Flotation pods on a bass boat?

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catsmith

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I have a 2013 tracker pro 165 with a 40 hp merc. It is pretty much stock as far as the boat it's self. I am kicking around the idea of adding pods to the back to get a little shallower. We don't bass fish. We do chase cats bream and crappie. Maybe a trip down south for reds in the next year.

Any thoughts on the good the bad and the ugly on this idea on this hull? Realistically, what could I expect? Thanks in advance.
 
folks been fishing shallow water for centuries without pods. i dont get it, is it a new trend? it will gain you a few pounds of flotation? but adds more weight to the rear which negates part of the reason to install? just some thoughts. not being critica at this point, but being born in and spending most my life in louisiana, its just something we never thought of, and you know, if it was needed, it would have been thought of on boats that spend their life floating as opposed to sitting on a trailer.
im thinking the mud boat trend may have started this. hanging a very heavy low powered engine, that reaches out like a fallen oil derrick, off the transom.
that was probably making the boats take on water over the transoms and made pods a necessity to overcome poor designs. ????
 
Poorthang. As a Louisiana native my self, this is my first boat that floats nose up at rest. I only guess because green fish people fish off the front of the boat most of the time. Catfishing on the river will usually have no one on the bow. Puts the rear further down.

A typical flat bottom or modified vee sits close to flat at rest.
 

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ok, i see why you are interestd. but maybe relocating a little weight like batteries coolers, etc will be a lot cheaper and less metal hanging off the wrong end? i had to adjust everytime i got in my pirogue. lol. those toledo bend stumps would swamp you if not balanced correctly. lol saw a man lose 3600 pounds of catfish because of one well centered stump! his boat also sunk and the motor sucked water while running. maybe pods would have helped ?
but that is all i know about pods, as they are new to most. if you get some, be sure and tell us all about em.
bon temps!
 
I see why you're looking into them. Personally, I'd try redistributing weight before the pods. I've made pods and ran them on my own boats but the boat is usually used in really shallow water situations, like when I could actually be out walking in water up to my knees. I use them on my bow fishing boat or duck boat.
 
You can shop for them through Beavertail. Your boat would use mediums. There's lots of info on them on the net. The biggest thing I will tell you about them is to make sure who ever installs them knows how to, you don't just slap them on and call it a day. They can effect the way the boat planes so you have to be cognizant of that. Do your self a favor and place weight on your hull until it sits the way you want it to sit at rest. The amount of weight can be used as a rough guide as to how much lift you need.
 
are you saying to weight the bow until the transom is like you want, then use the amount of weight used to determine the amount of flotation needed? wouldnt that be dependant of the fulcrum point?

maybe if a 150lb man standing on the bow would lift the transom 4 inches, then you could figure you need 150 lbs flotation? including more flotation to cover the tare of the pods and hardware of course. ?

or if not installing pods, and using same logic, then removing 150lbs from the rear of the boat would accomplish same? or taking 75lbs from rear and moving to front would be same?
sounds like how they do it in airplanes.
 
that boat is designed to be as close as possible to a bass boat--which has all the weight in the rear in order to get the entire hull out of the water for speed. It's not a pad hull so not sure its needed the same way, but the layout seems the same. also lets you fish 2 people on the bow of a small boat pitching docks or whatever without lifting the stern out. You will find some bass boats actually are designed with flotation pods on the transom to help draw less water and add stability at rest, while maintaining the low displacement hull, lots of setback from the engine while on plane, and weight in the stern--some of the skeeter and Basscat boats have these pods for example, the boats in these pictures both have them:
5-136_PB_SKT_TZX170_F90TLR_2011-06-24_BSS.jpg

204269c46cfed47100c5604d2d45b38f033acb49.pjpg


My guess is you have 3 big batteries, fuel tanks, etc in the bilge just in front of that engine and may have a hard time finding space to move that stuff, dealing with re-wiring, etc. Not to mention a 4-stroke engine that's much heavier than the same-hp 2-stroke that hull was probably designed for. I dont know what is involved in adding flotation pods, but I'm guessing it aint cheap and involves a welder or drilling lots of holes in your transom. Perhaps lithium batteries would accomplish the same thing for similar cash, but without being out of your boat for half a season or experimenting with something that could affect resale, etc and maybe not accomplish what you want?
 
I wouldn't own a jon without them. I'm amazed how much of the hull I can fly at cruise speed without purposing. They act like the mother of all trim tabs, this directly equates to much less whetted surface and increased fuel mileage. I have a group 31 and group 27 AGM's under front casting area.1652 Weld-Craft W/18" OEM pods gives me an overall length of 17'-9". I'm getting 10-11 MPG @ 24-25 MPH @ 4.2K-4.3K RPM with my '21 DF60A Zuke. 20" shaft engine is mounted 3" above the hulls 18" transom. Lovin this rig.
 
nowgrn4, so you added over a foot in length to the rear of your boat and you now have to buy props until you get it figured out? not a success. you lost 2k rpm. you will murder that engine while suffering performance. hardly a reason to tell others you wouldnt own a boat without them. btw, boats fuel economy is measured gallons per hour, not mpg.
peace
 

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