MAKO Boats Reviews

On the port side bow corner, looks like a "dent" in the fiberglass (Starboard side in the same location is nice and round). It appears that it may have been something with the mold or the process when the hull was made. I understand this is not a high end boat, but the lack of "basic fit and finish" for a brand new product from the factory (Made in America) is very disappointing. If you're looking to purchase a new Mako boat, no matter what model.... beware!

I complained the dealer, Scott’s Marine in Eufalla, Alabama many times with no corrective action. The Mako propaganda says that if the dealer is uncooperative the customer should contact Customer Relations at their home office. I wrote a respectful letter with photos, then followed with a phone call a few weeks later. Naturally they claimed they had not received my letter but they gave me an address where they would be sure to receive it. They managed to lose that letter too. On another follow up call, they gave up trying to appear helpful said my only recourse was to go the dealer. Knowing that Scott’s would be useless, I called Bass Pro. They said that I was on the work list and that they would call me when they could work me in their schedule. Five weeks have passed since then. I called many times, if I got a person, they put me off, if I left a message, they never returned the call.

There are some scratches on the hull and along the edges where the side walls meet the hull, there are places where the gel coat is so thin that it chipped off the edges. I believe this happened loading the boat on the trailer or some other scrapping of the boat at some rickety dock. Ugly, yes. Integrity damaging, no. I am 76 years old. I do not mistreat my boats. This boat has drifted onto shell reefs and gotten stuck on muck, but it has never hit anything substantial. I have used my boat as designed in shallow, salty waters. My McKee was used for 23 years in these same waters.The Gel coat was scratched down to the fiberglass in several areas, but no leaks. I know, I know. Maybe I should have kept my McKee. But I didn't. This Mako has everything I really wanted in a small boat. It will easily fish with 3 people. It is just plain perfect. Almost.

The fact that both bow and aft casting decks developed stress cracks in them in the 1st year of use is disappointing, but the CRACKED HULL problem is serious. It seems that Mako's lifetime hull warranty only applies if the boat is never used. I will attempt to ask for a review of their decision. And should they resolve this matter to my satisfaction. I will return to this site and make a notification that Mako has honored their warranty. Blue skies and calm seas. Tim ** Your review may not be published if it has profanity, threats or personal insults. Review guidelines. I certify that this review the with the cracked hull is.

We were scooting along the lake at approximately 5k RPMs. All of a sudden, the boat jerked and made a hard 90 degree turn to the right. It was so hard, my hands came off the wheel, and I flew towards the side heading for the water. I saw my daughter fly from her seated spot in front of the console heading the same direction. Thank God my son has the strength of Hercules (collegiate o lineman). He grabbed me with lightning fast hands, and I grabbed her. He held onto the grab rail and we all stayed inside unhurt and dry. We inspected the boat when it stopped and I even got into the water to see the motor, and prop. Everything appeared normal. It wasn't until we got it on the trailer that we saw a massive section of gel coat missing. We knew we didn't hit anything submerged because we were in the middle of the lake.

I called my insurance company, GEICO, and they immediately sent an adjuster. The adjuster looked at the boat and made a call. He said they will send out a marine surveyor because it was beyond his expertise. The next day, a surveyor inspected the boat after I dropped it off at the Fiberglass repair center. The surveyor and owner of the center looked at the boat. Combined these men have over 50 years of experience. They are highly qualified and very well respected in their fields of mastery. I received call from both at separate times. Both said the same thing. "Your boat is totaled. It is not repairable and you need to contact the manufacturer, MAKO." The issue was, the Hull has delaminated and the section that ripped off was just the beginning. It would be a matter of time before the rest delaminated.

Professional prognosis was as follows. One layer of meat, One layer of roven, Thin layer of adhesive and a layer of gel coat. If you don't believe me, look at these photos.... If you start at the bow and use a tapping method, you should hear a solid thud all the way to the transom.... My boat is hollow all the way down which means the inner hull is not adhered to the outer making it solid. I reached out to MAKO/White River. They took the boat to the plant in Miami Oklahoma. It got there June 19, 2019. It sat in the yard until they hired a guy to "inspect " it on July 11, 2019. He was "busy" and didn't get his findings sent to the decision makers until August 6, 2019. Don't know about you, but almost a moth to turn in your work is a little excessive.

So I get a call from a young lady at MAKO, (TC), and she tells me the following. "Your boat has been used and not treated well. It has scratches on the hull and we are denying your warranty claim." According to them, it has been wrecked at the bow and not repaired correctly. The hulls are separating and it's from misuse. THIS IS COMPLETELY ABSURD!!!!

That boat has not not been wreck on the bow. The rivets were pulling apart because of poor manufacturing. At one point, they tried to tell me my boat was not a 2014, it was a 08 or 09. They even said I drilled holes in the hull to install lights. This is also false. I installed 2 green LED strips on the underside of the rubber strip that goes around the boat. The lights have a self adhering peel and stick backing. I used the port where the transducer wire goes into the boat to get power. Obviously the inspector didn't see that. I'm still waiting for the outcome. I really thought well of MAKO and this boat. I saved a long time to buy it and was very proud of it. It was babied and we really miss it. I hope White River does the right thing.

Original Review: June 24, 2018

I bought a MAKO 21 LTS from Bass Pro Fort Worth TX on May 17th 2014. I have used the boat only on tournaments 7 of them a year. Last April boat was taking on water and bilge pump was working overtime pumping out water. When looked at onshore it showed big area of gel coat and showing approx. 18"X18" two places of fiberglass and other cracks in the hull. Took it back to Bass Pro and they sent it back to the manufacturer. They sent it back saying it was my fault as it had scratches and gouge in the center of the hull. No way could this happen in any situation, as someone with little experience can see this is Tracker Marine/MAKO issue, period... Warranty should have covered this as it was not from anything I done, its just bad fabrication, Delamination!!!

The manager and staff at the Bass Pro could not believe that the hull was not replaced and were sorry but they could not do anything. I since have taken it to a Fiberglass Boat repair company and they have agreed with me and the Bass Pro dealer that it is and was a manufactured defect, bad workmanship. I have experience in this area of fiberglass, A Inspector for A aircraft Mfg. for over 20+ years and have certifications in this process. This is the worst experience I have had with any company that is suppose to have the best warranty for a boat hull in the business, but they just give you the business and do not honor anything they say or have in righting!!! Will not do business with this company or subsidiaries and would suggest everyone do the same.

Boat #2 -- After having our new boat for 2 and a half years, I started noticing a little bit of water when I'd pull the plug, but it wasn't much. Lied under the boat and didn't see anything that really stood out as a crack. Took the boat out fishing that summer on a Saturday and almost sank the boat. We stopped to fish an area and when we decided to leave and give the boat gas to get going, hundreds of gallons of water shifted from laying flat in the bottom of the hull, to the back of the boat coming up through the carpet and the existing mounts in the floor for other seats. You can imagine how scary that was, and I happened to have my 9-year old with me that day. We luckily made it back to the launch and upon pulling the boat out of the water, noticed 4 cracks, about 3-4" long and about an eighth of an inch wide up near the bow, and directly next to welds that are very visible, even from the outside of the hull.

Whatever stress fractures were there that I wasn't seeing must have finally tore enough in the 1-2' waves that my deep v hull SHOULD be able to handle, no problem. Now I have a few thousand dollars of electronics equipment on my boat alone, so you can imagine I'm not out there pounding waves as I was accused of by their so called customer service/warranty rep, SANDY **. After dealing with Tracker for 3 months trying to get some answers on what to do next, our season in Wisconsin was coming to an end. And let me tell you how rewarding it is to be paying on a product that during peak time, is unusable. It really is great. Tracker finally told us we had to trailer this $20,000 cracked hunk of aluminum on our own time, with our own money, down to their service center in Illinois to have it shipped back to their plant for repairs.

When they received the boat in Lebanon, MO, which is their repair center, they told us it was "unfixable." They decided that the best option was to give us a brand new hull which they claimed was a "better design" and guaranteed us that it wouldn't crack or leak like the previous two boats had in a matter of three years. It gets better...

Boat #3 -- Fished with this new hull for two years or so before the exact same nonsense began once again. Boat had water in the hull and stress cracks in the bow. Went through the hassle of dealing with the lovely SANDY ** and JEFF ** to have the boat shipped back to Lebanon for repairs. This is where it gets good. They told us that we would be out of their "limited lifetime warranty" but they would do us right by giving us a one year warranty on their work and once again, guaranteed it wouldn't happen again. Well, needless to say, it happened again one year and 22 days later. Guess what? Out of warranty now. Dealt with SANDY ** again who this time I gave a piece of my mind stating that they have a reputation for cracking and asked what were they doing about it. She told me that it was an unfair statement and with attitude, told me that my statement was flat out untrue.

I told her to take 5 minutes to enlighten herself and Google "Tracker boats cracked hulls" and to get back to me with what she finds. She then told me that my deep v hull is not made for big water such as Lake Michigan. I laughed in response and told her to call Lund or Ranger to ask if they would consider their comparable hulls to be seaworthy enough for big water. That struck a nerve and I received more attitude. We have large inland waters here in Wisconsin that at times can be worse than Lake Michigan, Lake Winnebago being a great example. So basically they are telling me that my deep v hull isn't even designed for some inland waters. I responded by asking if my boat was more of a toy and is made to strictly be run on county park ponds. Now I know it may sound childish but I'd had enough.

So they told me that they would fix my boat one last time under some "goodwill clause" that they had in place at Tracker but this would be it. This was once again all given with a side of attitude.The only catch... I have to bring the boat down, and when it's done, I have to go pick it up. You would think after 8 years of nothing but issues, it would be the least they could do. We did all the necessary paperwork and I was told there would be a guard on duty and that I could drop the boat off anytime. So I hooked up my boat, hopped in my dump truck, and drove 550 miles one way to their facility in Lebanon. Upon arrival at 12:30a.m. I was told by their on-duty guard that I should have some paperwork which is not what Sandy told me, but it didn't surprise me that they couldn't even get that right.

He then proceeded to tell me that they had no room for my boat which in response I said that the boat would be getting dropped off right in front of his guard door and they could figure something out from there. Now I'm not a very passive guy so this is all very difficult for me to deal with. If I had it my way, there would be some broken jaws by this point in the game. The guard called a supervisor who was "too busy" to come deal with us but walked the guard through how to print up a receipt stating the boat had been dropped off. I was told to drop off near the warranty door which had 27 boats in it waiting for cracked hull repairs. But they don't have a reputation for that, right?? So that is my current state, they told me 4-8 weeks and come back down to get it. I will be planning this trip to arrive at Lebanon at 8 a.m.. I will be hooking up and heading down to Springfield, MO.

Considering they won't help us anymore and I have nothing to lose, I will be walking into their front office and asking to speak directly to this SANDY ** and I will be giving her a solid piece of my mind. I'm sure she won't be expecting to see me and doesn't have this happen very often, but I feel like I owe it to myself after all of the bull crap I've put up with to speak with someone face to face. I'll get the boat back and sell it off for the lousy 3-4 thousand that it is now worth. Take that money and throw it at a Ranger. Sooo, the moral of the story is... Tracker boats are priced "well" for a reason, don't get fooled by that. I wouldn't trust a Nitro, I wouldn't even trust a Mako. They are all made by Tracker Marine. Spend the extra to get something you'll feel safe taking your family out in. Owning a Tracker boat has been my worst nightmare.

The second recall was for the center console. The letter said it could come off causing injury or death. Their fix was to add 8 bolts. Six bolts were glued into place because there are no aluminum backers in the floor where they were added. The other 2 bolts were added by drilling holes and tapping into the floor where there were aluminum backers. They also smeared 5200 adhesive sealant on the joint where the console and floor meet.

Every year rivets pull through the joint holding the deck and the hull together and have to be replaced. This year, when I took it in again to replace the rivets, they told me that unless I signed away the limited lifetime warranty on the hull, they would not repair the boat. When I refused to sign their letter, they told me to take my boat out of their shop and get a lawyer. These were the worst of a long list of problems with this boat. It is poor built and Tracker does not honor its warranty or value its customers.

I returned to Bass Pro and showed them both problems. The manager said he would order parts for brakes, but the tires that came on the trailer were cheap, and guaranteed me that if I bought new tires the problem would be fixed. I bought new tires and now the new set of tires are showing the same balding on inside of both tires and never got a call that the brake parts were in. Wow. What poor follow up by the dealer. I'm out 4 tires, no brakes and the trailer is still going to wear tires out! And I only have maybe 500 miles on the trailer. I was a VIP customer of Bass Pro but I will never spend any money in that store!!