Ok here goes my question for customizing

Ok I hope first off I am posting this in the proper forums. Would have posted in the Conversions and Modifications section but I am not close to that yet - Maybe start next weekend. If a Moderator feels to place this there thats fine.

Ok per my pic attached, Please don't make fun of my crooked lines, LOL. Not a very steady hand this morning since I just got done pulling a 12 hour night shift.

Here goes - Since reading the thread Decking-When and when not to and seeing what others have done to their 1232 jonboats this is my plans.

Benches:
First and Foremost I want to extend the benches out some, here are the measurements:
Front Bench currently 11 1/2" - Extend to 24"
Middle Bench currently 12 1/2" - Extend to 24 1/2" (6" on both sides)
Rear Bench currently 12 1/2" with 17 3/4" rear opening (total of 30 1/4") - extend to 41 1/2"
Reason for extending out the bench areas is for storage areas for tackle, rods, etc.

Floor Decking
Will use 2" Pink insulation as my ribs are approxiametely 1" tall. Grove out an inch where the ribs will sit so the insulation will sit flush to hull. Floor Decking will be 1/2" Plywood carpeted. So the floor decking will be about 2 1/2" high from hull.

Now per the pick red lines are for the bench extensions, green Lines for Floor Decking. Now the Blue line at the top is where I am kinda worried about. Not only do I want to extend the benches, but also raise them to the seam line from the top of the boat. This will give me an additional 3" from the top of the benches. Why would I want to do that? Well I want to build a rod box to store our fishing rods in on both sides of the boat. I use baitcasters and the wife uses spinning reals and this would work out perfectly if I am not in a critical position of stability or bouyancy. I was thinking of using the original seats that came with the boat but they are extended to I think 14" high so I may just mount the seats without the extensions on them.

Forgot to mention all bench framing will use 2" x 2" except for the rod boxes and I will use 1" x 4" for these. 1/2" Plywood for all decking and of course all will be Thompsin Watersealed.



Your thoughts and comments please.

Thanks much in advance.

I think you're right not to use the 14" posts with your seats. I had a 1236 and it was much too narrow for elevated seats. If you raise the benches up to the blue line to increase your storage capacity I would resist the urge to stand on them for casting. If you stand on the floor or sit on the seats at that height you'd probably be fine but a casting deck that high on a 32" boat will most likely end up with you overboard.

bobberboy,

Yeah I will either get a smaller extension for the seats like 6" or a size close to that or just mount them directly on the benches. Have to see where I am at when that time comes. Basically getting ideas. Heck I think I have read everyone's customization reports on here in the last week, lol. So ideas are there.

No we won't be using the extended benches for standing/casting, only for storage and seating. I really prefer to stay in boat and not wind up swimming :mrgreen: . Been thrown out of boat before and wasn't too cool, lol.


Now another thing I have been considering and not sure if it should be done is to remove the original 3 bench sections. If I keep the originals there that won't give me alot of space for storage hence the reason for extending them so what I will do is place floor down and mount to ribs of boat. Then mount my custom benches down to the floor as well as the sides of the boat since they will remain flush to the sides. I think it will pretty much add the strength so the boat won't twist any.

I dont recommend you use pink insulation, because if and when, and it will get water in and under it, it will be one holly mess and smell and rot the plywood. Also dont use foam because it will hold the water and do the same, unless its completly sealed, jus saying.

rusty.hook said:

I dont recommend you use pink insulation, because if and when, and it will get water in and under it, it will be one holly mess and smell and rot the plywood. Also dont use foam because it will hold the water and do the same, unless its completly sealed, jus saying.

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Thanks for your reply.

Any recommendations for insulation on the hull to add more bouyancy once the decking and bench extensions are in place? Or any recommendations period?

I am not sure you need more buoency (sp?), I would recomend to keep it simple and low. Good Luck!

rusty.hook said:

I dont recommend you use pink insulation, because if and when, and it will get water in and under it, it will be one holly mess and smell and rot the plywood. Also dont use foam because it will hold the water and do the same, unless its completly sealed, jus saying.

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When you remove the three benches/seats, then you remove basically all your insulation and thats not safe, jus saying.
The drawing below is the way I built a 14' several years ago. Covered the deck from front to back of second seat. Cut hole and dropped cooler in the middle, cut holes on each side and for storage and added plastic hatch covers. Covered back with plywood from front of back seat to almost the motor, added piana hinge all the way across so I could get to gas tank and battery. Red lines shows old bench seats. Covered all with a good light gray carpet. Now you still have all your insulation. Now you dont have rod storage, but more storage and a cooler to boot. I always take all my rods out every since they were all stolen sitting beside my house in a carport.

you also need to be concerned about the weight limit and distribution. i purchased this exact same boat from a guy that had already decked it from the front to the back of the second seat. the seats had been removed. tons of storage space, etc. great setup. until it sank last week. water got a little rough and took on too much water over the back too quickly. i purchased the boat the way it was and it didn't occur to me it would be too heavy. made the mistake of assuming the guy knew what he was doing as he claimed the boat was stable and never had an issue.

just wanted to throw that out there as something you should be concerned about. yeah, the decking and storage is great, but the experience i went through last week was not.

rockbass said:

you also need to be concerned about the weight limit and distribution. i purchased this exact same boat from a guy that had already decked it from the front to the back of the second seat. the seats had been removed. tons of storage space, etc. great setup. until it sank last week. water got a little rough and took on too much water over the back too quickly. i purchased the boat the way it was and it didn't occur to me it would be too heavy. made the mistake of assuming the guy knew what he was doing as he claimed the boat was stable and never had an issue.

just wanted to throw that out there as something you should be concerned about. yeah, the decking and storage is great, but the experience i went through last week was not.

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Did you recover your boat and gear?

rockbass, sorry to hear about your bad news, I did laugh at the way you wrote it or I read it, you seem so calm about something I might of had a heart attack over You make a great point in that sometimes these mods are just over killed a bit. Too many portable storage gizmos out there for me to over mod with compartments, less is best in MHO

rockbass, thanks for the info and sorry to hear about your loss or sinking ordeal . Would like to know too if you got everything back?

Well I am not planning on doing too much, just some seat/bench extensions and the flooring brought up about an inch to an inch and a half. The extensions on the seat will pretty much be for tackle box storage and small stuff as I won't need a livewell since we catch, photo and release. With me and the wife or son-in-law in boat I would rather have stuff stored so we won't trip over anything and cause any type of hazards or accidents.

it was not a fun experience. i was out with my 12 y/o son. the wind picked up as a storm was coming in. we packed up and started heading across the lake toward the boat launch. about half way, i turned around and realized we had too much water in the back. told my son to put the life jacket on and 30 seconds later we went down. fortunately, we had several conversations over the years about what to do in this situation. he didn't panic and did what i told him to, etc.

we had to swim about 250 yards to the shore. another mistake i made was not having a 2nd life jacket. i had sold 4 of them with other boats over the winter and kept one for my son. figured i would buy another one in the spring and just never got to it. i was in pretty rough shape and barely made it to the shore. we were rescued by another boater and i spent the day in the hospital recovering. scariest experience of my life. fortunately, everything turned out alright and we have fully recovered.

we have been boating for 3 years, but never with a modified / decking, etc. i bought it off of craigslist and mistakenly assumed the decking was ok and the guy knew what he was doing. the boat went straight to the bottom as he had removed all of the flotation foam. i have learned a lot over the past few weeks since the accident and have come to realize we were at least 200 lbs over weight, especially for the weather conditions. they were able to recover the boat (with holes) the outboard, trolling motor, and fishfinder. amazingly, they all still work, but we lost hundreds of dollars in poles and tackle.

the wife insisted i buy a new boat, lol, so i bought a 1448 semi v last week and plan to keep it very basic. simple shelves in the front for tm and battery. attaching seats to the benches and carpeting the floor. very basic, but safe. not to say i won't eventually (winter project) do something more with it, but weight and safety will be my top priority.

i was just throwing it out there as a word of caution based on my experience. this site is great and i have learned a lot from it, but i do wonder how many of the boats can actually handle the mods being done to them. especially when i see the smaller boats with a tree's worth of lumber added to them. i think a lot of us (myself included) sometimes get blinded by the want to have that cool looking bass boat and sometimes forget the basics like weight distribution, hp limit, etc.

also bass4ever, its not my intent to take over your post, lol. i just wanted to throw out the weight thing as something you should consider with a smaller boat. the whole front half of ours was decked to the top which can also change the way the boat handles. you should be ok just putting in a floor a few inches from the bottom. we had a previous setup like that and that's what i did with the new one. i hear you about the need for a little bit of storage. i am constantly reminding my son to put things away so he doesn't trip and go overboard.

rockbass said:

also bass4ever, its not my intent to take over your post, lol. i just wanted to throw out the weight thing as something you should consider with a smaller boat. the whole front half of ours was decked to the top which can also change the way the boat handles. you should be ok just putting in a floor a few inches from the bottom. we had a previous setup like that and that's what i did with the new one. i hear you about the need for a little bit of storage. i am constantly reminding my son to put things away so he doesn't trip and go overboard.

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Nah man no need to worry about taking over my post. Sorry to hear what happened and thank God you 2 made it through that ordeal. This kind of stuff makes you really realize or think, "Do I really want to go that far with modding". I am glad you posted what ya did and now I will be alittle more cautious about what to do and what to use.

Well we don't really take alot with us when we go bank fishing but on the boat for a few hours a cooler would be nice for drinks and stuff and 2 small tackle boxes as the wife uses plastics and I use cranks and Spinners, once in awhile I will throw on a jig. So she has her little setup and so do I. So we won't have alot of weight in it. We will have a TM and battery in the boat. Probably won't get a gas motor until I get a bigger boat.

Man thanks for your story and again glad to hear you are doing well except the fact of being out a few hundred $$$'s on the rods and tackle. Well back to my drawing board for some revisions, lol.

Sounds like rockbass's boat went down after it swamped due to lack of foam. We got one no vote for the sheets of foam for under Bass4Ever's floor so any other ideas for sheet flotation foam? I'm looking for something similar to go under the floor decking that adds flotation and support. I'm aware of the two part USCG foliation foam but it seem like that is only for inside a defined area. Ideas???