Tour of the Ranger Boat Factory, Flippin, AR

On 24-MAR, Rosie and I had the chance to tour the Ranger boat factory in Flippin, AR. We were having our Ranger boat serviced in Bull Shoals which is right down the road from Flippin. Our tour guide was Mickey Woods; the Woods family started Ranger boats.

The plant typically employs about 800 people. However, with the downturn in the economy, the employment has been cut to about 500. It was also interesting that Ranger doesn't build inventory anymore. Every boat made in the factory has already been sold via one of the Ranger dealers. Each boat is being made "to order."

It takes about 6 days and 400 man hours to make a Ranger boat. That's a lot of labor. The making of a Ranger bass boat is very labor intensive. We didn't get to take pictures in the areas where the hulls and decks were made due to the solvent fumes. However, the process was very interesting.

I really thought how the hulls and decks were painted was really unique. Each deck and hull has a mold. The paint is sprayed into the mold as it is designed to appear on the surface of the boat; followed by a coat of black paint. After the inside of the mold is painted, the polymer is sprayed into the mold and allowed to cure. There are multiple steps and layers that form the deck and hull. However, when the cured polymer hull or deck is removed from it's mold, the surface is painted. That was really cool.

Here are some pictures from the "finishing area." The deck has been mated to the hull and the electronics, motors, etc. are being installed - all by hand.Here's a picture of Rosie and me with Mickey; he was a great tour guide and as you would expect, very knowledgeable about the boat business. Ranger makes not only bass boats but also salt water, walleye, and recreational boats. The walleye boats are their biggest seller with last year's number one dealer in Minnesota. Behind us are new Ranger boats being finished out per the new owners' requests.Here's a cutaway from a finished Ranger boat. All the open spaces between the deck and hull are filled with foam.Finally, here's a picture of Rosie by a 1974 Ranger bass boat. Obviously, bass boats have changed tremendously on the past 30+ years.We had a great time touring the Ranger factory. We both came away feeling even better about our decision to buy a Ranger boat. They really build a quality product from start to finish. It's a bummer that they didn't give out free samples - we would have been glad to take one.