I lurked for a while on Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace and finally found a keeper on Craigslist. The boat hadn’t been run in a few years, was very dirty and had a dead battery. I performed as much inspection as I could (mostly visual) and was able to turn over the outboard using a battery I had.
The trailer was super rusty and, although it allowed the boat to be pulled out for inspection, it was completely inadequate for a tow home. I looked into various methods but the final solution factoring speed, cost, safety, etc. was to pull the boat and trailer onto a U-Haul car transporter.
So, at the end of the day, I got a decent hull, console, controls, livewell, trolling motor and 40hp outboard for $1,100. I was satisfied.
As the original trailer was garbage, I continued to check CL and eventually found a nice, galvanized trailer for $300. It needed some refurbishment (coupler, wiring, lights, bunks) and a bonded title but was still much cheaper than a new trailer.
