What is this?

Hello to everyone. Just found and joined tinboats. Bought my first aluminum boat yesterday. 82 Loweline 14ft. I am amazed at the information on this site.

If you could tell what this strange box is I would appreciate it very much. The guy I bought from had no idea. Thanks

Welcome Aboard! 8) .

I'm thinking maybe a fuel tank. :-k . Is that a hole in the top of it?

Yes it is a hole with an old plastic plug. It will break to pieces if I try to take it out.

Does it look like there might have been an identical box on the other side of the boat? Could have been/might have floatation foam in it.

There is an open area on the other side. It looks like it was made that way. I would not think it would have needed more flotation, but I guess I need to pull the plug and look inside.

Take a look at many new jon boats. You will find that a lot have similar boxes in the back. The overhead view often looks as if they are the same height as the stern bench, but they don't always. On a G3 1436 I did some work on for a guy last year, the two boxes were a good inch lower than the stern bench.

There for a couple of reasons. First of all, it has some of the strength for the boat. A box like that acts as a gusset both in the transom and floor plane as well as the transom and gunwale plane. Being a formed box, filled with foam, the same rigidity can be achieved with much thinner (read cost effective) material. Furthermore, and the main reason for the boxes today (though possibly not in the era your boat was built), the flotation regulations require, in the case of being swamped, the boat to remain level. Given that the weight of the outboard, fuel tank, and often battery is in the stern, more flotation is needed there, as opposed to spaced out just in the benches.

Interesting.. I was planning on putting something similar in my mod if the space allows for it. Seems like a great (and easy) insurance project.

That makes sense. I am gonna leave it alone for now. Maybe someone has a boat around the same age that has two mystery boxes and will post a reply. Thanks for your thoughts.

My boat has those too, with the same type of plug. They are just filled with foam for floatation. I would agree with leaving them to help reinforce the transom.

I looked closely at the other side and you can tell that there was a box on that side too.

Alright, thanks for your help! I will post pictures of the boat after I spiff it up a bit.