North River Trapper vs Commander

Wow, makes you really think!! That could have been so much worse I would say you are one lucky SOB! :thumbup:

Thrasher,

As far as the difference betweem a Trapper or Commander, there was not much of a differnce. Mostly cosmetics and features, accesories, other than that they we the same! 2007 is a different story! If you want a Commander, you have to get it in the CommanderX, 21.6 ft, 78 inch beam and of coarse in the bigger sizes, 22ft, 23ft, 24ft etc. They don't make a the 21 foot Commander anymore, just the trapper in that size now.

I bought the 21 foot Commander last year before it got discontinued and absolutly love it! One of the main reasons I purchased the North River over other brands, was the gas mileage. When it came down to me purchasing a boat, it was between the north River and the Custom Weld, both very nice boats with a few major differences, at least I think so! The Customweld burnt 11.7 gallons per hour at 3,400 RPM's. The North river is about 400+ pounds lighter and burnt 7.9 gallons per hour at 3,400 RPM's. That is with the same jet pump, hamilton and virtually the exact same motor! My :2cents: Hope this helps

I have the NR Sportster and I love it!! Small motor cover in the back gives lot's of room to fish. The Commander is the full up model and the trapper is the same boat as mine but with a different poer plant. You may want to take a look at the Trapper with the 4.3L V6 chev motor in it. Better mileage and more fishing room. Like I said, I love my NR, you won't find a better structurally built boat, but if I was looking to fish out of the boat all of the time and I needed the power of a V8 I would look at the Custom Welds with the built up fishing platforms. A couple of my buddies have the CW's and they love them. They are a little heavy and missing some of the detail I like but, they are a good boat. The North Rivers with the bigger V8's don't have much room to fish in the back compared to other models.

Down here you can get a new Trapper with the V6 in it for around $25,000 USD with good options. The V6 has plenty of snap. The guys at NR in Portland will take you on some awesome test rides, in some very skinny rivers and show you what the different models can do. I would take full advantage of that. They can also take you on a tour of the Man. Plant which is a couple hours south of Portland.

here is my 2 cents , when you build a boat apples to apples you get the same price or very close, there is a few things to consider, What you are going to use the boat for, how you want the finishing and so on, I would buy a north river any day before I would bu a CW because of the components put into a boat, when we started I test drove 28 different river boat companies, did you know there were that many!!!!! very few were build through the exact same production line, When we build boats you get what you order, such as dual wipers, you dont get one moter powering 2 wipers, welded on cleats are not an upcharge, full bow bracing you dont pay extra for or the formed sides, forming a side reduce having to weld in structural supports that flat sided boats really need to be as strong, thickness of the flooring is important as well, and I hate the gaps in the sides for bait to get into, I like everything that should be welded, welded on, and I like that I can sit on my gunnels while fishing, I like a high swim grid. I like not having to stand up to see out the window and I like my steering wheel centered, I do not want to have to corrective steer as I am running my boat for long trips, IE.. Chine walk, I like a 4 point motor mount system over a 2 point any day, If you ask a north river owner you will get a biased opinion, Because he or she thought their purchase was the best , same if you aske CW or a t-jet dealer, all the same biased opinions, BTW Rick I never saw you stop by to actually compare the boats apples to apples, by the way on a t-jet with a 1/4 inch bottom and a fixed frame top and slider windows, 350BFI and 212 we have it running at 6.8 GPH at 3400 with 4 people on board and a 50 gallon tank up the fraser to the mouth of the vedder, that boat was doing on the gps 31.4 MPH At wot 4050 rpm it was at 13.4 GPH and 46 MPH