1970 Cherokee V-Hull project

[SCARNG2011]

WestTexas » 23 Jul 2013, 10:09[/url]"]Hey there sir!

Forgive me if I missed this somewhere in this thread but:
How many pounds of wood do you estimate has been added to the boat?
I'm considering decking my 14.5' Lone Star Commander (1970 Johnson 9.5) with aluminum to keep the weight down.
But I have the tools and everything already for woodworking and I'd need to get a few things and practice some more before doing it in aluminum, would probably need to go with muggyweld.
Have you noticed a loss of speed now that it's decked?
How have your balancing and handling characteristics been affected?

Hey buddy, i'm guessing with all the wood and hardware I put about 150 - 200 pounds into the boat. it could be more, possibly less. my supplies were (1) 2x6x12, (2) 2x4x10, (4) 2x2x8, and I used 2 sheets of plywood. it doesn't seem like a lot I guess. I also added a second battery so all in all i'd say its the weight of another big man added to the boat.

the upper deck is EXTREMELY stable compared to before. very easy to maneuver around the entire deck.

 

[SCARNG2011]

Country Dave » 19 Jul 2013, 17:44[/url]"]Outstanding sir,

Let me know what happens. 93P Flight coordinator, air assault, first responder helicopter dust off squad.

hey there Dave! I just got Air Assault qualified last year while we were in country. it was at the end of the deployment when we were in Kuwait waiting to come home. those Black Hawks were beast!

as you can probably see in the pictures the issue wasn't my wiring, it was a cheap faulty head unit. I replaced and now everything works flawlessly!

 

[wwcenturion]

Man, this is awesome. Makes me miss my tin. Pretty sure I will be getting a new one very soon. Good job.

 

[Country Dave]

SCARNG2011 » 35 minutes ago[/url]"]

Country Dave » 19 Jul 2013, 17:44[/url]"]Outstanding sir,

Let me know what happens. 93P Flight coordinator, air assault, first responder helicopter dust off squad.

hey there Dave! I just got Air Assault qualified last year while we were in country. it was at the end of the deployment when we were in Kuwait waiting to come home. those Black Hawks were beast!

as you can probably see in the pictures the issue wasn't my wiring, it was a cheap faulty head unit. I replaced and now everything works flawlessly!

Outstanding sir.

 

[baseball_guy_99]

Haven't you ever heard that BOAT is an acronym that stands for...

Bust Out Another Thousand

 

[Dave53]

Hi there!! Forgive me but I might have missed this earlier!! What size is your boat?? I like the design in the decking!! Great work!!!

 

[SCARNG2011]

Dave53 » 31 Jul 2013, 23:39[/url]"]Hi there!! Forgive me but I might have missed this earlier!! What size is your boat?? I like the design in the decking!! Great work!!!

hey no problem man. it is a 14' v-hull Cherokee. and thank you for the compliment!

 

[SCARNG2011]

wwcenturion » 24 Jul 2013, 16:45[/url]"]Man, this is awesome. Makes me miss my tin. Pretty sure I will be getting a new one very soon. Good job.

hey buddy... in my book you were my main man during this build!! thank for all the great tips and ideas as you posted throughout the duration of my conversion. I've enjoyed the crap out of this little tin!!

 

[SCARNG2011]

So everything is pretty much done now. I took my brother to the lake last week (he and I fish a lot together) and he actually preferred a folding chair to sit on with the upper deck, so I decided to not put a pedestal seat up there and just leave it open for now. everything is functional! stereo and fish finder work flawlessly, all my storage compartments are exactly where I needed them installed, and the boat is sooo stable.

only issue that I've run into now is the fact that I've added so much weight to the boat that now my old 28lb thrust minn kota trolling motor wigs out when I put it into 5th speed (highest speed)... it wobbles back and forth so bad it literally shakes the whole boat haha. decided to just keep using her but only up to 4th speed setting (as it only shakes on 5th speed) until she gives up the ghost and i'm forced to purchase a more capacity-rated TM.

attached are some recent pictures of bass and catfish hits. all catch and release. as well as me taking a break from the boat and tubing down the "Hooch" (Chattahoochee river) with some friends and cold beer

 

[riverrat174]

Thank you for your service, Sir. Great looking Mod.

 

[SCARNG2011]

riverrat174 » 02 Aug 2013, 09:08[/url]"]Thank you for your service, Sir. Great looking Mod.

thanks man!! I've really enjoyed this project, the help from all the legit dudes on this forum, as well as learning more about boats/construction framing/ect.

 

[SCARNG2011]

I just wanted to say thanks to everyone that has helped me out through the process of my build. I just successfully sold my conversion for $2,200!!! with everything that i had put into this project i earned a cool $1000 profit!

I'm picking up a flat bottom jon boat off of craigslist today with a 40lb Thrust TM and deep cycle battery. i can't wait to get started on my 2nd build!!!

Can't wait to start posting here again and talking to all of you guys as my 2 month absence has made me miss this site!

Zach

 

[WestTexas]

I'm not surprised that you made a profit - it's a very well done & intelligently designed mod. I cant wait to see your next one! Thank you for your service sir, & keep us posted.

 

[wwcenturion]

He'll spend all of it and then some on his next build!!

 

[thill]

First of all, GREAT post and pictures!

But since you are about to do a second one, I thought I'd mention a couple of things I see...

One big thing I thought should be mentioned, is that you should not mount speakers facing UP. If it rains when you are out there, the speaker cone fills with water, and even if they are waterproof, some of the water will usually work it's way into the voice coils, and no more speaker.

Also, on the front platform, you made legs right to the aluminum. That creates "hard spots" that could dent the hull bottom outward if someone were to jump up on the deck. Better to put a piece of 1x4 front to back to catch all the legs, rather than having them rest on sheet metal.

But nice job overall! Good looking rebuild.

-TH

 

[SCARNG2011]

thill » 03 Apr 2014, 09:32[/url]"]First of all, GREAT post and pictures!

But since you are about to do a second one, I thought I'd mention a couple of things I see...

One big thing I thought should be mentioned, is that you should not mount speakers facing UP. If it rains when you are out there, the speaker cone fills with water, and even if they are waterproof, some of the water will usually work it's way into the voice coils, and no more speaker.

Also, on the front platform, you made legs right to the aluminum. That creates "hard spots" that could dent the hull bottom outward if someone were to jump up on the deck. Better to put a piece of 1x4 front to back to catch all the legs, rather than having them rest on sheet metal.

But nice job overall! Good looking rebuild.

-TH

Thanks man! I appreciate the constructive criticism and advice! I'm working on a 1432 flatbottom right now and i'm thinking i'll be leaning towards aluminum framing to keep everything on the lighter side... but for now i just carpeted two sheets of plywood and through them in the bottom.

 

[thill]

On mine, I used the existing angle brackets for the bunks as supports for my platform, then added a couple of angle-aluminum brackets in between them for full strength.

I used cross members strong enough that I didn't need vertical support. 1x3 square aluminum stock would be ideal, if you can find it, but 2x2 is more common, but you may need more of them, if your boat is wide.

I left 1/4" space around the perimeter of the decking, and once I screwed it down, I used fill-foam around the perimeter underneath. Once that set, the front of the boat was like a mono-hull, very tight and NO flex, even in heavy seas. This made me happy, as I had been concerned about the bunk removal weakening the structure.

This is just what I did, but there are guys much more advanced that I am. Hope you have a great build!

-TH

 

[XtremeAngler17]

Great build. I noticed you said u flipped it for 1k profit, if you dont mind me asking, how much did you sell it for?

 

[Arog]

Nice looking boat

 

[coreythompson]

really enjoyed this post it was really helpful, WMcGrath on seat placement you saved me big time.. Great boat great pics and info keep em coming... =D>