2024 Nitro ZV19 Sport Pro Owner

[Husker525]

I am new to the forum, and looking forward to learning from other members. I recently traded by 2022 Tracker Targa V19WT with a Mercury 150. I had done a lot of upgrades on that boat, including a 24v Ghost TM, (2) Lowrance Elite FS 9's, Active Target, flush mount bow lights, under gunnel LED lighting, etc. The boat functioned flawlessly but the fit and finish was driving me crazy. Several of the screws in the floor decking would come loose every trip, and I even tried to loctite them with no success. The consoles constantly loosened up even with lock nuts. They would somehow seem to back off and then the console would start rocking back and forth going down the road. The trailer was out of alignment and wore 2 tires almost to the cords in less than 1 year. The trailer had probably less than 2k miles total on it. The fuel gauge worked on the delivery of the boat, then stopped working on the first trip. I had it repaired by the dealership, then it worked for one more trip, before it quit again. The volt gauge quit working right after that as well. Another trip to the dealership, both got repaired, then quit working 2 trips later. The glass bezels fell off the trim gauge and then the volt gauge. Both were backordered indefinitely, and I never received them. I couldn't keep up with all the little things, and the down time at the dealership pretty much cut too deep into my coveted fishing time last year. I will say that for rough water, the boat performed and handled very well. With a higher out of the water bow, drifting in the wind was something to work around. The bow acts like a big sail when standing on the bow, and you had to use TM input to keep from the bow spinning on you.

I then decided to pivot, and go a different direction. I started looking at fiberglass boats. Lower, heavier and a different ride in big water. I fish a lot of wind blown lakes and reservoirs, so fishing in calm water is rare. I do not fish Great Lakes kind of water, but we fish in a lot of 2-3' waves and whitecaps in my area. I started looking at Ranger boats and Vexus, but could not justify the price with my budget, and interest rates at the current time.
I had conversations with some of my fishing buddies about the Nitro's, as they were strictly bass fishermen a few years ago. I know that the Z series had some hull issues early in the game. I was hesitant about the ZV but found that the hull is uniquely different than the Z series.

I chose a 2024 Nitro ZV19 Sport Pro. I do not ski or pull tubes, but once a year will pull the grandkids or the friends kids. I found that this boat would meet my needs for a better price than a full on fish only boat. My boat came with the Mercury 225 Pro XS, and I was familiar with a 115 Pro XS from a prior Lowe boat. I love the Pro XS gearing, how quiet the motor is, and the reliability and overall performance. This new boat came with a manual jack plate which is a learning curve to me. I am currently running an Enertia 14.2x18P and I run at 4000' above sea level. The boat came with (2) Lowrance 9 Pro's, a 36v Ghost TM and I had my active target switched over.

I did my extremely boring 2 hour break-in procedure. At 3.3 hours, I ran it for top speed. 2 adults, (440 lbs) full gear, and 1/2 tank of fuel it ran in choppy water at 46.6 mph. I also am still learning the Active Trim settings so I am pretty sure I did not have it trimmed correctly. I think there is more top speed to gain. It comes up on plane right at 2 seconds which I am very pleased with. I filled the live wells just to really test it.

The ride is very smooth and the boat fishes even larger than what it is. It just seems like there is always room to spare. The bow is very large and you could fish 3 adults comfortable from the front deck. The rear is very spacious as well. The rear jump seats are comfortable with high backs. Plenty of storage for tackle and 12 rods. I had to spend several hours calibrating my Ghost, getting all of my waypoints over, registering the MFD's and getting the settings where I had my Elite FS 9's which was just time consuming.

I am actually looking forward to going out early mornings on Memorial Day Weekend to bang some 'eyes' and get off the lake before all the lake lice come out to spin doughnuts and show off their freestyle talents within close proximity to a fishing boat.

I will also be installing a Drotto on my trailer in the next day or so. I have had them in the past and they work very well for me.

 

[Runnin’BobR]

Welcome Husker! Thanks for sharing those initial observations and results. These are the kind of points that are really helpful especially to those who are looking at new or different rigs.
Have fun this weekend and update us on some more items as you learn this new boat!

 

[Chobeemauga]

Nice boat! Enjoy and welcome to site.

 

[Cyco]

Welcome to the forums, nice boat! The ZV is an awesome boat.

 

[Husker525]

Just a quick update after the long Memorial Day Weekend and more time on the water. I discovered a few things that I need to work on and tweak a little bit. The Ghost TM will hang up in the deployed position, and even after yanking on the release cable, it would not release, and stay deployed. I have owned a Ghost before, and I have not had this occur. It took two of us, working as a team, to get it to release. One would reach over the bow of the boat and wiggle the shaft, while the other would pull on the release cable. I almost fell overboard when hit by a rogue wave, but managed to try and fall into the boat, instead of into the 62 degree water. I was a little banged up and bruised but would much rather have that than go have gone swimming. (I swim like a rock...)

I lubricated the tangs and the release grooves and upon testing it the next day, the problem resolved itself. I might have to keep an eye on this in the future.

The Ghost is not calibrated correctly for the GPS. I have not done this as the wind as been a minimum of 15 mph and in the only protected area of the lake, there is major current from them dumping water into the lake. I need to try to find a calm day to put the TM into calibration mode and do my slow circles. As it is right now, the Anchor Lock is more like a general area lock, with about a 20' radius. LOL.

The step pads on both the rear left and rear right sides of the trailer are already peeling up, and both are about 1/2 attached. I need to reglue them down, or make the dreaded appointment to go drop my boat off 1 hour away, and leave it for the day for Warranty repair.

I have been learning more about the Active Trim profiles, and I must say, I am starting to really like it. I originally was using the trim profile of 5 for my top speed runs, but was only able to get to 41 mph. Profile 5 should be the highest trim level available and with my prop and 225XS, thought I should be getting more top speed out of the boat. I then manually trimmed the motor up once the Active Trim maxed out. I was able to get 49.6 mph with 1/2 tank fuel, just me in the boat, and a full fishing load of gear. I will be researching on how to change the parameters for the trim profiles, and maybe I can adjust profile number 5 to get more trim out of it. I was concerned that there may be some chine walk using the Active Trim, but again, I was wrong. That thing sticks in the turns, even when I manually trimmed it up. I may play a little with the manual jack plate, which is new to me. I am not really a top speed guy, but just wanted somewhat close to what the boat was designed to do, so I am very close.

I still love the boat, and nothing in the aforementioned is really about the boat, more about settings, adjustments and calibrations. The boat handles amazing, fishes really well, and gets into very skinny water well. I was fishing in 1.5 fow between trees and never even brushed against a tree. The boat just sits where it needs to be. Point it and go using the TM and the back end tracks true, even in some breezy wind.

I didn't think I would use the cooler storage or if it would work that well. I was wrong. The cooler kept an entire 5 lb bag of ice still frozen after 5 hours in 75 degree weather. My bait stayed cool, my refreshing grapey deliciousness of Powerade stayed nicely chilled throughout the day, and there is plenty of storage for sammiches.

I am pretty impressed with the ease of loading and unloading. I love the steps on the trailer, as they are just a little bit different than the steps on my Targa V19 trailer. I was a little concerned when I saw this trailer did not have the side bunks, as I load and unload quite a bit either in current or a crosswind. This boat drives right up on the trailer very easy. I had poly guides on my old Targa trailer, and I do not think I am going to do that or need that with this trailer and the glass boat versus the aluminum boat. I am fighting with my Drotto though. I ordered it for a Nitro boat, but after installing it, uninstalling it, reinstalling it and yet taking it off again, just did not like how it was aligning off the water. The ramps were too busy this weekend to try and do it by dropping the boat in the water, so that will be in my near future as well.

I found that my EGO S2 slider net will slide down into the hole designed for the ski pole in the aft deck, right next to the aft seat post mount while fishing. It is readily accessible for those in the rear of the boat, and easy to fish around. I was looking for a net mount, was terrified to drill anywhere into the fiberglass and found some suction cup mounts that were very pricey. (Sea Sucker). For the time being, I think this will work fine, and I can leave the drill out of the equation.

I will continue to post as time allows.

 

[Runnin’BobR]

Husker,

Thanks for adding to your post. Even though some of your accessories will be different, it is still helpful knowing what kind of things we may be trouble shooting or setting up when we get ours. I appreciate it.

 

[Timmer]

Congratulations! I have the same model a couple of years older than yours. From your pictures it doesn't look like you have a kicker? I couldn't live without it on mine, but we all have different focuses and methods.

 

[Scott Tschida]

I am new to the forum, and looking forward to learning from other members. I recently traded by 2022 Tracker Targa V19WT with a Mercury 150. I had done a lot of upgrades on that boat, including a 24v Ghost TM, (2) Lowrance Elite FS 9's, Active Target, flush mount bow lights, under gunnel LED lighting, etc. The boat functioned flawlessly but the fit and finish was driving me crazy. Several of the screws in the floor decking would come loose every trip, and I even tried to loctite them with no success. The consoles constantly loosened up even with lock nuts. They would somehow seem to back off and then the console would start rocking back and forth going down the road. The trailer was out of alignment and wore 2 tires almost to the cords in less than 1 year. The trailer had probably less than 2k miles total on it. The fuel gauge worked on the delivery of the boat, then stopped working on the first trip. I had it repaired by the dealership, then it worked for one more trip, before it quit again. The volt gauge quit working right after that as well. Another trip to the dealership, both got repaired, then quit working 2 trips later. The glass bezels fell off the trim gauge and then the volt gauge. Both were backordered indefinitely, and I never received them. I couldn't keep up with all the little things, and the down time at the dealership pretty much cut too deep into my coveted fishing time last year. I will say that for rough water, the boat performed and handled very well. With a higher out of the water bow, drifting in the wind was something to work around. The bow acts like a big sail when standing on the bow, and you had to use TM input to keep from the bow spinning on you.

I then decided to pivot, and go a different direction. I started looking at fiberglass boats. Lower, heavier and a different ride in big water. I fish a lot of wind blown lakes and reservoirs, so fishing in calm water is rare. I do not fish Great Lakes kind of water, but we fish in a lot of 2-3' waves and whitecaps in my area. I started looking at Ranger boats and Vexus, but could not justify the price with my budget, and interest rates at the current time.
I had conversations with some of my fishing buddies about the Nitro's, as they were strictly bass fishermen a few years ago. I know that the Z series had some hull issues early in the game. I was hesitant about the ZV but found that the hull is uniquely different than the Z series.

I chose a 2024 Nitro ZV19 Sport Pro. I do not ski or pull tubes, but once a year will pull the grandkids or the friends kids. I found that this boat would meet my needs for a better price than a full on fish only boat. My boat came with the Mercury 225 Pro XS, and I was familiar with a 115 Pro XS from a prior Lowe boat. I love the Pro XS gearing, how quiet the motor is, and the reliability and overall performance. This new boat came with a manual jack plate which is a learning curve to me. I am currently running an Enertia 14.2x18P and I run at 4000' above sea level. The boat came with (2) Lowrance 9 Pro's, a 36v Ghost TM and I had my active target switched over.

I did my extremely boring 2 hour break-in procedure. At 3.3 hours, I ran it for top speed. 2 adults, (440 lbs) full gear, and 1/2 tank of fuel it ran in choppy water at 46.6 mph. I also am still learning the Active Trim settings so I am pretty sure I did not have it trimmed correctly. I think there is more top speed to gain. It comes up on plane right at 2 seconds which I am very pleased with. I filled the live wells just to really test it.

The ride is very smooth and the boat fishes even larger than what it is. It just seems like there is always room to spare. The bow is very large and you could fish 3 adults comfortable from the front deck. The rear is very spacious as well. The rear jump seats are comfortable with high backs. Plenty of storage for tackle and 12 rods. I had to spend several hours calibrating my Ghost, getting all of my waypoints over, registering the MFD's and getting the settings where I had my Elite FS 9's which was just time consuming.

I am actually looking forward to going out early mornings on Memorial Day Weekend to bang some 'eyes' and get off the lake before all the lake lice come out to spin doughnuts and show off their freestyle talents within close proximity to a fishing boat.

I will also be installing a Drotto on my trailer in the next day or so. I have had them in the past and they work very well for me.

Nice! Also just bought same boat last month just not the sport. Still doing some add ons. Can't wait to get it out myself. Like color choice too.

 

[Husker525]

Just another quick update: I have not had the boat out very much due to life in general, weather, etc. I found that you must match your Active Trim setting on the throttle to the SAME trim level in your Smartcraft. I was only able to get to 44 mph, unless I went with Active Trim level 5 on the throttle, then trimmed up manually to finally get over the 50 mph gps mark. Once I scrolled through the Smartcraft, and saw it was defaulting to Level 4, changing it to Level 5 in the Smartcraft, I could hit 50 mph+ without any manual input into the trim on the throttle.

Sounds like a total user error to me.

I have an issue with my Ghost trolling motor. This is the second Ghost TM that I have owned. Everything functioned fine for the first trip. The second trip it started flashing 3 times like it lost signal, would not respond to foot pedal, remote or MFD's. The MFD's would show in Anchor, but the motor would not turn or prop spin. I did 3 factory reset procedures and configurations, and it came back to life for an hour. After 1 hour, it went back to lost communication. I took it home and went through all the diagnostics and reset procedures, including checking wiring, voltage, etc. I got it working on land, and tested it in my carport area several times, all good. First trip to the lake, deployed the Ghost, and lost communication again. 2 hours on the water with resets and configuration, and I could not bring it back. Went home, tried several hours, phone calls etc, and it was done like dinner. I then hauled the boat back to the dealer to see if it was logic locked, a hardware issue or a software issue.

Outside of that, the boat performs great!
I shall keep you posted!

 

[Husker525]

Got my boat back from Cabelas last Friday. They were on the phone with Lowrance who told them to do the following:

Hard wire the Ghost TM, and do not use a plug
Move the Point 1 from the bow to a location 3' from the trolling motor, and at least 2' from a MFD
Although the boat came with the Ghost and the MFD's and Point 1 already installed from the factory, moving it would be at my expense and not a warranty covered item according to BPS/Cabelas.

I went ahead and authorized the repairs to attempt to fix the issue. They hard wired the TM, but could not move the Point 1 as they did not have a cable long enough in stock to properly complete the repair.

They were able to get the Console MFD, the Bow MFD, the fob remote and the foot pedal paired to the TM. I had to do a keel offset when I picked it up, as the trolling motor lower end was trying to stow perpendicular to the mount.

I used it 1/2 day on Saturday. Everything functioned well except, you cannot navigate to a waypoint from the Bow MFD. It does not recognize your actual location and showed me 37 miles south of my actual location, and remained stationary.

I could control the Ghost going to a waypoint from my Console MFD though.

I searched for my Point 1 in my devices, and it is not showing up under my listed devices in either MFD. I was told to search for devices under installation, and it will not show itself. I am unable to perform a GPS calibration without the Point 1 showing up. I notified Cabelas, and they said they were going to talk to their Lowrance representative and give me step by step diagnostics to see if the Point 1 was functioning properly before I had to drag the boat back for a week to 2 weeks to have them look at it again.

I currently have 8.5 hrs on the big motor, still running perfectly, no leaks, no issues. The rest of the boat and trailer are still fine as well.

That is all for now.

 

[DONAOL]

Got my boat back from Cabelas last Friday. They were on the phone with Lowrance who told them to do the following:

Hard wire the Ghost TM, and do not use a plug
Move the Point 1 from the bow to a location 3' from the trolling motor, and at least 2' from a MFD
Although the boat came with the Ghost and the MFD's and Point 1 already installed from the factory, moving it would be at my expense and not a warranty covered item according to BPS/Cabelas.

I went ahead and authorized the repairs to attempt to fix the issue. They hard wired the TM, but could not move the Point 1 as they did not have a cable long enough in stock to properly complete the repair.

They were able to get the Console MFD, the Bow MFD, the fob remote and the foot pedal paired to the TM. I had to do a keel offset when I picked it up, as the trolling motor lower end was trying to stow perpendicular to the mount.

I used it 1/2 day on Saturday. Everything functioned well except, you cannot navigate to a waypoint from the Bow MFD. It does not recognize your actual location and showed me 37 miles south of my actual location, and remained stationary.

I could control the Ghost going to a waypoint from my Console MFD though.

I searched for my Point 1 in my devices, and it is not showing up under my listed devices in either MFD. I was told to search for devices under installation, and it will not show itself. I am unable to perform a GPS calibration without the Point 1 showing up. I notified Cabelas, and they said they were going to talk to their Lowrance representative and give me step by step diagnostics to see if the Point 1 was functioning properly before I had to drag the boat back for a week to 2 weeks to have them look at it again.

I currently have 8.5 hrs on the big motor, still running perfectly, no leaks, no issues. The rest of the boat and trailer are still fine as well.

That is all for now.

Sorry to hear about your problems with your brand new boat. If the dealer installs any extra equipment on your boat they are responsible for proper installation and function of that equipment. You should not have to pay for dealership mistakes. That’s not the way customers should be treated. Sad sign of the times.