188 sport trials and tribulations

[Ron Perry]

my 2001 188 sport is a great boat, I love it. However it is not without faults, in the year that I have owned it I have had a few problems. 1st when I picked it up the fuel gage did not work, it was the sending unit, which is on top of the fuel tank under the rear deck. In order to fix it a 4" hole had to be cut into the deck to get to it because Tracker had not thought about needing an access to it. 2nd the pvc pipes in the livewells that regulate the depth of water in them, kept getting knocked out by the fish and then the livewells would drain when the boat got on plane. 3rd, the hose to the front livewell sprung a leak during a tournament in august when I was running it on automatic and it filled the bottom of my boat up with water under the floor, and it took an hour to drain all the water out. And 4th the anti-siphon valve in the fuel tank malfuctioned and caused my carbs to fill with oil, this is of course in a different place too near a compartment lid to just bore another hole and put an access cover over so no one knows just how to go about getting to it and not leaving my rear deck a total mess. It seems to me that even though the designers and engineers at Tracker Marine built a great boat the forgot about the 7 P's: Proper Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance. I plan on owning this boat for a couple of more years until the Avalanche proves itself, then I plan on trading it in. I am a litte unhappy that I now have a boat that is not longer like it was when it was new, I am just glad I bought an extended warranty so that this is not costing me. I really do like my boat, just frustrated with tracker for not thinking ahead.

 

[Barry Loos]

I feel for you Ron. Hope you get it worked out. Glad to see that you were wise enough to get the extended warranty.



Good luck



Bear

 

[Staci Matheis]

Amen.

 

[TrepMan]

Ron - Echo Scott and Bear's sentiments, I bought my extended warranty for the same reasons - though luckily have NOT had to use it in almost 3 years yet!



On the livewell drain pipe, that is common on most boats with that style of livewell. Do a search here on "Livewell" and find post "livewell by slsail, 4/13/2002 21:05 ET " there is a great picture/explaination on how to fix this problem!