If that BT had 500 EFIs it would be a no brainier. Or if I had 15k laying around for pro chargers.

I would personally go with the BT, but I am biased. Don't worry about towing, your truck will be fine. Both choices are going to be a pain compared to what you have now. If your anything like most of us on here you are going to end up wanting to make more power out of either boat you purchase.

Also, it seems there are a lot of BT's around the Great Lakes and when Boyne comes around we can have a cult like the AT guys do!!!

Find a Black thunder with 500s

Promise you both will be happy!

Talk him down 10k and turn the 502s into 500s

I agree with Drock - looks like the boat already has a nice set of headers... his add reads 502/500's :confused: have they had some work done to them? also hours seem high.. those MPI's must be tired if there original

I'm not knocking the 38 but that BT is much sweeter in the salon and cockpit.
If I was shopping and the price was close on each I'd take the 43 and deal with the powerplants if you didn't feel the speeds achieved were adequate.
Top speeds now I'd guess high 50's on the 43 and low to mid 70's on the 38
In cruising it's a wash, in weekending it's 43 all the way.
Great finds dude!!! they're both awesome boats.

See ya,
Kelly

The 38 will run in the high 70's with 500's and will get out of the water much faster. The Black Thunder is a nice big boat but a huge difference in performance. It really depends what you are looking for

I know what I want. It's just how bad do I want to pi$$ of my GF. Hands down the Donzi has everything I want, the BT just has more minus the EFIs I want. We were suppose to look at a BT the same time we were down there with EFIs but I guess the owner had other plans.

I'd be pushing my boat storage with the ZX, if I went BT route I'd have to find new storage and with covered storage only costing me 20 bucks a month hard to top that.

check out the 01 43 in ny, it's a friends boat and clean, clean, clean. it also has 3a's and 700's. nice package. take the quess work out of the bravo drive failure, (it's gonna happen on either boat.) with 700's it will run by the zx with 500's all day. you will have the best of both worlds, speed and size. good luck with the search.

For me that would be the decision maker for the 38
I don't know about Ohio's storage rates but down here you'd pay 15 times your current rent for a 50' covered storage, plus I'd say it's much better suited to your tow rig's limitations
I seriously doubt your squeeze will remember the 43 after a few trips out in the 38, it's an awesome boat too!!!

See ya,
Kelly