Advice on older heat vs newer rage
 

I'm looking at a 1999 nordic heat MCOB in AZ right now for a friend. Guy wants 26,500 however the keel has damage, exhaust rotten and a few screws are broken on windshield. Interior is nice, and overall condition is very good however it's not a step hull. The rage is second choice, but for a 2000 they want 37,900 around here, which I think is a bit high. Thoughts?

I would look around more. My 2000 Heat (stepped hull) with the 500EFI setup was not much mors than that Rage. They are out there, you may have to travel though. I wish you the best of luck in your search.

A little more expensive, but holy hell its clean.

http://hilinemotorsports.com/portfol...ic-rage-55hrs/

I bought my Heat from them with no complaints at all. They move a lot of Nordics.

That's a sweet ride! Here is a rage that's closer to where I am in AZ.


http://lasvegas.craigslist.org/boa/4358106002.html

Buy the Heat. The ride quality is way better. I've got the stepped hull but my friend has an older one and we don't see much difference in ride quality. You can put a stainless sleeve over the keel to add some bling and you will not have a problem. I've done that in the past and it worked well. The biggest change you can make to ride quality is having trim tabs. The K-planes on my boat are a must have.

Don't get hung up on the distance, I bought my rage right out of havasu and had it shipped to pa, shop around, there's more inventory out there, and hi line motorsports does get a lot of low hour clean boats

The Heat may have a better ride quality and more room so the choice would seem logical to chose a Heat over a Rage, but there are also a couple of things to also consider. In my case the Rage was perfect and the Heat would not have been. The Rage you can trailer and tow with a 1/2 ton pickup or a larger SUV no problem. The Heat you really want to have a larger vehicle to tow long distances. The storage on a Rage is easy where a Heat is more difficult. The biggest difference in my opinion is that the Rage will preform and perform well with a black motor 496HO or 502 and B1X drive. I get 75 GPS bone stock with no labbed prop at about 300ft elevation. I know of a few guys getting 80 out of their 496 HO's with a labbed prop and headers. One guy is seeing 83 with a labbed prop, headers, and whipple stage 2 tune. That is a lot of performance from a 496 and besides I can tow a water skier behind my boat where the Heat has more difficulty. That same motor and drive will get you 65 to 67 out of a Heat at best. The Rage will be 10-15mph faster with the same setup. With that said if you can afford a Heat with a bad ass motor then go ahead. If you cannot afford the power then the Rage is going to be the best for all around performance with an economical motor. The other problem is that most of the Rages and Heats came with 496HO's and 502's so finding one with upgraded power is harder. There is a Heat with about 1000HP for sale near me that does 100MPH plus. That would be a nice boat but the price is 100K used.

All very good points! In looking I really like the rage. So much so that I decided to buy one for myself. Wife wants an open bow boat, as our current boat has a cuddy. I plan to remove the 502 EFI mag and install it in our current boat. Then install the 496 stroker engine I have invested so much money into the nordic. We have a 2013 land rover LR4 w/ all wheel drive v-8 so I'm limited to about 7800lbs max making a lighter rage ideal. Plan to use the keith eickert headers I have in the rage with custom tails. Here is the boat in havasu I might buy this week if it checks out A ok.


http://lasvegas.craigslist.org/bod/4397034536.html

Nice looking Rage but to me it seems a bit high in price for the year.

I completely agree and that's why I offered 32,500. Think that's a good deal as it's in excellent condition and still a stepped hull.