Boat Floor Project

[DJK Frank 16]

I finally had a chance to sit down and post this up. I did it a few weekends ago.

My goal was to put a floor in my 14ft aluminum boat that accomplished 3 goals - sturdy, removable, and raised enough for installing some high back cushioned seats, but without throwing off the center of gravity and making things tipsy.

I toyed around with some ideas and some scrap wood laying around the garage and put a plan together.

Here are a couple before pics:



I knew I had to make it where it wouldn't distribute weight evenly across the floor of the boat to avoid it wearing in certain spots and possibly causing me issues with holes down the road. This would also help with not stressing the rivots on the bottom as well.

A couple ideas I toyed with:



Neither of these really distributed the weight enough to satisfy me although I liked the idea of the front to back runner along the bottom. I decided to combine the two and tweak them a little.

 

[DJK Frank 16]

Since the boat is wider in the back than the front, it took a TON of cutting to get the angle right for each board. Here is what I came up with for the back section:



The back section was fairly easy, as the angle of the boat from rear to front didn't change a whole lot, making the lengths of the boards fairly similar and the angles not as steep.

The front section was a different story. Took a lot more cutting than the back and I also had to use a section of cardboard as a template before cutting out the plywood.

 

[DJK Frank 16]

Once the floors were complete, I did some nosing around up in the attic in my garage and found some old outdoor carpet that I had used on an old deck a few years back and it was just wide enough to fit my sections:



I was really happy with the way this turned out. The next step is to get my fishing seats and get them installed. I will be installing some high back cushioned fishing seats mounted directly to my boat floor, with a 15-18 inch extension rod to get them up a little higher for added comfort. The existing seats that are mounted to the benches will be removed.

I can't wait to get back out on the water and see how sturdy it is, or how tipsy I've made it! :smiley_crocodile:


Project complete:

 

[Mike]

That's sharp! Nice job.

 

[buckbuster217]

Great looking job! should work out nicely

 

[jagermeister]

Looks awesome, man. Nice job. Any idea as to how much weight you added to the boat? I'd be curious to see how this deck would effect the overall weight capacity of the boat.

 

[DJK Frank 16]

The front deck is probably 30-40 lbs and and the back 40-50. I can lift them both out easily by myself. They could be a tad heavier than that.

Here was my thought process. I've fished 3-200 lb+ guys off of it several times with no issue (weigh limit is 800 without or 1000 with motor something like that).

The way i'm going to position my new seats, there will no longer be enough room for another adult in the middle. I will leave enough room on the middle bench to attach my clamp on small seat for my son or other child, but this project just eliminated one full grown person. So I figured I had 150lbs or so to play with. This is a two man rig or two man +child from here on out! :smiley_coolpeace:

 

[jagermeister]

The front deck is probably 30-40 lbs and and the back 40-50. I can lift them both out easily by myself. They could be a tad heavier than that.

Here was my thought process. I've fished 3-200 lb+ guys off of it several times with no issue (weigh limit is 800 without or 1000 with motor something like that).

The way i'm going to position my new seats, there will no longer be enough room for another adult in the middle. I will leave enough room on the middle bench to attach my clamp on small seat for my son or other child, but this project just eliminated one full grown person. So I figured I had 150lbs or so to play with. This is a two man rig or two man +child from here on out! :smiley_coolpeace:

Good stuff, man. I figured you probably had plenty of "wiggle room" as far as weight goes. Get some of those flush-mount pedestal seat receivers... They make it a breeze for moving seats around.

 

[jeremy44230]

Looks great. We replaced an old rotting boat floor before. It was a pain in the rear to say the least as it was in a fiberglass boat. Good job!

 

[hickslawns]

Good stuff Drake! Wouldn't work for mine. We just throw it in the back of the truck and roll. Don't need any extra weight. haha

Brock- I save room for 6lb bass. lmao

 

[Gern186]

Nice work Drake. Looks great!

 

[Archertl]

that looks great.

 

[DJK Frank 16]

Was thinking the other night while out fishing that I never came back and updated this thread after I got my new seats in. They worked out great. So much more comfortable and the boat ended up even sturdier than before in my opinion.

 

[Huckleberry Finn]

Nice finished project!

If I ever buy a boat, it'll be a little aluminum to fish off of. The floor just looks like luxury!

 

[Beentown]

Looks great!

 

[DXT]

Good looking job. That is a lot of work. I can appreciated the work you put into it. I did my bass tracker last fall. Here are some before and after.
Before

After

 

[DJK Frank 16]

Nice work DXT. If I ever upgrade boats it will be to a Bass Tracker. I love those boats!