anyone have issues with denting the bow in?

I'v dented the front portion of the hull 3 times now going about 25mph over a decent size wake, or rough chop. it doesn't feel rough when im in the boat but every time it happens i end up having to hammer the crap out of the hull to bend it back. it crinkles the 3 v sections. i took it out yesterday and it crinkled it enough to split a 1/2" crack at the in the middle v.

yesterday went pretty badly, after we had noticed the hole we were probably 3 miles from the ramp, the battery had died so we had no bilge, and it was starting to rain... so i ran the ***** up on an oyster bar, shoveled the water out with a water bottle, plugged the hole with a cork popper and ran in wide open in the rain with 3 people on board, kinda sucked lol. i hammered it out and filled the hole with some marine tex and fiberglass chop strand and took her back out for some night fishing, and the hull pulled back in a little and i didn't even get it on a plane this time! i guess it just wants to hold its memory?

anyways, is this common? i didn't feel like i was running it that hard. do the bigger aluminum john boats have some sort of bracing in the bow area that my little 14 32 doesn't have? if so post a picture. i really don't want this to happen again, its probably getting weaker everytime i hammer it back.

Aluminum work hardens, so every time you bend it, and hammer it back, it weakens significantly. Most larger boats have quite a bit more cross ribs in the bow than smaller boats. Plus, your boat, being designed for an 8 horse, is probably made of some paper thin material. If it is to the point that you worked a hole in it, you likely need to just weld some sheet onto the outside of the hull, and weld in a couple of ribs on the inside. Likely, the metal you have to work with is shot, and you have no choice but to add fresh metal.

yea, i was thinking of making some sort of good frame structure for the bow that provides all the support. that way the old sheet metal is only used as the skin of the structure since it probably isnt strong enough for support anymore. but do the bigger boats really just rely on more ribs to stiffen it up?

A combination of both ribs and a thicker hull.

Could it be that your motor is too big for that boat. My 1436 is only rated for a 15 HP.

lol, too much power is a good problem to have. i like to work around it until the boat is good enough to handle it.