Grumman 1989 1542V

So my father and I had been in the boat market for about 2 years. I was a kayak fisherman and he has a 24 footer for Salmon Fishing on Lake Michigan. We decided to split the cost for a jon boat, I want it for summer bass fishing and he wants one for steelhead fishing the rivers in the winter.

So after 2 years we found a 1989 Grumman 1542 with the V front 65inch beam. It has a custom welded in flush, front deck that covers the original smaller lower front deck, . The middle bench was removed. Boat had 2 motors, a 25 lb thrust motorguide bow mount trolling motor and a 1985 Mercury 25 hp with electric start. Came on 2006 galvanized trailer. Seller needed it gone and didn't no much about boats, listed for 1650 but took are 1000 dollar offer. I'll add a picture when I get one.



Were going to hold off doing anything extra to the boat until we both fish it for a year as is. After my first month with it I love this old boat. I can move around the front deck standing no problem, had two 230lb guys fishing in it, not once was it unstable and that was standing. Boat dose 20 miles an hour easy with me and gear. Also, it fits in my apartment garage with 1 inch to spare so I have all the boat I can fit, plus my Rav4 pulls it easy.

So anyway the one concern I have is the missing bench. I would really like to not add one cause the open floor plan is ideal. Plus when steelhead fishing the big cooler acts as the third bench. I am concerned though cause there is no support right in the middle of the boat. Would adding another rib help? I am thinking about adding an aluminum sheet floor that is connected to the ribs and maybe that will help. The floor bounces quite a bit at full throttle in rough water in that spot. Any ideas or anything else I should know about this boat would be helpful.

Good deal on a nice boat.
Adding a support where the bench was is a good idea.

I don't know that you're going to support the bottom much by adding floor without also filling the void under the floor with foam.

If you can add a rib that will help - but even my boat which wasn't missing any ribs still flexed considerably between the ribs when I'm on anything choppier than looking-glass still water. I poured expanding foam under my decks, which also served stop the flexing, but makes drainage tricky.

My next boat is likely to be an Excel due to the design of running the ribs lengthwise down the bottom of the boat rather than perpendicular to the keel line as most jons are built.

I had that exact same boat, PO took the bench out but gave it to me. I reinstalled it after running it a few times thinking I'd like the bench being in the boat. I noticed zero difference. It was flimsy either way. Much better than some, but does not even start to compare to the welded boat that I have now.

The plan is to add some cross aluminum bracing running perpendicular to brace in between ribs. Then I want to fit pink board in all the gaps between the ribs and put an 1/8 aluminum floor in. If the pink board is a little over-sized it will be compressed at tad hopefully adding a bit of rigidity to the floor area. I did notice from searching that it seemed a lot of people owned this boat before and then upgraded, but I'm pretty happy with it as a starter boat.

Out of curiosity - what is the USCG sticker show the HP rating on a 1542v to be? I'm looking for a host for a 50hp remote steering outboard and I want to get the lightest wide bottomed boat I can find for it - and if it means going to a 15' then so be it.

onthewater102 said:

Out of curiosity - what is the USCG sticker show the HP rating on a 1542v to be? I'm looking for a host for a 50hp remote steering outboard and I want to get the lightest wide bottomed boat I can find for it - and if it means going to a 15' then so be it.

Click to expand...

My sticker is just a white patch at this point. Can you get new ones? I looked it up online though and the rating is 25 horse power.

Mine had a tag in it. Best I could tell, it said 25 hp max. It was faded pretty badly, but I'm almost certain 25hp is what was on it. I ran it with a great big ol' heavy Yamaha F25.

Thanks - excel discontinued the boat I wanted, so I've got to figure something else out. At least I know it will be bigg r than 1542 now.

my 1989 model tracker boat floor is flexing or moving a lot when im am going at a pretty good speed the only time it doesnt is when the water is slick as glass....should i be concerned about this flexing or do older boats just do this?

You might want to pull a section of the floor and check for cracked ribs.