Aluminum Floor in Lowe 1448 with Yamaha 40/30 Outboard

[momule]

Running a 1448 Lowe with console and two seats on front bench powered by 2011 4S 40/30 jet. Currently have two batteries, starter and deep cycle, two 6 gal gas tanks and trolling motor at transom. Boat runs really well, comes up on plane quickly and cruises wot at approx 24 mph with two of us on board. Lots of weight at rear of boat but our combined weight (approx 350lb) at front bench evens it out. At wot we still can run pretty darn shallow...maybe 6 inches.
I'd like to add a permanent 12-15 gal tank behind front bench and cover it with an aluminum casting deck over whole space between front and rear benches. Also would put aluminum floor in front of front bench. I usually run with two 6 gal tanks. Weight can be managed a bit by moving permanent tank either immediately behind front bench or in front of rear bench. (Tank, by the way, would be about as long as bottom of boat is wide (48") and about 12"-15" wide and cover approx 1/2 of bottom of boat between benches). Space under casting deck not used by tank will be dry storage.
Any thoughts on how additional weight of aluminum decking and flooring would impact boat performance with additions like this and with movement of weight would be greatly appreciated. Thanks everyone....

 

[richg99]

Water weighs around 8.3 lbs. per gallon. A five-gallon bucket is about 41.5 lbs.

Calculate your add-on weight; fill the right number of five-gallon buckets with water; cap them and tie them down securely; and go try it out.

Nice thing is that you can move the cans around to see what effect that re-positioning would have on your craft.

richg99

 

[Lil' Blue Rude]

You might want to do a little research on a boats center of gravity. You'll be pretty surprised on how re-positioning weight can effect performance. For example my boat is a 16' 42" with a 60hp short shaft, small battery under the rear bench, seats on the rear bench and two 6 gallon tanks behind the bench. I figured up the boats center of gravity. Came to find out if I would add 75lbs to the first 4' of the boat that would have about the same effect on the center of gravity as adding 300+lbs to the bench. That means a lot more of the boat in the water causing a lot more drag. I'm not saying throw all your weight in the back or vise versa but you can play around with the math and have a idea of where you'd like your weight to be to balance things out. Like richg99 said testing is a sure fire way to see how it will act.

 

[momule]

Great tips for experimenting with weight distribution and I thank you guys. I'm taking the boat to Troutt and Sons in St James, Mo for their expertise and fabricating skills and will do a lot of the work this winter saving the middle casting deck and permanent tank for spring when I can actually run the boat on the river. As usual I will end up spending more money on a project than I'll ever be able to sell it for but I'll end up with a boat that really makes me happy. That's why we do this anyway right? I just wish I was starting with a thicker guage hull...but then I'd need a bigger motor and on and on and on....That's also why we do this...
Thanks again for your input.