Lund SSV 18

Staying true to myself by not being happy with what I have, I decided to do some modifications to my new boat. It is a bare bone Lund SSV 18’ and fishing in it last year for the whole season taught me what I needed and wanted so I decided to make it a reality. The first thing was to run the Ethernet cable for the trolling motor, power wires for a front fish finder and wires for navigation lights, under the floor for a cleaner look. I used 1” pvc pipe for this. Next was to close in the bow section to create some storage and mount the trolling motor plug and battery charger plug. But by by far the biggest and best addition is the 38 liter aluminum built in fuel tank that I designed and fabbed myself. It will be complete with fuel gauge. I know I will get some static from som for making my own fuel tank because it’s not DOT approved, but trust me, where I am using this boat it will not be a problem. Not to mention I want it so I got it. Lol
With lots of real estate in the back of the boat I decided to build a storage cabinet to keep the small day to day stuff from falling out of the boat and to house the fuel fill spout. I finished off the fuel fill with some bling from a scrap 1/2” x 4”chunk of aluminum flat bar I had laying around. I am still waiting on delivery of the stainless hinges and slam latches for the storage doors. I have the fuel gauge and switch panel pod to build yet so I can finish up the wiring. I will also be building [/img]new gunnel supports that will incorporate the rod holders. I hate the stock gunnel support that these boats have. This is what I have so far with more to come.

Not sure why my pictures loaded sideways. If any of the mods can fix that for me that would be great

Nice job!

Sent from my CLT-L04 using Tapatalk

Weldorthemagnificent said:

Nice job!

Sent from my CLT-L04 using Tapatalk

Click to expand...

X2! Nicely done.

You know I really hate reading posts like this because now I have a permanent gaso tank on my "blue sky" list of potentially cool to do things. That list gets longer every time I read TB.net -- Haha. I note you have one of those on-demand valves on the fuel line. Does that mean the tank isn't vented?

I wish I could make welds look that good!

LDUBS said:

Weldorthemagnificent said:

Nice job!

Sent from my CLT-L04 using Tapatalk

Click to expand...

X2! Nicely done.

You know I really hate reading posts like this because now I have a permanent gaso tank on my "blue sky" list of potentially cool to do things. That list gets longer every time I read TB.net -- Haha. I note you have one of those on-demand valves on the fuel line. Does that mean the tank isn't vented?

Click to expand...

Not having to crawl into the boat to fill up a cruise a day is a huge bonus plus it almost doubled the fuel capacity. The tank is vented so it does not build up pressure and I have had no issues. But having said that I’ve only had it out a couple time so far but plenty of miles on it where issues would present themselves if the was any.

CedarRiverScooter said:

I wish I could make welds look that good!

Click to expand...

Me to....I fabbed the tank and tack welded it together and had a buddy weld it.

I really like the look of the bow and the mounted TM up there. Any advice for possibly doing the same thing to a lund ssv 16? Still waiting on the boat to arrive but can't wait to start planning some upgrades.

AnglerX said:

I really like the look of the bow and the mounted TM up there. Any advice for possibly doing the same thing to a lund ssv 16? Still waiting on the boat to arrive but can't wait to start planning some upgrades.

Click to expand...

Sorry for the late reply, I haven't been on here much lately.
The vinyl covered bow peice was original from the factory but could easily be made. Whats holding it on is some small aluminum angle brackets beneath it that are riveted to the sides of the boat. Its no where near the water line so standard pop rivets could be used for the brackets. As for the wooden verticle peice, I made that out of MDO and attached it to the casting deck and the underside of the bow peice using a couple peices of aluminum angle. I had actually bought vinyl to cover it but the original vinyl is faded some and it wouldn't match. Leaving it the wood colour matches the the seat tops so it doees'nt look all that bad.

Nice job You got some fab skills.

Very nicely done. I looked at a couple of used SSVs this past week (a 16’ and 18’), and was seriously considering the 18, but the whole bench layout and riveted boat got me looking at my original all welded mod v Jon list again.

The tank looks amazing, and I need to seriously consider a proper tank for my newly ordered 1754 Jon. I’m trying to keep things simple, but having a built in tank would be really nice.

The built in tank is a HUGE game changer, I will never own another boat without it having one or building one for it.

stomper said:

Sorry for the late reply, I haven't been on here much lately.
The vinyl covered bow peice was original from the factory but could easily be made. Whats holding it on is some small aluminum angle brackets beneath it that are riveted to the sides of the boat. Its no where near the water line so standard pop rivets could be used for the brackets. As for the wooden verticle peice, I made that out of MDO and attached it to the casting deck and the underside of the bow peice using a couple peices of aluminum angle. I had actually bought vinyl to cover it but the original vinyl is faded some and it wouldn't match. Leaving it the wood colour matches the the seat tops so it doees'nt look all that bad.

Click to expand...

Any chance you have pictures of those aluminum angle brackets and how they are attached so I can see how the bow cover is mounted/attached?