1998-2001 Tige V drives?
 

I've seen a few of these on the market in the Midwest, how do the compare with the other v drives?

They are comparable to other boats of the era. That is when Tige said they didn't need ballast so there will be no stock ballast systems. The Metcraft towers are known to be problematic so make sure you check them over well for cracks at the welds. Also they were still using wood in that era so check well for rot.

They are a very heavy boat. As mentioned above their towers were awful. Rattle traps and prone to failure. All in all the merc engines are easy to get serviced and the boats are an avg boat nothing special. Not really great at any one sport, not not terrible either. There are better boats out there , but if priced right and well taken care of I wouldn't pas one up if someone was looking to get into their first comp boat/v drive to start boarding with.

had an 1998 Tige pre2200. It had no stock ballast, Tige's back before 2008 or 2009 defied gravity, fluid dynamics, physics, and any common sense and truly did not need ballast. Just lift the TAPS plate and you have a pro sized wake....

Okay, for real though. I had a stock 3 blade prop, had about 3000 lbs of ballast in it (all lead-wake and fat sacks) and the 315 HP motor. It had a good to pretty good wake. It was rampy and similar width as a pre 2005 malibu vlx. I really loved that wake, easy to ride, wasn't huge but it was big. It was a little bit more side-to side finicky than my Axis is, but most wakes are. Nothing like the mastercraft 205's or nautique 210's of similar era though. (would take either of those boats over the tige though).

It is a wood boat, wood floors, wood stringers, and there were some issues, but had an aftermarket tower that was excellent. I hear that the tige wakes of that era were crap (the 2100's and the 21 v's etc...) but this hull was not crap, it was really easy to set up, very consistent, and I am guessing from all the feedback from other previous Tige owners of this era, the pre2200 might be the only good wake hull out there.

You should be able to pick one up for less than $20k all day long with tandem extreme trailer.

This is correct. My buddy went from an A22 to a tige 2300v. The wake looks decent with no ballast and the boat surfs good with a little listing. It doesn't compare to the wakes of the new era but it definitely looked good for most people to do all their tricks on. I havent rode it yet so I cant tell you if it is firm or not.

I had a 2001 21V and another guy in our group has had one since new. Wide beam and roomy for the era compared to other brands of the same year. I wouldn't be overly concerned about the wood construction, wood problems seem to be more problematic when your talking about 1980's nautiques and such.