What About the Weight?

Hi everyone,

I recently got this wild and crazy idea about a boat. What if I bought a cheap jon boat, and modified it to exactly what I'm looking for in a boat? Wow, the possibilities began flowing, and I became excited as I thought about the fun I would have working on the boat and how rewarding it would be to fish from it. Thinking that surely somebody else has thought about doing this, I went to the net and found this site. Now, I'm extremely excited about the possibilities, especially after reading through the forums.

I'm at square one, or maybe -1 (I don't have a boat to modify yet). I guess my first question to the community would be, how much extra weight does the deck, live well, etc. mods add to your boat? Is there anything you can do besides buy a bigger boat so that you don't lose load capacity? I would like to be able to carry 3 fishermen, outboard, trolling motor, batteries, and fishing gear, but the jons I've looked at so far only have about 500-600 lb capacities. I'm afraid that would extremely limit my mods or my fishing buddy room. What are your thoughts....and thanks for the help!

Cove_Crawler said:

Hi everyone,

I recently got this wild and crazy idea about a boat. What if I bought a cheap jon boat, and modified it to exactly what I'm looking for in a boat? Wow, the possibilities began flowing, and I became excited as I thought about the fun I would have working on the boat and how rewarding it would be to fish from it. Thinking that surely somebody else has thought about doing this, I went to the net and found this site. Now, I'm extremely excited about the possibilities, especially after reading through the forums.

I'm at square one, or maybe -1 (I don't have a boat to modify yet). I guess my first question to the community would be, how much extra weight does the deck, live well, etc. mods add to your boat? Is there anything you can do besides buy a bigger boat so that you don't lose load capacity? I would like to be able to carry 3 fishermen, outboard, trolling motor, batteries, and fishing gear, but the jons I've looked at so far only have about 500-600 lb capacities. I'm afraid that would extremely limit my mods or my fishing buddy room. What are your thoughts....and thanks for the help!

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3?! idk man. u could prob. pull it off. but it will be crowded.

A wide 16 footer should do alright, aside from the crowded factor. What kind of fishing are y'all doing? If it is a constant chunk and retrieve while bass fishing, I would say you are crazy. You couldn't fish 3 out of my buddies Ranger real well. But, if you are fishing for cats or crappie or such, a well thought out 1652 should do you dandy.

Yeah, with 3, it would be mostly crappie fishing. How much extra weight does a deck, live well mod job add to a boat?

Cove_Crawler said:

Yeah, with 3, it would be mostly crappie fishing. How much extra weight does a deck, live well mod job add to a boat?

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srry but idk. im still tryin to figure out my decking sceme. but im sure other ppl could help u. by the way..

WELCOME! lol

I love reading these posts about what can be done. if the boat is rated for 500 /600 lbs you need to think about the total weight.
outboard motor and gas tank 75lbs
2 batteries @60lbs each 120bs
trolling motor 15lbs
fishing gear 15llbs
that's 225 lbs leaving you 275 lbs for 3 guys
the deck won't work you will be way over the rating plate
and could face a stiff fine ..
rating pates are not a guide that can be disregarded


Wayne

You're absolutely right about observing and obeying the plate capacity numbers. That's why I was curious about the extra weight that modding puts on a boat. I don't want to buy a jon, mod it out, and then only have 200 pounds of capacity to play with or something like that.

You might consider getting a V bottom boat. Here is my Lowe Sea Nymph V 14' project.
https://www.tinboats.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=1319

Its capacity is 985lbs and 680lbs/5person. It is not at all uncomfortable to fish three, you just have to make your movements slow and intentions known. If anything decking it has made it more stable feeling and I have not noticed any difference in its speed or handling of rough water. If you want to keep the size of the boat down and have a high capacity, I think you will have to give a V or deep V a look. On a side note, after fishing from the boat now about half a dozen times on the Delaware river in Philly where barge/tug combos are a daily reality I am glad (especially when I have my kids aboard) that I didn't deck to the tops of the seats. Having a lower place to get to when things get rough is invaluable and hasn't taken anything away from the fishability at all.





In mine the weight looks more like this:
Decking/seats etc Approx 100lbs
Outboard motor and gas tank 75lbs
1 battery 60lbs
Trolling motor 15lbs (only some trips)
Fishing gear 15llbs
Anchor n rode = 15lbs

Total = 280 motor/gear leaving me still the reccomended person capacity with a little wiggle room.

Once again Backpain - very sweet ride!

Sea Nymph makes a great boat

Lowe's Sea Nymph's are a great boat


Thanks Jim

I only bring it up because it can indeed be done making a small three man craft that is safe and stable. But you have to be very careful to pick the right boat. I could see three guys crappie fishing from my boat, but there are a great number of 14' boats that have much lower capacities. So bottom line, do your homework on what you will be carrying in weight, and look for a boat that meets those capacities, they do exist.

=D> Wow, that is a sweet rig. That's exactly the kind of set up I had in mind.