Float pods , hinged

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Sparky508

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I had found where a gentleman had done this somwhere. So on the shoulders of giants, here I go.
I want to add a little flotation to my jon, I fish alone a bit, and even with batteries and gear up front, she sits a bit low when I'm in the rear fishing. Also planning on putting a 4 stroke 9.9 on her so a little more weight coming soon.

All the reading in the world says, hang em wrong and loose speed, or loose flotation, cant have both.
So with these mounted on actuators, I can get a bit of throw out of them. Buried for max flotation, and maybe a little braking action for trolling with my main motor, and raises up with a pretty nice upward angle to keep em from digging and letting me get the bow up. Water skiers seem to love creating a huge wake for me to cross as I motor in at the end of the day on a couple of my favorite lakes.

One of my questions is will this gap on the side of the pods cause me fits? The bottoms will have that angled aluminium to make a "smooth" transition from the hull to the pod, and hide the hinge a bit. Thinking a piano hinge will hold em allright and if not can be replaced with something more better. Have some 1/4" AL plate to stiffin up the pod for the actuator and hinge mount, so hinge would be weakest point I believe.

What do y'all think?
 

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This seems like overkill. If you can provide more info about your setup and some pics, there is a much better chance you can solve your problems without this.

But from an pure engineering perspective, I'm extremely curious!

Sent from my SM-G973U using Tapatalk

 
Lowe 1436 riveted jon. Pics is before bow mounted trolling motor with remote steering and speed control. Control box is for steering, speed and pod actuators.

Might be overkill, but its fun! Parts are cheap, well the pods were 300bucks, and that's half what I paid for the boat!

She runs shallow when balanced, 2 people. I can pole through 8-10" of water.

Alone, the trolling motor likes to chop water when I lean over to deal with the port side downrigger. Pods ought to help with that too.
 

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Nice idea! You might want to connect the top better, so if you hit something sideways it won't tear off the hinges.
 
Cedar, do you mean the actuators to the pods? Or the hinges to the pods?
The hinges which have a 1/4" pin, and the actuator will be mounted to a 3/16" AL plate? that will be bolted to the pod to spread out the load. Is that what your saying?

Also I guess if the hinges broke, that would be the best outcome. As far as sacrificial parts, I'd rather that ripped then anything else.

Thinking 1/4-20 hardware all around. 3m5200 between parts to keep em dry.
 

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Just saying that if it can break off, it will happen to me. We boat in adverse conditions & have been pinned against a log jam with 10 mph current, etc.
 
Huh kind of a double duty. If I understand your objectives: At just about any speed at all these would act as hydraulic trim tabs. At rest or slow trolling they would be for floatation to trim the boat more bow down.

Well, it is kind of different but hey, they laughed at the Wright Brothers, so who knows, maybe you have something revolutionary here. I look forward to hearing how they work for you.
 
Yes sir exactly!
Like trim tabs that provide flotation. The guy who I saw do this had a larger boat, never did see how it worked out.

My concern though is will that gap between the side of the hull and the pod cause any issue?
 
Yes sir exactly!
Like trim tabs that provide flotation. The guy who I saw do this had a larger boat, never did see how it worked out.

My concern though is will that gap between the side of the hull and the pod cause any issue?

This is the pod and its lower position so not at speed, but even up it would have about an inch or so of gap.
 

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That gap could cause some turbulence. Maybe install an overlapping panel? You can temporarily attach it with adhesive caulk. Doesn't even need to be metal.
 
I don't think that gap matters. If you're moving slow, it's not important. If you're moving fast, the side of your float pods will be in an empty space and not in the water.

I actually like this idea. A combination float pod and trim tab. I'm not sure that it will turn out to be useful but it's a cool experiment. Let us know how it works.
 
After much hand wringing, I managed to get the access holes and covers done today. At a stopping point until my hinge gets here. ( Ended up with a steel one instead of an AL hinge.)

The access covers really stiffen up the top. It will also be where I mount the lower end of the actuators to the pods. There bolted to a piece if angled aluminium that is tapped, and held in place by 2 through bolted 1/4-20s . Probably do the same thing to mount the hinge, but I'll through bolt the whole hinge, and skip the tapping part.
 

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I just bumped into this thread.

At one time, I put Smart Tabs on a Carolina Skiff. I was very happy with the results.

Your approach is similar, except for the added pods. I surely don't know, but my gut feel is that the pods will get torn off if put under any real speed...configured the way I think they are set up.

Now, if the hinge were on the Bottom of the pod, there wouldn't be any dangerous gap to worry about.

It is great to see such experimentation. Go for it.
 
I put a set of pods I made on a 1436 just to see how the boat would react to them but mine where through bolted to the transom and stationary. My own feeling about them having the gap is that when you're underway the gap will create an area that tends to suck the water in causing drag, to me that's why it's not done commercially. I've been kicking around the idea of putting full size pods on the back of my 16 foot flat bottom but make them as tall as the transom. This will give me additional flotation and make it possible to mount a larger motor if I want and increase load carrying capacity. Also, when you shut down the motor quickly from being underway they will help keep the water from trying to come over the transom, acting like a bobber.

If you wanted to, you could try hinging them at the top instead of the bottom, that would let the water escape easier. You could attach some rubber between the side of the pods and the transom on each side to keep the water from trying to collect in the gap area. I don't think the pods will increase the stability side to side any appreciable amount though.
 
Got a little more done. Just need that damned hinge!
 

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"Now, if the hinge were on the Bottom of the pod, there wouldn't be any dangerous gap to worry about."


X2. hinges have to be on the bottom of the pods.

With all this going on I wonder if there will there be room to mount a transducer back there.
 
Hinges are on the bottom of the pods, mounting to the angle in the picks, which is near flush to the hull. Or will be when they get here...... it's the gap on the side of the pod that I was initially concerned about. The bottom will be relatively smooth in the waterline.

Once I get the hinges and actuators all mounted up, and see what kind of throw I'm getting, I'll play with the transducer mount. Pending which actuator I use, ( have a couple to play with), and the angles I get. I'm thinking possibly about using a micro actuator to adjust the angle of the transducer. Back fed from that pods control, I could automatically keep it level as it ran through its course of travel. Might need a potentiometer to adjust the speed.

Or perhaps it could be flexibly mounted to a pod while using a gas strut to keep it at a preset angle as the pod articulates.
 

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Re hinge at bottom. Got it! Good choice.

Regarding the side openings... I think they will catch water, especially in sharp turns. How about L shaped pieces that are wider than the maximum opening? They, of course, will also catch some water, but less so than a one inch opening.
 
Got the hinges and actuators all mounted up. Here's more pictures showing the positions at each end. Need to get them wired into their switches yet and seal up the access covers. Takes about 10 seconds to adjust from one extreme to the other.
 

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