www.iFourWinns.com

Hello everyone! I've posted a couple times, but really just lurked for a while. I'm a recent Four Winns owner. Two months ago I bought a 2005 Horizon 230 with a 5.7 GXi/DP and Silent Choice exhaust. Previously I had a 2001 Maxum SR2 1900 which we really liked but outgrew. I was looking for something a little bigger, as in more like 21' - 22' but fell in love with this style after looking at one that was whoa fully underpowered. I looked at a 2004 with a 5.0L and Bravo1, loved everything about the boat except for the power and honestly thought that once I left the lake that day I'd never come across another one in my price range. But low and behold two weeks later one popped up on Craigslist with more power, better shape, better graphics and a year newer.

I paid 22,500 it had 109 hours on it and as you can see from the pictures it's in very good shape. The interior is in just about new condition. The exterior had a couple scratches and was a little oxidized. Not bad, but it took me a little while to sand and buff them out. Now, while it's not flawless, you have to look very hard to find anything. I think I got a pretty good deal for this area of the country (Mn). What do you think?

My friends have been calling me the king of Craigslist because I've had a sting of good luck there. I bought a Motorcycle this spring, then the boat, then a slightly used wakeboard tower. The tower is a Fly High Pro X series stainless tower. It's supposedly the only universal tower that is approved to pull tubes. The tower sells for $1899 and I paid $500 for it.

I have every intention of keeping this boat for a looooooong time. It's got every feature that we've ever even thought we'd want and we love it. If it treats us well, as I expect it will, there will be no reason to get anything else. I told my 9 year old the other day that I plan on taking his kids on it!

I installed the tower and named it a few weeks ago, then finished fixing the scratches and buffing it last weekend. Just in time to take it for one last cruise and get it ready for winter. So here is the official unveiling. Let me know what you think. Especially about the tower, I wasn't sure at first when I bought it and spent a lot of time messing with photoshot to figure out if it was going to look right.

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2005 Horizon 230 5.7 GXi/DP "Nauti Addiction"
Towed with a 2003 Suburban Z71

Looks Beautiful!!

Congrats on the great deals too.

Welcome to the forum.

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2010 H190 4.3VP
Tow Vehicle:
2007 F150
Previous boats:
2009 H180 3.0VP
1996 Horizon QX 3.0VP

Did 230Mike sell his boat?

Welcome Aboard! Sounds like you found yourself a real sweet ride. The tower looks nice on the boat too. You're A+ in my books if you took a brand new to you boat and drilled holes in it to install that tower. I've been known to do similar things (docking lights, relocate fuel filler)

I imagine it's almost time for you to put her away for the winter...It's going to be a long one waiting.

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Marc, Kathlin & Nathalie


'89 Chaparral Laser 32

'93 Vista 245, 5.8L w/ King Cobra

Former Boats
'01 H260, 7.4 VP Duoprop
'98 H200, 5.0 GL w/VP SX drive

The boat looks absolutely fabulous... tower is a really nice addition too. Congrats...

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Current: 2006 H200 5.0 GXI SX Blue/White
Previous: 2003 H220 VP 5.7 Gi DP
Black/White

I've seen 230Mike's boat, even before I bought mine. I came across it in a couple forums when researching this one. Seeing the beautiful shine on his convinced me I had to buff mine.

I did a tower on my last boat, and I've done trim tabs on the last two, so drilling into them has lost some of the pucker factor, just measure measure 20 times, mock it up 10, have 6 other sets of eyes look at it, drill once .

A new experience for me on this one was sanding out the scratches. It had a couple long but very shallow scratches in the blue. Even though it didn't take much sanding to get rid of them, taking sandpaper to the side of my new pride and joy was nerve racking . The end result was worth it though, you can't even tell they were there.

Luckily I did get to use it several times, waiting is still going to be tough, but not as bad as it would have been had I bought it now.

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2005 Horizon 230 5.7 GXi/DP "Nauti Addiction"
Towed with a 2003 Suburban Z71

The Tower looks very nice on the boat. The mounting doesn't block your side vision when driving the boat. It appears the original Fourwinns Bimini still fits which saved you money. Will you be adding wakeboard racks on the Tower?

If you get a chance before putting away for the winter it would be nice to see a picture with the bimini up under the Tower.

Nice looking boat and seems like a good deal.

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2003 Horizon 190 5.0 Volvo
2003 Chevy Suburban Z71 5.3

Nope, we bought ours with much of the same thinking - that for the size of our family and the way we boat, this will be a perfect long-term boat. After 5 years, I've still never felt the need for anything else. Lately the thought of taking grandkids out in it has crossed my mind, though that's still quite a ways off.

That's a beautiful boat for sure, and I really like the tower. The fact that the factory bimini can still be used is terrific, not only because of the savings involved, but because the factory bimini is awesome. Does it have dual batteries?

Congratulations, and nice job all around. I would like to know how you mounted that water tower.

Now on with LED upgrades and trailer battles.

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Mike
2005 Four Winns 230/240
VP 5.7GXi/DP
1998 F-150 XLT
Boat Pic

A Beautiful Boat and welcome aboard. You got a great deal…. I am very biased with color and graphics but the rower goes well with your boat. You should do little research for tower if you are planning to tow tube from it… As far as I understand none of tower is made for use of tubing especially 2 or more people ones. The tower might be strong enough but its attachment to the boat is not strong enough to handle the sudden force which tube creates with leverage of height of tower. Side skin of boat are not as thick and strong as transom wall. We use ski pylon for tubing, which is bout 2 feet tall, and never tow tube from top. Anyway I hope you can get a few more days on water......

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08 H260 VP 8.1Gi DP.....Previous
2013 Crownline E6 Merc 8.2MAG BIIIX, DTS/SC

The water tower was a PITA and it lists a little, but we'll never go thirsty again!
I had to shorten the bimini by 4" in order to get it to work. To deploy the bimini, I have to pull the pins from the front of the tower, lift it so that the bars on top are above and slightly behind the bimini, then the bimini deploys forward. I haven't done it on the lake yet, but I did it on the trailer and it's possible to do it myself but I'll probably have someone help me just so I don't end up letting go of the tower.

No, it doesn't have the dual batteries. I had just put them on my old boat so I removed the setup before I sold it. So, along with some stereo upgrades this winter, I'll be putting them in.




I'm not going to be adding any racks, if you look at the tower you can see the extra bars under the top bars. They have cushioned pads on them. They are built in racks. I could still add racks to it, but with the size of the ski locker on this boat, the intigrated racks will provide a place to put the boards when we're using them which is all I really need.

I'll be pulling it out of the garage one more time to winterize it in the next week or two, if I get a chance I'll take a picture of it with the bimini out.

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2005 Horizon 230 5.7 GXi/DP "Nauti Addiction"
Towed with a 2003 Suburban Z71

If you do add a second battery, you'll probably need to put it on the port side. Many of these boats had a list with dual batteries on the starboard side. The fix was to move both batteries to port.

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Mike
2005 Four Winns 230/240
VP 5.7GXi/DP
1998 F-150 XLT
Boat Pic

Great looking boat - sounds like you got a great deal.

Welcome. You obviously have great taste (look at the 2 boats I have owned). Great price on your H230. I think you did extremely well.

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Norris Lake, Stardust Marina, Andersonville, TN
2005 Four Winns 230 Horizon 5.7L Volvo Gi/DP
2001 Maxum 1900SR 5.0L V8 (Sold)
2011 Nissan Armada Platnum

That's a great looking after-market tower you found, you would never know by looking at it. You got a great price on that boat! Nice job.

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-Rob.


Current boat: 2011 Yamaha AR210
Previous boat: 1998 Horizon RX 4.3GL SX