Looking at buying 86 ts6m

[crogers1]

New to the boating world and was looking at an 86 ts6m. Everything looks pretty clean other than a crack on the rub rail. Here is a link to the craigslist ad https://boise.craigslist.org/boa/d/1986-ski-wakeboard-boat-price/6639782132.html and I'll add some pictures of the cracks.1884218843 Should I steer clear?

[foxriverat]

That looks like it took a pretty good hit. It is above the waterline though. Being an 86 you should be more concerned with rotted wood stringers. Search stringer rot in forum. Pre 92 supras with wood stringers were notorious for rotting out.

[scottschmitt]

Yes, the whole stringer thing is something you should think about. See this post (https://forum.supraboats.com/showthread.php?19228-Letter-to-a-future-owner-of-a-used-Supra).

On the other hand, it is a 5k boat that is 30 years old, so you have to be honest about your goals here. The Ts6m puts out a soft beautiful wake for slalom skiing. Someone put a tower on that, so they've tried to wakeboard. If you throw a fatsac in the back, you'll probably get a fine enough wakeboard wake. These boats have a small freeboard. This makes them lighter, which improves the ski wake, but you can't put a lot of weight in there to ramp up the wake to modern wakeboat sizes.

Stringer rot is pretty much the rule in older Supras. You can put a wrench on the engine mounts and see if they feel solid. You can tap them with a wrench and see if they sound solid. If all that is ok, you could get by for a few years (maybe even more if you are lucky). If the compression is good, the engine should be solid for a while.

So, if you are hoping to ski and maybe do some wakeboarding, and you are happy selling this ride in a few years for 2-4k, then consider it. If you want to redo the floor at some point for 4-6k and fix the nose, you'll still have the ultimate sub-10k ski machine. Otherwise, look for a Supra with a round windshield built after 1992.

[Salty87]

$5500 for an old Comp needing stringer work might be a little high when you factor the $4k+/- or so to rebuild (where are you located?). That price for a Comp needing stringers and having a big 'ole crack in the bow in my opinion is too much. That crack under the rubrail could easily take on water so assume it has. An owner who would operate the boat like that for an extended time would cause me concern. An owner who just messed it up and decided to sell would make me run.

A lot depends on your situation though. Are you handy to DIY it back into shape? Can you spend more to avoid some of these issues?

More often than not, cheap boats are far from cheap.

[scottschmitt]

More often than not, cheap boats are far from cheap.

Preach it. There is nothing more expensive than a cheap boat.

[etktryd]

That thing took a real hard hit !
I would walk away..... RUN !!!!