Is there a North River Dealership coming to the Tacoma area ? Are most owners pleased with their North River boats?

North River bought Almar, so you could say they are a dealer, I guess. When I bought mine, I had to go to Portland. They had had a deal working to get a dealer up here, but it fell through. That was last fall, don't know what is happening now.

I love mine. Excellent boat, well designed, no problems. Catches more fish than Predator-Dawg's Predator, too.

First time in a North River for me was last Friday, my friends that is about 6 months old. Swweeeettt boat, it is a 20ft model with the sportjet (not sure if it is the 175 or 200 though). Lot's of power, gets on step quick and runs in some pretty skinny water. I also have fished out of a new 20 ft alumaweld and was real impressed with it also, not really any difference between the 2. The reason my friend went with the NR is was the deal he got, the Alumaweld dealers wouldn't dicker so he went to the NR factory and special ordered it. He said because he did that and was willing to wait a little longer to get it he saved about $6K.
Good luck and tight lines, Jeff

Here is a link to one of the most infamous threads ever on any Pacific Northwest Bulletin Board. It goes on for 17 pages and is on Ifish.net. Enjoy! North River Boat thread from ifish.net

North River makes a great boat.
The trailer's provided with dual axles should last longer the one year thou.......
Seems that my friend wont have his in boat in the water for for a week or more...due to the
poor craftsmanship of the axles..

SH69 and I are looking into getting a NR. He spoke to one of the NR reps and he said that they were putting in a dealership in dwntwn Tacoma. Not exactly sure when though.

Are you sure that Almar was bought out by NR?? SH69 delivers to the Almar plant in Tacoma every now and then, and they made it sound like it was more of a joint partnership then a buy out. I think the dealership in Tacoma should be here sometime early next year, but not totally sure.

RiverGal

NR bought Almar about a year ago, and will be putting the retail NR showroom on the corner of Dock Street & Puyallup Ave., fairly soon. A friend of mine works there and gave me the latest info last week.

North Rivers are nice boats but why anyone would want a piece of junk sport jet in one is a mystery. If your going to spend that kind of money... do it right.. go with the V.8 and a Hamilton 212

I heard rumor that Almar was going to be moving south to merge facilities with north river??? Could be rumor. But the owner of North River does own both.

Thought I'd post. Almar has always been on the corner of Puyallup and Dock street. I've been delivering to them for about 12 years off and on. Last time I did the route I was told it was a merger, but that could've changed since then. I rarely deliver downtown Tacoma, mostly out in GH 99% of the time anymore. I knew they were going to upgrade the building, so that NR could move on in a dealership. The Dock street location has been Almar's production facility. I assume they'll probably build the NR boats for WA here as well. Nice facility making some excellent boats. I remember drooling over some of the boats when I first started driving. Mostly custom boats, that were way overpowered for anything I'd ever use them for, but definitely testosterone machines. LOL

Now, B-run steelie. Not sure where you got your info, but NR only has one model out of all their boats that run a sportjet. The Sportster. All the rest of their boats are Yamaha Jets or chevy V8/V6's. You just generalized their whole production off one small model. It's popular, since it's relatively cheap for style boat you are buying. I'd love to buy one myself, if they could put a modified yamaha in place of the sportjet. I've been researching for awhile, since I'm going to be buying a new sled. I've narrowed down to the NR's. Just can't decide model yet. Trying to narrow down between fishing ability vs kid carrying ability. For a fishing boat, I'll be buying a scout, but if I want a more small child friendly/all around boat I'll be getting a commander or trapper. It has a chevy V8 in it, top, whole nine yards. But I like having an open boat with outboard for my fishing needs. Especially those few times you need to clean stuff out of intake, much easier to pull out an outboard, then an I/O. Decisions, decisions.

Just waiting for the NR dealer to come into town myself. Would rather do business in a facility up here where I can have service done directly then buy long distance and have to deal with down time sending boat off. Especially since I only live minutes from the Almar location.

B-run, I think there are multiple opinons on the Sportjet. I sure like mine, and it hasn't given me any trouble in the year I have had it. I agree that the V-8's and hamiltons are nice, but the sportjet is a lot cheaper, lighter, and smaller in the in-boat footprint. I don't know why they have such a bad reputation, I have talked to a lot of guys with SJ's at the ramp, and the only complaint I have heard is that they can be a little coldblooded in really cold weather - as in the 30 degree range.

Hold on guys.. I said North Rivers make a nice boat... But still say Sport jets are junk. One of my buddys has a North River 21 ft with vortec 350 and a 212- Its sweet. I have a North West Jet with the same motor/pump- Its the better big water boat of the two.

The real problem I have seen with a sport jet is what those guys go through when they get something stuck in the pump. That and they smell and sound like a chain saw coming up the river..

Outboards are pretty perplexing.. rumor has it you buy the motor and they give you the boat for free...

On another note getting ready for a 10 day steelhead/elk hunting trip !!! Its time. Big boats staying home, its drift boat time.