system dose not quite look like the integral DES system installed at the Yamaha factory, but the functionality appears to be the same.?.? I’ve been wondering how big of a job it would be to have a Yamaha dealer install the retrofit system? I kind of regret not ordering the auto pilot system on our boat. This Yamaha DES auto pilot system seems very interesting, maybe even better than a traditional autopilot pilot system.?.?

 

[Almanac]

You need a battery monitor since you are planning on using it and spending multiple nights on it. If you discharge the batteries too much, they become sulphated and damaged. It is important to know how much battery life you have remaining. You could install this yourself or ask if they would be willing.

Radar and auto-pilot depend on the bodies of water you plan on using the boat. Where I grew up and did lake boating, it would have been overkill. We never went out at night or were caught in fog and with lake boating around bends up and down the lake wouldn't have been that useful. If you plan on going to bigger bodies of water, may get caught in limited visibility situations at night or with weather, radar is very important.