We need to point out, that traditional flats were
NEVER meant to touch the bottom of the lake. Nor, were they designed
to hit underwater obstructions; i.e. stumps, logs, rocks etc...
Therefore, one should NEVER run a mud motor on a traditional flat.
For that matter, if you intend to hit bottom on occasion, you
shouldn’t even run an outboard on that hull….if you want it to last.
“That’s a pretty bold statement”,
you may say. Let’s back that up.
THE COMPETITION
Let’s look at what the competition offers and
how it stacks up to, not necessarily what WE offer, but what YOU require
in a duck boat.
1. Traditional Flats- .100 or LESS
thickness of aluminum.
If the boat you choose is built of .100 or, in most
cases, .080 or less aluminum, this means two things. One, that gauge
of aluminum is not thick enough to stand on its’ own. By that
I mean that it must be crimped for rigidity. Two, that thickness of
aluminum is offered in 5052 alloy. 5052 alloy is an alloy that allows
a lot of flex. Flex is good to a point. But what happens is that this
5052, coupled with the thinner aluminum, is a dent waiting to happen.
It is not a question of IF it will dent; it is a question of WHEN
it will dent. In short, this thickness of aluminum was never designed
to hit anything at all.
Gator Trax hulls- .125 aluminum ONLY!
You can rest assured that your Gator Trax hull will
be made of .125 (1/8”) aluminum only. Not only will this be
up to TWICE as thick as our competitor’s hulls, but it is made
of 5086 alloy. The difference in 5086 and 5052 is tremendous. The
5052 alloy is easily manipulated, while the 5086 stands its ground.
In short, if you intend to hit stumps, logs, or rocks, or if you
intend to let your boat be run on mud flats, you will want 5086 alloy
with .125 aluminum.
2. Traditional Flats- Cross bracing system
Traditional flats have braces that run down the side,
across the bottom, and up the other side. These cross braces not only
are not sufficient to keep the boat from denting, they CAUSE dents.
When the boat hits a stump, that stump pushes in on the aluminum.
If the stump was not hit hard enough to dent it immediately, you are
still not out of the clear. With a mud motor what do you do? You are
going OVER that stump right? So now the boat begins to travel over
that stump. As the boat travels, the stump keeps flexing that aluminum
just like it was designed to do. Problem is, when the stump gets to
the cross brace, there is where your dent will occur. That rib has
no where to go. It is welded to the floor, or worse, pop riveted to
the floor. You have just created a dent. Over time, you will be able
to flip that boat over and see every rib perfectly outlined on the
bottom of your hull. It will appear that someone has thrown a softball
at the bottom of your hull for three days straight! In the marine
industry, this is called a “hook”. Hooks in the bottom
of your hull are horrible for performance. In short, this bracing
system was never designed to hit anything at all.
Gator Trax hulls- Longitudinal bracing
system
Gator Trax hulls use a longitudinal bracing system.
By this, I mean that all of our braces run from the transom to the
bow, long ways with the length of the boat. No cross braces can be
found in Gator Trax boats that actually touch the bottom of the boat.
How does this benefit you? It prevents dents! The longitudinal brace
allows the boat to flex between the ribs when you hit an underwater
obstruction. This stump, log, or rock can then be run completely over
without ever coming to the “end of the line” in front
of a cross brace. It will simply pass under the length of the boat
and go out at the transom. And if you DO hit something hard enough
to dent this stronger, thicker aluminum, in spite of our exclusive
dent prevention bracing system, your dent will be in a tunneling fashion;
“with the grain of the water”, if you will. This type
of dent has no adverse affect on performance whatsoever. In short,
if you intend to run your boat in shallow water and you want it to
not only last you for years, but to perform the same way it did as
when you bought it, you will need a longitudinal bracing system.
3. Traditional Flats- Square or “hard”
chines
A square chined boat is what comes on a traditional
flat. This means that the boat was made of 2 sides and a bottom welded
together. Where the sides meet the bottom, this creates a square corner.
Now, take that boat and place it in the middle of a pure mud flat…no
water! Push pole it sideways. Not working is it? You are pushing a
pile of mud like a bull dozer blade. Take that boat and place it on
a log or the edge of a canal bank that you accidentally ran on in
a hard turn. Does it slip off into the water again with little or
no effort at all? No. The flat corner has perched itself there and
until you get out the push pole, or worse GET OUT AND PUSH, you are
stuck there. In short, a square chined boat was never meant to
come in contact with underwater obstructions or shallow mud flats.
Gator Trax Hulls- Rounded, or “soft”
chines
Gator Trax hulls are made with rounded chines. This
means that the hull is made of one solid piece of aluminum! The sheet
is laid flat on a jig, all the components are set in place, and the
jig grabs the “sides” and wraps (or rolls) the sides up
around the inner components of the hull. No seams at all run the length
of our boats. It is one continuous piece of aluminum from gunwale
to gunwale. Not only does this make the boat stronger and less apt
to crack or leak, but you also wind up with rounded chines. This means there
is no square corner where the side meets the bottom. There is a curved
roll there instead. Rounded chines are like the mud grips on a 4x4.
They allow you to push the boat sideways on a mud flat, slip off of
logs and stumps, or slide back on track after eating a little bank
in a hard turn! Speaking of hard turns, rounded chines will also keep
you from EVER sliding in a hard turn at high speeds with an outboard
or a Hyperdrive.
Our boat dips into the turn and grabs, turning on a dime! These are
the most responsive hulls you will ever run with an outboard or
Hyperdrive!
In short, rounded chines are the only way to go if shallow water is
your playing field.
4. Traditional Flats- Square transoms
Traditional flats have a transom that comes down and
is welded to the bottom. Again, this creates a square corner. Consider
this scenario. You run your boat at high tide onto a nice grassy bank.
Your hunting party gets out and all of you pull the boat further onto
the bank so it won’t “drift away” while you are
off hunting. You come back to the boat two hours later to a LOW tide
situation. Your boat now has 20 feet of mud flat BEHIND it! Pushing
a square transom boat backwards, with the weight of the motor on it,
in a mud flat is not an easy task.
In short, this transom design was not intended for shallow water
use.
Gator Trax Hulls- Angled transoms
Gator Trax uses an angled transom to alleviate the
above mentioned problems. Our transom is angled at the bottom so that
when you push the boat backwards in mud or sand you have a much easier
time moving the hull. It is almost like having a miniature rake in
the back of the boat. In short, this transom was designed to use
in shallow water situations.
5. Traditional Flats- Crimped bottoms
The traditional flat has crimps on the bottom. The
common misconception is that these are keels that keep you from sliding
in a turn. Nothing could be further from the truth. These are crimps
that were placed there to make the thin aluminum rigid enough to stand
on its’ own. Nothing more. These crimps are a HUGE disadvantage
in shallow water. They create drag on the mud or sand flats. When
you cross a log or stump, the crimps “grip” the stump
and “track” you across it a certain way, even if you are
steering another way! And if you hang up on a stump or get high centered
on a log, the crimps will do their best to keep you there as long
as possible. All the while creating stress on your hull and causing your blood
pressure to rise! In short, this bottom design was never intended
to be efficient in a shallow water situation.
Gator Trax Hulls- Smooth bottoms
Gator Trax hulls are made without crimps on the bottom
of your hull. Why? Because we don’t NEED them! They do not enhance
performance in any way. As a matter of fact, as mentioned above, they
have an adverse effect on performance. Remember, our braces run long
ways on the INSIDE of the boat already. When you drive one of our
hulls over a log and try to steer it in a certain direction, YOU CAN!
There is nothing on the bottom to grab and “track” the
boat any other way than the way you want it to go! When you get high
centered on a log, just turn the engine a little and give it the gas.
You will slide off easier than you can imagine. Remember, all you
have to do is get that stump to that rounded chine and the boat will
HELP you slip off the log. And getting to the rounded chine is easy
with no crimps to “block” the boat from sliding across
the log. In short, a smooth bottom is the only way to go if you
use your boat in skinny water.
6. Traditional Flats- Shorter rakes
that rise quickly
Most traditional flats have short, almost non existent
rakes. The rake is the portion of the boat that begins to rise from
the bottom of the boat up to the very front. If this area is too short,
then you have problems, especially with mud motors! Mud Motors have
never offered much top end speed. In addition, you need the rear end
of the boat to drive your mud motor which forces you to place all
your gear, passengers, dogs, etc… towards the front half of
the boat. This causes you to plow water! You wind up not having enough
horse power to get the boat up on plane and stay there. Your top end
speed suffers and so does your safety. Why? You are riding nose down.
How many of you have hit two foot seas with a loaded boat that is
riding nose down? WET RIDE! In short, this rake design was never
intended to use with “underpowered” engines that will
be heavily front end loaded. They sure weren’t thinking of duck
hunters!
Gator Trax Hulls- Airboat style rakes
Gator Trax uses a rake that is patterned after the
Louisiana airboat. This rake is long, sloping, and rises gradually
over several feet of the bottom of the boat. This allows you to load
the front end heavily with your gear and still get on plane and stay
there! You also ride higher in the water for those days you encounter
rougher seas. In addition, your acceleration from a dead stop is also
increased. In short, this rake was designed for duck hunters,
and more specifically, those using mud motors.
If you took the time to read this information, congratulations,
you are in the lower percentage of the population. By this I mean
that you are one of the few that actually take the time to do the
research, ask the right questions, and make sure your next boat is
just right for you. You have one more step to take. Print this information
out and go shop! Ask our competitors if they have these features.
Now that you are in the “know”, it will be easy for you
to know if you are looking at a true, shallow water, duck boat…..or
their trimmed down version of a bass and crappie rig that happens
to be painted camo.
Thanks for taking the time, and more importantly,
thanks for considering us as the company to build the duck boat of
your dreams!
PS. - If it IS the camo that gets ya….we offer
that too!
CUSTOM
HULLS
At Gator Trax, we start
with a standard design and give you options, lots of options! But
we are also open to your ideas. If you see something you don’t
like, tell us. If you don’t see something you want, tell us!
There are a few things that can not be changed for structural purposes,
but for the most part, we can design YOUR boat to
fit YOUR needs!
Remember, our prices reflect the standard hulls and
standard accessories. Any custom work will be added to those prices.
ORDERING YOUR GATOR TRAX
When it comes time for you to consider ordering your
new hull, keep a few things in mind. For the most part, we build our
hulls one at a time as they are ordered. This is because we sell so
many different models and have so many different options, that it
is hard to “guess” what you guys will want! With that
in mind, know that we can only give you an estimated date of completion
on the day you are ordering your boat! However, here
is a rule of thumb from years past to keep you close. WE CAN
NOT BE HELD TO THIS GUIDELINE! This is an approximation and
can change depending on sales, good or bad duck seasons, and MANY
other variables!
DECEMBER-MARCH 2 TO 4 WEEKS
APRIL- JUNE 4 to 6 WEEKS
JULY-NOVEMBER- Lord help us! We have seen it up to
an 11 WEEK wait at this time! However, we have built a new facility
and production is better. On the flip side, we have tripled our sales
every year for the past 2 years! So, it may even back out.
The bottom line is, DO NOT WAIT FOR SEPTEMBER
IF YOU WANT A HULL FOR TEAL SEASON! However, if you find
yourself in circumstances beyond your control, and you are in dire
need, give us a call and we can try to work with you. We may have
a dealer with a hull similar or exactly like what you want that we
can send you to.
We would love for you to help us design your next boat. Call
anytime with questions or comments. Let us know if we can help further.
Gator Trax Owners,
Allen Wall, David Porter, and Kent Saxon
Contact Us
