The Minnow Bucket - Battery Storage/Seat Base

TinBoats.net

Help Support TinBoats.net:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Henry Hefner

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 17, 2008
Messages
240
Reaction score
0
Location
Waxahachie, Texas
I never posted my original boat mod here, mainly because I did it before I discover this site. Actually I don't think TinBoats was around in February of 2005. Many of you have seen my mod through the link in my sig, anyway. One problem I had was that I fish by myself mostly, and the rig was stern-heavy, slowing me down too much. I decided to move the battery forward to keep the nose down. This is what I started with:

pc050001.jpg


I removed the seat pedestal and discovered how much the carpet has worn through the years:

pc050004.jpg


I cut a hole in the center of this square and removed the galvanized bolts that had secured the pedestal base to the deck. I then cut through the foam under the deck. This allowed access to the 2 or 3 inches of space between the foam and the keel. I used a fishtape to pull wiring from the glove box to this hole. I already had conduit running from the glove box to the stern storage area, so this was the only hard part for the wiring.

I decided to take a tip from the green earth crowd and reuse some plywood that was handy. (of course being free had NOTHING to do with it!) How convenient that the common Plano 3650 has about the same footprint as my battery!

pc120002.jpg


I used outdoor grade decking screws to assemble the box. Box height was determined by sitting in the seat at differing heights and determining which was the most comfortable for me. (if you are building a custom seat base to use, shouldn't it be customized to you?

pc120007o.jpg


My boat is kept under cover, and rarely gets rained on. Even though I had protected the transom and decks with fiberglass resin, I felt that would be overkill on a seat base that will hopefully never be IN water, so I opted for liberal coats of paint.

pc130009l.jpg


I really needed smaller fingers, but I managed to secure the swivel base under the seat to the box with galvanized bolts. The plug you see comes from the battery, and mates with a plug I put on my battery charger for easy recharges after an outing. No more trying to decide which is positive and which negative in the dark.

pc140010.jpg


Four screws allow me to access the battery for maintenance. I've been fishing once since I installed this, and it is very handy. If I were doing another boat, I would probably opt for something similar instead of pedestals just because tackle is so handy to reach. Just think, if battery storage isn't needed, you can have six or seven tackle boxes within reach without getting up! Admit it, you are usually stepping on them or kicking them, aren't you?

pc140012g.jpg


Here it is, secured in place on the deck with, well, deck screws, what else? The remodel was a success, I have no GPS to measure speed, but the boat is noticably faster at top end because the moved weight helps keep the nose down. After trying it by myself, I put bro-in-law in the front seat and it still does well with two in the boat, so I feel like it was well worth the effort to make this change.

pc140013.jpg
 
I'm liking that seat idea, especially since I'm working on a very tight budget. And the decking screws are perfect! I'll use them for my sub frame.
 

Latest posts

Top