Hi guys, first post new to this site, I bought a 99' bass tracker with no engine a few months ago, in hopes of just slapping a outboard jet on it, we'll it was not that simple. I bought the boat for a grand, it had a trolling motor, console and merc controls, just what I wanted. When I got it home I started to tear up the floor boards, because I wanted to replace the old carpet, and I noticed all of the foam was waterlogged. That opened up a can of worms,
Here's a little previous history, I live right on the youghiogheny river in southwest pa, I have always had tin John boats, and in the summer the river gets pretty skinny , I got sick of not being able to access good fishing because of skinny water, and I jumped the gun and bought this bass tracker at the end of the summer in hopes of having a jet boat. Little did I know about all of the cool jet boats on this site like blazer, alweld,etc. I would of just waited and bought on of them, but its to late for that now here it goes.
I bought a 90 hp mariner and found a jet kit for it on yakaz. The jet kit was used only 3 times and the motor tested good compression, I opted to make my own jackplate , I did not want any setback because of the additional strain on the transom, the boat is only rated for 40hp, I made it out of 4 by3 by1\2 inch angle, and I made a plate for the inside to try to stiffen everything up as much as possible . Then I tore up all of the old carpet, wood decking, and waterlogged foam. I wanted to keep the boat as light as possible so I bought aluminum sheeting and 1 inch square tube . I put .063 on the floor. And .080 for the front deck , I used the one inch square tube to extend the front deck back 2 ft to the console,
Took it out one time before I started tearing it apart, it ran good but their was just to much weight in the rear, so I decided to move the batteries and 12 gallon gas tank up front.
Ps: sorry I need to rearrange the pictures!
More pics to come I ordered hydro turf instead of carpet , and I am finishing making the hatches in the deck and riveting everything back in place.
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Here's a little previous history, I live right on the youghiogheny river in southwest pa, I have always had tin John boats, and in the summer the river gets pretty skinny , I got sick of not being able to access good fishing because of skinny water, and I jumped the gun and bought this bass tracker at the end of the summer in hopes of having a jet boat. Little did I know about all of the cool jet boats on this site like blazer, alweld,etc. I would of just waited and bought on of them, but its to late for that now here it goes.
I bought a 90 hp mariner and found a jet kit for it on yakaz. The jet kit was used only 3 times and the motor tested good compression, I opted to make my own jackplate , I did not want any setback because of the additional strain on the transom, the boat is only rated for 40hp, I made it out of 4 by3 by1\2 inch angle, and I made a plate for the inside to try to stiffen everything up as much as possible . Then I tore up all of the old carpet, wood decking, and waterlogged foam. I wanted to keep the boat as light as possible so I bought aluminum sheeting and 1 inch square tube . I put .063 on the floor. And .080 for the front deck , I used the one inch square tube to extend the front deck back 2 ft to the console,
Took it out one time before I started tearing it apart, it ran good but their was just to much weight in the rear, so I decided to move the batteries and 12 gallon gas tank up front.
Ps: sorry I need to rearrange the pictures!
More pics to come I ordered hydro turf instead of carpet , and I am finishing making the hatches in the deck and riveting everything back in place.
