She's HOME...

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MikeA57

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 23, 2009
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Location
Olive Branch, MS
FINALLY!!! After 7 long years, my boat is finally home. It's a 1980 Lowe Big Jon - 14' X 48" rated for a 25 hp motor which I have stored in my workshop. I went over to my Mother in law's old house and picked it up Saturday evening. In the background of at least one of the pictures you can see my other little pond jumper (14' X 36" Alumacraft, bought for $75) which I just throw in the back of the pickup truck and take to small lakes that I have access to. I have a 30 lb Motorguide trolling motor for it.

Back to Big Jon though; My 11 year old gave it the name "Big Ugly on a pretty trailer" because of the contrast between the two. I'm not real sure what I'm going to do with her. I may fix her up and use her or I may sell her after I take her out a couple of times and then sell her. Mississippi has started a new law here that states that EVERY occupant of any boat less than 16' MUST keep their life jacket on at ALL times, under power or not. I agree with that for the kids and I can see that while under power, but once again, the government is sticking their stupid noses into another area that it doesn't belong. (JMO)

I'll put the deck and floor back in that Dad built and take some more pictures of it to show how he had it set up. (I wish I could just find my old pictures of it when it looked good!) I'm also going to have to raise up the rear rollers on the trailer, varnish the back transom board and extend the crank handle because it hits the piece of metal that holds the bow stops. Then make a decision about what I'm going to do...
 

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Here's a pic of my Lowe 1448. Maybe this will give you some ideas for yours.
 

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ben2go said:
Nice boat.Why 7 years to get it?I am confused.

My Dad died in 1984 and I got it not long after that. I used it a lot but then around 2001/2002 the bolts on the old trailer started breaking - I figured after 40+ years they were getting brittle and it was in need of a paint job and other maintenance as well. I decided to take it completely apart, sand it down, repaint it, and re-bolt the whole thing. I spent 1 whole summer grinding on it in the backyard - every Saturday and Sunday. The next year all HE77 broke loose in my life. We decided we needed to reside our house so we could sell it, which meant that time on the trailer was extremely limited. Then my son turned 3 and started playing sports, my wife got pregnant with our second son and she ended up being in the hospital after 5 months. He was born 2 months early and had to spend almost a month in NICU. After we got him home we had to find a house, buy it, move, tend to a preemie child and then both of my teenaged girls decided to go hormonal and drag my wife and I through seven kinds of HE77, so I just never got around to finishing the trailer so I could put the boat on it. One daughter finally moved back home with her husband and baby and he and I ended up being really close and he kept encouraging me to get it out and finish it. So this year I did. During that whole time the boat laid up against a brick wall at my Mother-in-law's house waiting for me to return.

njTom said:
Here's a pic of my Lowe 1448. Maybe this will give you some ideas for yours.

Thanks NJ Tom!! Do you have any more pics?

Mike
 
Sorry to hear about your dad and the crappy chain of events that follow.Hope all is better.I am dealing with hormonal kids myself.
 
Mike I am new on here so I am still learning how to post pics. I got the single pic down but I'm trying to learn how to post more than one. I will keep trying and hopefully be able to show you some more without it being numorous posts with one picture each. Great looking boat and I hope you decide to keep and mod it.
 
I bet you can't wait to get her in the water. Sounds like you've earned it man!!!
 
Have fun using it, you deserve to have some fun after all that.

Neat looking trailer, never seen one with shocks before!
 
pbw said:
Wow nice boat, I would love to have that to start with.

Oh, I am VERY thankful for what I have and do not take lightly what I was given and I try very hard to take care of something, whatever it may be - which is part of why I redid the trailer to begin with. It was still a usable piece of equipment, so why just dump it out at the street for the garbage man to pick up?

My Dad spent a good amount of hard earned money and bought that boat, motor and trolling motor and fish finder, then he spent a lot of time putting it all together with decks and some flooring and he got to use it 3 times before he got sick. Once I got it I tried to use it every chance I got. It just seems that now with 2 boys of my own and a young son-in-law who loves to fish/hunt as much as I do, a 14' boat with 4 people in it is going to get real crowded real fast. Plus, with the new law in place here it just seems like MDWFP is pushing for smaller boats to be off of their lakes.

Mike
 

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