OEM foam in seats

Considering making a battery compartment in one of my side seats that is filled with foam. I've always heard guys say, "don't cut the foam out of your seats, that's for flotation!" My question is, doesn't that only come into play if your boat is capsized? In that case, I'm thinking I'd have a lot bigger problems to worry about than whether my wrecked boat was floating or not. :LOL2:

All it takes is one @$s hat in a ballast carrying ski-boat to buzz you too close and you can take water over the bow. That foam is the difference between having a swamped boat giving you a nuisance getting back to shore vs. a thousand dollars or more worth of motor, boat and gear sitting on the bottom.

If you take foam out of one area add foam equally elsewhere that it will support a load in the area you removed it from.

IE if you remove a cubic foot of foam from your rear bench (which supports the weight of the engine) adding a cu. ft. of foam to the bow isn't going to do you any favors - better off adding 1/2 cubic foot (or more) to each side of the boat in the rear.

onthewater102 said:

All it takes is one @$s hat in a ballast carrying ski-boat to buzz you too close and you can take water over the bow. That foam is the difference between having a swamped boat giving you a nuisance getting back to shore vs. a thousand dollars or more worth of motor, boat and gear sitting on the bottom.

If you take foam out of one area add foam equally elsewhere that it will support a load in the area you removed it from.

IE if you remove a cubic foot of foam from your rear bench (which supports the weight of the engine) adding a cu. ft. of foam to the bow isn't going to do you any favors - better off adding 1/2 cubic foot (or more) to each side of the boat in the rear.

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Um, thanks, but it'd take a pretty serious wake to put water over my bow. A barge might be able to do it. I'd probably have the sense to get outta the way of a barge though! :lol:

Yeah even serious skiers are getting wrecked and boats swamped by the ballasted buthole surfers out in the morning. I hope this trend fades.
we always try to keep wake low for skiing, and give fishermen a good radius, and run long straight lines, but seems there is no courtesy with the type.

GottaSki said:

Yeah even serious skiers are getting wrecked and boats swamped by the ballasted buthole surfers out in the morning. I hope this trend fades.
we always try to keep wake low for skiing, and give fishermen a good radius, and run long straight lines, but seems there is no courtesy with the type.

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Ok, my apologies, I fish shallow rivers, I'm not familiar with ballast surfing so I googled it. True, I see your point those are indeed some pretty serious wakes. Thankfully I don't have to deal with that on the Upper Susquehanna. Worst thing I have to deal with is some Kevin Van Dam wannabe fishing in some $500 tournament who thinks he owns the river!

you can do it and yes you do reduce the amount of flotation in the boat and it might be enough to allow the boat to sink if it is swamped. It is your call, I did it with mine and I ain't worried about it. Many older boat have virtually no flotation at all in them. Just make sure your life vest it available if that happens.

I once forgot to put the plug in when launching a boat that I had removed all the foam from for modifications. As I returned from parking the truck, I was just in time to see the water come over the transom. The weight was making it slide even deeper down the bank. It was all I could do to hold it from going deeper. I got lucky and had enough rope to tie to something while I got the truck and dragged my poor boat out onto dry land.
Another time I hit a T post while fishing. It was near a dock but the water was up. I barely hit it under power from the trolling motor but it opened up a gash that poured in faster than the bilge could pump it out. Again luck got me to the boat ramp in time.
That boat is long gone, it was stolen. I like to think they sank. Lol. Every boat I've had since, has had all its foam intact.
All that being said, enough foam to house a battery would probably be ok. My point here is that it doesn't always take rough water or a wake to swamp a boat.

Sent from my CLT-L04 using Tapatalk

Yeah wake boarders :x

I fish a local lake somewhat often mostly in the spring/summer/early fall. Then winter, trout time. Anyway was at work one day and decided that when I got off work, I'd run home, grab the boat and go to the lake for a few hours of crappie fishing. So I did. Got to the lake and there was the normal boat traffic close to the ramp. Got everything launched and parked, hopped in the boat and headed out to a hole that is way back out where there are gazillion submerged trees just below the surface at normal lake level. It was about a foot high that day. Got to the hole, tied off to a tree, and sat there while I was tying up a crappie rig. At that moment I realized that I forgot to grab my pistol out of the house when I took off, which is extremely rare. If my pants are on, I'm packing. Anyway no big deal other than I felt kinda naked without it. Caught about 15 real quick and about that time some jack-wagon comes out in that cove with a wake boat. Idiot. And I mean plum DUMB! So these guys decide it would be fun to make waves around my little flat bottom. Yay for them. But this time it really tee'd me off something bad. I ran back to the ramp with everyone else at about dark thirty and guess who's there in front of me as I'm walking up the ramp to get the truck? Yup. I got up in the guy's face and politely asked him how valuable his pretty boat was. Guy said they financed $122,000. Well that's nice. How would it make you feel if it was sitting on the bottom of the lake? Guy says he don't care, it's got insurance. That set me off. Thats when I mentioned that I was the one who he was running circles around back out in the cove. By now I'm fuming and I was "this" close to rearranging his face. 'Course he was mouthy, and the stench of beer on the breath just reiterated how moronic this guy is.

Way I assessed the situation on the way home was that God intervened and made me forget my pistol for a good reason. Cause honestly that was the maddest I've ever been at someone.

Yeah this stuff happens on the water. Not often but it does happen; particularly on weekends and worse on holiday weekends. But at the same time there are some great folks out there that'll lend you a hand too. Had that happen this past week, same place, LOTS of boat traffic, I'm launching alone so I have to put the boat up in the sand while I run the truck to the parking lot, which is 1/4 mile away, then have to walk back. By time I get back, my boat's turned sideways and being beat against some rocks by the constant waves from the bigger boats right outside the no-wake zone. I honestly couldn't get the boat off of the rocks and sand by myself. An older gentleman ran over where I was at and helped me get it afloat again. Super nice of him but I'd have done the same thing to anyone else in the same situation. He went on to say that the young'ns out there had no care in the world but to show off daddy's money--and that includes not caring about anyone else. Well I ran into him again a few hours later at the ramp and he was loaded up & tying his boat back down. I gave him all 30 crappie I caught. I didn't want to clean them anyway. Guy said they never caught a fish and we struck up good conversation and shared some locations where to catch them, and this past Monday I used one of them--and wore 'em out. 30 more crappie and this time I kept everything that was longer than 12" and threw the dinks back. One was 17 1/4 and the rest were 12-14. Still a good haul for middle of summertime.

idruthrbfishin said:

Considering making a battery compartment in one of my side seats that is filled with foam. I've always heard guys say, "don't cut the foam out of your seats, that's for flotation!" My question is, doesn't that only come into play if your boat is capsized? In that case, I'm thinking I'd have a lot bigger problems to worry about than whether my wrecked boat was floating or not. :LOL2:

Click to expand...

Well, not to be a total wisea$$... you know what is a bigger problem to worry about than just having your boat capsized? Having to recover it off the lake floor in 100 feet of water when the EPA is charging you $1000 a day for the environmental damage. Just sayin', cause I've seen it happen.

A sunk boat becomes a lot worse of a problem when it's on the lake floor than when it's floating just an inch below the water line.

turbotodd said:

Yeah wake boarders :x

I fish a local lake somewhat often mostly in the spring/summer/early fall. Then winter, trout time. Anyway was at work one day and decided that when I got off work, I'd run home, grab the boat and go to the lake for a few hours of crappie fishing. So I did. Got to the lake and there was the normal boat traffic close to the ramp. Got everything launched and parked, hopped in the boat and headed out to a hole that is way back out where there are gazillion submerged trees just below the surface at normal lake level. It was about a foot high that day. Got to the hole, tied off to a tree, and sat there while I was tying up a crappie rig. At that moment I realized that I forgot to grab my pistol out of the house when I took off, which is extremely rare. If my pants are on, I'm packing. Anyway no big deal other than I felt kinda naked without it. Caught about 15 real quick and about that time some jack-wagon comes out in that cove with a wake boat. Idiot. And I mean plum DUMB! So these guys decide it would be fun to make waves around my little flat bottom. Yay for them. But this time it really tee'd me off something bad. I ran back to the ramp with everyone else at about dark thirty and guess who's there in front of me as I'm walking up the ramp to get the truck? Yup. I got up in the guy's face and politely asked him how valuable his pretty boat was. Guy said they financed $122,000. Well that's nice. How would it make you feel if it was sitting on the bottom of the lake? Guy says he don't care, it's got insurance. That set me off. Thats when I mentioned that I was the one who he was running circles around back out in the cove. By now I'm fuming and I was "this" close to rearranging his face. 'Course he was mouthy, and the stench of beer on the breath just reiterated how moronic this guy is.

Way I assessed the situation on the way home was that God intervened and made me forget my pistol for a good reason. Cause honestly that was the maddest I've ever been at someone.

Click to expand...

What were you going to do if you had your carry? :roll:

Sounds like god should intervene more often.

jethro said:

idruthrbfishin said:

Considering making a battery compartment in one of my side seats that is filled with foam. I've always heard guys say, "don't cut the foam out of your seats, that's for flotation!" My question is, doesn't that only come into play if your boat is capsized? In that case, I'm thinking I'd have a lot bigger problems to worry about than whether my wrecked boat was floating or not. :LOL2:

Click to expand...

Well, not to be a total wisea$$... you know what is a bigger problem to worry about than just having your boat capsized? Having to recover it off the lake floor in 100 feet of water when the EPA is charging you $1000 a day for the environmental damage. Just sayin', cause I've seen it happen.

A sunk boat becomes a lot worse of a problem when it's on the lake floor than when it's floating just an inch below the water line.

Click to expand...

Holy moley, an environmental damage fine would never had occurred to me until you mentioned it. That is a scary thought. And, now that you mention it I can see it happening, especially here in my home state.

LDUBS said:

Holy moley, an environmental damage fine would never had occurred to me until you mentioned it. That is a scary thought. And, now that you mention it I can see it happening, especially here in my home state.

Click to expand...

It's standard procedure here in NH. That's why you have these recovery services that can charge huge money for what they do. Ice fishing, I see this all the time. If a sled or a wheeler goes through the ice, you have to recover it immediately or the counter starts ticking with the EPA. Every day is $1000 and if it goes over 5 days I think it can be $10k.

jethro said:

idruthrbfishin said:

Considering making a battery compartment in one of my side seats that is filled with foam. I've always heard guys say, "don't cut the foam out of your seats, that's for flotation!" My question is, doesn't that only come into play if your boat is capsized? In that case, I'm thinking I'd have a lot bigger problems to worry about than whether my wrecked boat was floating or not. :LOL2:

Click to expand...

Well, not to be a total wisea$$... you know what is a bigger problem to worry about than just having your boat capsized? Having to recover it off the lake floor in 100 feet of water when the EPA is charging you $1000 a day for the environmental damage. Just sayin', cause I've seen it happen.

A sunk boat becomes a lot worse of a problem when it's on the lake floor than when it's floating just an inch below the water line.

Click to expand...

Thanks Jethro, as stated, I fish a shallow river, not a 100' deep lake.
Sorry for gettin everyone's dander up. I'm talking about removing a piece of foam the size of my lunchbox. There will still be a ton of foam left in it when I'm done, IF I procede.

You will probably be fine. Now go get it done and enjoy your boat.

idruthrbfishin said:

jethro said:

idruthrbfishin said:

Considering making a battery compartment in one of my side seats that is filled with foam. I've always heard guys say, "don't cut the foam out of your seats, that's for flotation!" My question is, doesn't that only come into play if your boat is capsized? In that case, I'm thinking I'd have a lot bigger problems to worry about than whether my wrecked boat was floating or not. :LOL2:

Click to expand...

Well, not to be a total wisea$$... you know what is a bigger problem to worry about than just having your boat capsized? Having to recover it off the lake floor in 100 feet of water when the EPA is charging you $1000 a day for the environmental damage. Just sayin', cause I've seen it happen.

A sunk boat becomes a lot worse of a problem when it's on the lake floor than when it's floating just an inch below the water line.

Click to expand...

Thanks Jethro, as stated, I fish a shallow river, not a 100' deep lake.
Sorry for gettin everyone's dander up. I'm talking about removing a piece of foam the size of my lunchbox. There will still be a ton of foam left in it when I'm done, IF I procede.

Click to expand...

Off the wall boat ramp stories aside, the only thing I can add of any real concern is this.


Putting a battery in a semi sealed compartment can be dangerous. The battery charging releases hydrogen gas which when mixed with air can make an explosive mixture.

Ive seen batteries blow the top clean off throwing acid and fire everywhere.

That in a compartment with gas fumes or under somewhere you sit while underway could lead to a really interesting day if things should go wrong.

RaisedByWolves said:

idruthrbfishin said:

jethro said:

Well, not to be a total wisea$$... you know what is a bigger problem to worry about than just having your boat capsized? Having to recover it off the lake floor in 100 feet of water when the EPA is charging you $1000 a day for the environmental damage. Just sayin', cause I've seen it happen.

A sunk boat becomes a lot worse of a problem when it's on the lake floor than when it's floating just an inch below the water line.

Click to expand...

Thanks Jethro, as stated, I fish a shallow river, not a 100' deep lake.
Sorry for gettin everyone's dander up. I'm talking about removing a piece of foam the size of my lunchbox. There will still be a ton of foam left in it when I'm done, IF I procede.

Click to expand...

Off the wall boat ramp stories aside, the only thing I can add of any real concern is this.


Putting a battery in a semi sealed compartment can be dangerous. The battery charging releases hydrogen gas which when mixed with air can make an explosive mixture.

Ive seen batteries blow the top clean off throwing acid and fire everywhere.

That in a compartment with gas fumes or under somewhere you sit while underway could lead to a really interesting day if things should go wrong.

Click to expand...

That is why I remove the battery from the boat every time I charge it. I have never and will never charge my battery in the boat. One reason I still have a 12V trolling motor.