I posted a question awhile ago concerning the purchase of my first walleye fishing boat. I got some great feed-back. Since then I've seen the specs on the Alumacraft 165 Dominator. I've also seen that alot of you own Alumacrafts. I would think that this boat is probably alot less expensive than a Lund or some others? Is this a quality boat? Any useful advice is appreciated.

This is the Electronic's section repost in the Boat Section for better answers!:cheers:

I posted a question awhile ago concerning the purchase of my first walleye fishing boat. I got some great feed-back. Since then I've seen the specs on the Alumacraft 165 Dominator. I've also seen that alot of you own Alumacrafts. I would think that this boat is probably alot less expensive than a Lund or some others? Is this a quality boat? Any useful advice is appreciated.


I owned 2 Alumacrafts. I currently own a Lund.

Both are well-built boats. My Alumacrafts were built like a tank. The only problem I had occurred with my second Alumacraft. The hull needed to be peened at the back end where it meets the transom. You can do a search on "peen" and find out all about this. There are several threads on this site that describe it and talk about the symptoms.

Having said my Alumacrafts were a good boat, I do have to tell you I think my Lund is a better boat. Alumacraft always seems to be a bit behind the curve in boat design and engineering. Back 5 years ago when I bought my dual console Lund, Alumacraft didn't offer a single boat with dual consoles. Not one. (They do now.) That was the major reason I didn't buy a 3rd Alumacraft and bought a Lund instead.

For instance, Lund now puts a bilge pump on their boats with "manual/automatic" setting. Alumacraft does not offer such a feature and the factory won't even install one as an option (I asked this spring as I am considering buying a new boat). If you leave your boat in the water several days at a time (like I do for my Canada fishing trips) you can experience drenching/torrential rains which will put a lot of water in your boat really fast! That "auto" bilge feature is a VERY reassuring feature. My last Alumacraft literally nearly sunk at the dock in Canada after a night of torrential rains. When I got up the next morning there was about 1/2 inch of standing water in the stern of my boat. I turned on my bilge and it ran for over 13 minutes straight (I timed it). That is a LOT of water in that boat! I didn't think about it at the time I was running my bilge, but my gas tank connections must have been underwater in the boat because I had water in my gas tank after that -- which made my motor run very badly the rest of the trip until I figured out the problem. After seeing that, when I ordered my Lund, I had them install an auto bilge as an add-on and they did it without making an issue out of it (Lund has started offering it as a standard item the past couple years).

The Lund IPS hull (most Lunds now come with the IPS2 hull -- an improvement even over mine) is a better hull that cuts the water and rides better than the Alumacraft 2XB hull in my opinion and experience.

I am not saying to avoid the Alumacraft. I liked both of mine. Just make sure you notice the differences between them and Lunds and make your choice accordingly. If I were buying another aluminum boat I would probably buy a Lund unless the local Lund dealer was a dud and the local Alumacraft dealer was very good. For you, the Lund Explorer 1675 would probably be the comparison to the Alumacraft 165 Dominator. You can look at features on both websites to compare them side-by-side.

Good luck with your choice.

2 Labs,

Thanks for the info. That's goos stuff. I've got a quality Lund Dealer 15min. away, but I figure the Explorer will be a couple of grand more. I've got until Apr. to make a decision.