Floation foam or bilge pump?

I have a 12' aluminum that I am mod-ing. If I decide to use a bilge pump in case of emergency, do I still need the foam?

The foam I have is the original form 1969 and is big chunks that take up a bunch of room. If I 100% need to put it back, is there something more effective than this old stuff?

Thanks guys.

BOTH!!! If you get rid of the foam and something happens to the bidge pump (malfuctions do happen) then you're up a creek and taking on water! My foam in my boat is old like yours too. I tried to keep or relocate as much as i could but in the end i threw a little away. I also added a bilge pump. If you wanted to replace the old foam with something you could do it a few different ways... 1. 2 part pour foam (good but messy and expensive), 2. Pink or blue foam sheets from the hardware stores (i used one of these in my build), or 3. Pool Noodles... yes i'm serious.

+1

I brought a 16' jon years ago with the middle seat/foam removed. I ended up using pool noddles under the wood floor thus only filling up open space. I also installed a bilge pump. Me I never figured I'd ever need the foam and a bilge pump, I've been fishing these lakes since the the 60's. Then I hit something submerged(evening before a storm had gone thru) and put a hole in the bottom of my boat. Made it back 2 miles to the dock sitting in water, but still floating. With out the blige pump and foam, I might have been swimming back without the boat. The hole's since been welded and the boats as good as new. All my mods will always include foam and bilge pump. You'll never need them till that one time.

Thanks arkansasnative and po1!! You are right. Better safe than sorry. Thanks for the advice po1, its always that "one time". Better to be prepared for it than screwed.

Btw I laughed at the pool noodles, then realized, why not!

A follow up question to that is: If I replace the old with something...how would I know how much to use? Would I just use the same volume? ie if my blocks are say 1x1x3 = 3cu ft x 3 blocks = 9 cu. ft. total. Would I replace with the same amount of cubic feet?

I am assuming yes, but I didnt know if pool noodles, for example, have more buoyancy than this old Styrofoam that i have.

Chances are that your old foam has lost some of it's effectiveness thru age and getting waterlogged. Going with the same volume would be the best bet. For the buoyancy of these pool noodles one only needs to go down to the local swimming hole to see their effectiveness.

There isn't one thing more buoyant than another. To be effective you will need to replace it with at least the same amount - usually 9-12 cubic feet for a 12-14 Jon.

The foam thing is heavily debated on here often. The thing with it is that if there isn't at least enough to keep the boat, your gear, your weight and motor weight floating than it is completely useless and you may as well have none.

For that reason a lot of guys just put insurance on the boat and take the chance. In that case if you get swamped, gun the motor and have a fast bilge pump.

Bilge pumps stop pumping for many reasons.

Proper foam always floats. No electricity needed.

I used pool noodles and pink foam board. You can get them (noodles) at the $ store. They are a closed cell foam unlike the white stryofoam which can become waterlogged. I know I reduced the weight of my boat by a couple hundred lbs. when I removed that stuff. I did not know it could get so heavy.

Jdholmes said:

The thing with it is that if there isn't at least enough to keep the boat, your gear, your weight and motor weight floating than it is completely useless and you may as well have none.

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I'd have to disagree with that statement.
Lets say you have a boat that was overloaded for the amount of foam it had installed in it by 50lbs too much. Of course if you pull the plug it's going to sink to the bottom.

Now you've got the same boat and gear except there is 0 foam installed. It's going to sink when you pull the plug also.

Which situation do you think you would rather be in when it comes time to salvage that boat off the bottom of the lake? I promise you that lifting what would essentially be a 50 lb weight vs trying to lift the full dead weight of a boat and motor would make you extremely happy that you had installed what ever foam you did install.

I don't know about lifting it from the bottom of the lake...i don't think that's relevant to the original question though. Especially for my lakes. . If my boat sinks in lake mead it's staying there. Haha, I guess that's what insurance is for.

My point was in regards to keeping the boat from sinking in the first place. To me if it is sunk the battle is lost.

Yea, I think it's relative to waters you fish in. LoL If mine sank in the lakes I generally fish, I'd be renting some scuba gear and going for a dive with a long rope (assuming I didn't have enough foam but I'm pretty sure I do). There's one lake that I've fished a few times that depending on where I was on the lake at the time it sank, it could be a lost cause though. Scuba is only rated for 120ft max depth. :lol:

Flotation calculator article

https://newboatbuilders.com/pages/flotdiag.html

Richg99 Thank you so much for the calculator!!!

Ill definitely be putting the foam back in. I cant wait to come home with a bunch of pool noodles and have my wife look at me like I lost my marbles.

Thanks everyone else for their responses.

Little hint for the pool noodles... as you cut them down to fit in a space, say a bench seat, cut them all down to size and then cut them in half long ways making a C-shaped piece of foam. They will be able to "link" in the notches of each other and you will be able to get more foam in the space!

arkansasnative said:

Little hint for the pool noodles... as you cut them down to fit in a space, say a bench seat, cut them all down to size and then cut them in half long ways making a C-shaped piece of foam. They will be able to "link" in the notches of each other and you will be able to get more foam in the space!

Click to expand...

NICE!