KingFisher 2025 Escape HT British Columbia

KingFisher 2025 Escape HT Walkaround Video By Tim Panasiuk

Check out the video here: https://youtu.be/_lJAJALxfdI

Tim Panasiuk with Gibbons Motor Toys. Today we're going to show you the KingFisher 2025 HT stands for a hard top What's what's nice about this boat. It's you know the hardtop has become very popular over the years for obvious reasons. Comfort protection and just for the person that wants to get out in the water early in the season and extend their season late into the fall.

This boat is 20 feet long. Pretty much right from the bow to the stern, which does not include the swim platform or the engine bracket. That bracket is about 28 inches long. So that's over and above the 20 feet in length. It's got an eight foot 96 inch beam. It's quite an 82 inch bottom. It's got just under three foot sides, aluminum thickness, your eighth of an inch .125 on the sides, and .190, which is three sixteenths of an inch on the bottom of the hull as every KingFisher we've got the formed in reverse chine that goes right from the bow to the stern And again, that's formed into the hull.

It's not welded on, it's not added afterwards. It's welded into the hull. Another feature that we sometimes forget to point out to our customers is the paint. You'll notice that the paint stops about an inch and a half from the bottom of the chine. There's a good reason for that. You pull this boat up on a beach. What's going to happen is, is that, you know, most often the wind's going to take it.

It's going to be sideways on the shore and potentially you're going to get chips right on the bottom of that paint while leaving this just raw aluminum keeps this paint job looking like this many years down the road. This is got an EZloader 4700 pound trailer. So that's a good heavy duty trailer for this size of boat.

We've also got slick bunks to make it easier for loading and unloading. Rollers are just simply not necessary. The slick bunks are slippery and just makes for an easier experience doing that. Looking at the stern of the boat, this has got a 16 degree dead rise. So this hull has changed over the years. There's been a number of different configurations.

But with the 16 degree dead rise with the keel the way that it's formed in what KingFisher has found is that this has improved the stability of the whole while still offering a nice soft ride TrimTabs are standard an all 20 foot escape series boats and larger the engine bracket as you can see can accommodate a kicker. And you can add that kicker bracket to either the port or the starboard side. This boats also equipped

if you look at the steering cylinder here so that's got the EPS steering system electronic power steering. It's an expensive option but something well worth considering. One thing that people need to consider is that the one thing that you use the very most in your boat any time it's in motion is your steering system. So we can do a separate video on that.

But I just wanted to point out that the EPS steering system is something that's gaining in popularity for the advantages that it brings This has got the rear transom rail. It's got the slopper curtain, which will pull off here to show you the inside of the minute. But the rear slope at a hardtop is a great is a great touch.

This boat can now sit outside, snow, rain, whatever you have for weather. And the boat's going to stay dry and sealed. Pop inside the 20, 25 hardtop. The first thing to point out is the walk through transom. This is a really clever design. So as you can see, you got a full height transom here for the protection and rough seas.

When you want to exit the boat, just simply flip this down and you got yourself a really easy step to deal with here. So that's a real key feature on these boats. There's a storage under the console here. Lots of storage. We flush mounted the Simrad display here. You also got room on the dash for various components if you want.

There's two cup holders obviously our kicker controls. On the roof we've got eight rod holders. We've also got a ski tow mounted up here, which works really well The door is also a nice touch. It latches really firm with a stainless steel hinge. So the quality of the door function for opening and closing and staying secure and not rattling under way is a key feature as well as we do have infloor storage.

Now, I'm going to call this wet storage back here because potentially you could get this is the bottom of the hull. This customers got down rigger sitting here. You can put whatever you want back here. Fenders, ropes, down riggers as he does whatever you want that can potentially be damp. As far as the side storage trays. Again, like every kingfisher we've talked about the aluminum rolled edges add strength, rigidity and easy on the legs and knees.

This has got a high pressure wash down. You have the rod holder grippers on the side. This is your live well. So first of all, it's got a cutting. The lid is a cutting table. You could see that to we've, this is kind of clever, very simple. So you can put pliers, knives. So a nice place to keep those tools.

Live well, has a divider in it, if you choose to leave that in. It's got a drain tube here so it can recirculate. You can use this. You know, a lot of people think, well, I don't need a live wall on the interior lakes of BC well, a lot of people that end up on the salt check this a great place for crab as an example.

So it's not just fish or the cold fish. It's can be used for several different things. You can use it as an ice chest if you want. On the transom of the boat we've got this extra additional storage. Again, good quality sliding hardware and good hinges so that when it's locked, it's secured. Access to the bilge is very nice.

You got a large lid that gets out of the way to give you a large open space. And here you got access to your batteries. This has got dual batteries, obviously. Your battery switches up here. But look how neat the wiring is. Everything is labeled really easy to service this if needed in the field. And again, access to your bilge pump, your high pressure wash down your fuel filter.

Everything is really easy to get out here. Moving into the cabin, the first thing you'll notice that's different with the hard top because remember the 2025 escape and the 2025 hardtop are essentially the same hull. However, there's a few little differences and one of them is with the seating. You'll notice that these boxes are raised this amount to versus the soft top.

And the reason for that is, is so that occupants get better visibility. With the hard top, you've got approximately probably close to eight inches here before the window starts versus on the soft talk. You're going to be looking over the gunnels so therefore these seats have been raised. These back bench seats, this is an option. This if you look at these aluminum pieces here with the slots those are designed those aluminum bars go in here.

These seats all form into a bed, easily done so you can sleep, two people there. As far as the seats in this bow to this customer's chosen, the river master seats. The river masters are top end seat. They've got the armrests that fold up and down. And this has got the shock wave suspension. So the shock wave suspension seat is the best on the market.

It's just a very reliable system that you can actually adjust the air pressure to accommodate your weight. So it's, again, just your highest end. It's never going to squeak it's going to be maintenance free for years. Moving to the dash, as with other KingFisher boats, they've tried to make as much storage space as possible. So just a little stuff.

They built this dam here. So if you want to place stuff on the dash, it's not going to slide off. You've got a couple of cupholders, there. This boats got a stereo in it, which we've added. So you've got a speaker there on the boat, the port and the starboard side. We've got the checker play touch pads here for your feet to go on when you're riding in rough water.

And again, a huge glove box. You can see my arm can bury in there. This is the pump for the shock wave seats that we talked about. Drivers helm again this is got an upgraded 13 and a half inch stainless steel wheel with the suicide knob that works really well with that steering system we talked about earlier this will accommodate up to a 12 inch flush mount and you still got room for the mercury vessel view and the Optimus steering pad this boat still being rigged you could see there's a VHF radio going here as well. We've got the fusion stereo.

We've got our trim tab panel here so plenty of room plus you still got all this dash space here to throw other personal items on. Looking at the roof, we've got storage up here, which is again, good dry storage on both sides. We've got an interior light. We've got a stainless steel bus bar here to grab on to

again, if you're standing up on rough water. Storage underneath the bow, this is dry storage. So it's finished. This is the filler cushion for the bed that we talked about. But if you can see in there, this is all lined and it's totally finished. So I always encourage people to put their light gear up here if they want to keep dry your extra clothing, etc. Great place for that type of storage. In the drop bow,

basically, this is the same as most KingFisher. So this is a self draining drop bow. You could see you got drain holes in the corners. Those are large waters get evacuate this very quickly. You've also got a slot here for your anchor ropes so that you can have your anchor secured and still throw it in there and close the lid.

So there's plenty of anchor storage there. You got the heavy duty welded cleats here and on the side of the boat, as we've talked about in the past, this boat you can get with offshore stain steel bow rails or the standard, these are an option. But this would be the standard height bow rails. The hard top also offers additional storage.

You can put paddle boards or an inflatable, a small one on here you've got the stainless steel rails for tying down, too. So again, another advantage of a hard top is additional storage on the roof. As always, if you like this video, please subscribe to our YouTube channel. And thank you for watching