BigTerp's Tracker Sportsman 16' O/B Jet build

[BigTerp]

Great job! Looks fricking FANTASTIC!
Talons

Thanks man!

Want to do mine? HA HA HA!
Talons

Not a chance!! [-X

 

[cyberflexx]

Lookin Good! Check my build on how I did my decking with aluminum angle from Lowes. It was really solid and if it will hold me, it will hold you for sure...There is a link to it in my signature.

 

[BigTerp]

Lookin Good! Check my build on how I did my decking with aluminum angle from Lowes. It was really solid and if it will hold me, it will hold you for sure...There is a link to it in my signature.

Thanks for the link. Haven't done anymore work since the transom. STILL having issues getting the boat and trailer registered. Hopefully everything will be squared away this week. Would like to get it out for duck/goose season next month. Probably will run her as is until the end of January when duck season closes. Then I can tear into her and get ready for some fishing.

Actually took her out for a quick spin a few weeks ago to check my rivet work, no leaks!!, and to test the rinky dink 5hp motor I have. Everything went well and the motor actually pushed me and my buddy along much better than I thought. Will work until I can get the funds together for more hp. As we were loading my unregistered boat onto my untagged trailer a Maryland State Police Officer walked down the boat ramp and started to chat with me. Proceeded to ask if my boat was registered and I politely said "No, was just testing out the new motor". He said ok and walked away [-o< . Got lucky on that one. So obviously haven't had her out since.

 

[Talons]

Yes you did get lucky on that one. In FL they are not as nice due to budgetary issues.

Talons

 

[louisvillefisherman]

First post on this site but have been reading for a few months. I really enjoy watching all of your projects and have learned SO MUCH. Thank you to all. I will be starting my mods on my 1992 14' Grumman Aluminum this winter and plan to document it here. Looking forward to sharing it.

Now with my reason for posting to this particular thread:

BigTerp,

I am curious as to why you chose to rivet fill the holes from the transducer versus the JB Weld like you did on the bow? The JB looked perfect and I imagine it would be just as water tight if not more. I will need to fill a few holes in my boat myself and was just wondering if there is a specific reason for using rivets to hole fill versus the epoxy weld?

Thanks for sharing!

 

[BigTerp]

First post on this site but have been reading for a few months. I really enjoy watching all of your projects and have learned SO MUCH. Thank you to all. I will be starting my mods on my 1992 14' Grumman Aluminum this winter and plan to document it here. Looking forward to sharing it.

Now with my reason for posting to this particular thread:

BigTerp,

I am curious as to why you chose to rivet fill the holes from the transducer versus the JB Weld like you did on the bow? The JB looked perfect and I imagine it would be just as water tight if not more. I will need to fill a few holes in my boat myself and was just wondering if there is a specific reason for using rivets to hole fill versus the epoxy weld?

Thanks for sharing!

Good luck with your build!! Be sure to post pictures, helps us all come up with ideas.

JB Weld was used for old screw holes above the water line. Purely a cosmetic thing. The solid rivets with a bit of 3M 5200 was for holes below the water line. Solid rivets are probably the most water tight thing to do, besides welding. JB Weld would evenutally crack and leak do to the flex of the hull. Alot of guys on here use stainless nuts and bolts with 3M 5200 for holes below the water line with great results. I'm glad I used solid rivets though, piece of mind I guess and it looks factory. Solid rivets are actually MUCH easier to work with than you think. I installed all of them by myself, except for the 8 on the bottom of the hull. My arms aren't quite that long.

 

[louisvillefisherman]

Thanks BIgTerp for explaining that to me. I guess especially on the aft and transom there would be potential for flexing. I know when I ratchet my tie-down straps tight I see the aluminum flex a bit.

I will certainly be threading my progress on here.

Thanks again!

 

[DaveInGA]

Looking good Terp. =D>

 

[BigTerp]

Thanks BIgTerp for explaining that to me. I guess especially on the aft and transom there would be potential for flexing. I know when I ratchet my tie-down straps tight I see the aluminum flex a bit.

I will certainly be threading my progress on here.

Thanks again!

No problem. You'll have to do a search but I'm pretty sure I remember a few posts where guys were having issues with JB Weld cracking just from being constantly submerged. Add the flexing issue and you'll eventually have problems. Either way, not the best idea for holes below the water line. Like I said, a BUNCH of guys on here have used stainless nuts, bolts and washers with 3M 5200 with great success for holes below the water line. I'd go with that or solid rivets for a solid, worry free seal.

 

[BigTerp]

Looking good Terp. =D>

Thanks man. Your guys help was indispensible during my transom replacement!!! I still can't believe how nicely it turned out, or that she actually holds water after all the holes I put in the hull :LOL2:

 

[NextTopBassFisherman]

Have you gotten anymore done?

 

[BigTerp]

Have you gotten anymore done?

I haven't done a thing since I replaced the transom. Been taking her out as is just about every weekend to waterfowl hunt. Already have some new/different ideas of how I want the boat to end up. Glad I didn't jump the gun and got the chance to use it a decent amount before I made any final decisions. Being on the water gives a much better perspective than staring at her in the driveway trying to figure out what you want to do.

 

[panFried]

I haven't done a thing since I replaced the transom. Been taking her out as is just about every weekend to waterfowl hunt. Already have some new/different ideas of how I want the boat to end up. Glad I didn't jump the gun and got the chance to use it a decent amount before I made any final decisions. Being on the water gives a much better perspective than staring at her in the driveway trying to figure out what you want to do.

Hmmm that's probably some of the best advice I've seen yet. Now that bow season is just about done for me, I'm itching to get going again. Happy New Year Terp! Looking forward to seein the plans. Do you think you'll have more of an open floor to accommodate the decoys?

 

[BigTerp]

I haven't done a thing since I replaced the transom. Been taking her out as is just about every weekend to waterfowl hunt. Already have some new/different ideas of how I want the boat to end up. Glad I didn't jump the gun and got the chance to use it a decent amount before I made any final decisions. Being on the water gives a much better perspective than staring at her in the driveway trying to figure out what you want to do.

Hmmm that's probably some of the best advice I've seen yet. Now that bow season is just about done for me, I'm itching to get going again. Happy New Year Terp! Looking forward to seein the plans. Do you think you'll have more of an open floor to accommodate the decoys?

Hey man, hows your build going? I haven't been on here much lately, so haven't had the chance to check yours out.

Yeah, I'm glad I have been able to get her out and get a better feel for the boat while on the water. My plans haven't really drastically changed other than I realized I don't need a bow mounted trolling motor (already have a transom mount style), while nice it would be more of a luxury item for me at this point, and with the water I run I'm not concerned about getting a bilge pump. Been kicking around the idea of a rod/gun locker, but I don't want to encroach on the existing floor space. It did help to confirm some of the ideas I had like removing the middle bench and getting some flooring put in with a nice anti-skid (grizzly grip) applied (wet/frozen aluminum at 4:30 a.m. is pretty darn slippery!!), I have the bruise and knot on my right shin from this past Saturday to prove it.

Yes, I'm definitely taking out the middle bench in favor of a pin mounted seat. Should open up the floor nicely for gear during hunting season and easier travel from stern to bow during fishing time. Still planning on slightly extending the front deck to allow for some under deck storage and another pin mounted seat. Plan to add yet another pin mounted seat on the rear bench and deck from there back to the transom. Also planning on creating storage on both sides of the seat in the rear bench. Other than aluminum flooring, interior lights, radio, switch panel, sonar (that my lovely wife got me for christmas) and a new paint job that's about all I see myself doing.

At this point I'm not really in to much of a rush to get all of this done. I still believe the hard part (transom replacement) is behind me. But I'd like to have it all done by early to mid summer.

 

[BigTerp]

One thing I forget to add is that I'm thinking of a bigger motor. I think I mentioned in this thread before that I got ahold of my grandfathers 1965 Johnson 5hp. Thing was mint under the hood and runs like a champ. It pushes the boat full of hunting gear with 3 guys (260, 250 and 210) up river, albeit rather slowly. The nice thing about the little 5hp is that I can go full throtle through the really skinny parts of the river and just let the motor bounce off the rocks. Everyone else I see up my way is running a jet. A jet is not in the budget and I'm thinking a larger hp motor would be much easier to mess up running in shallow water like we have. I might take the plunge on one if I can find something for really cheap that needs some work. Thinking of 15-25hp.

 

[panFried]

Yeah, I haven't done anything since September. I built a barn, 3 food plots and I did a lot of hunting this year. Once I close up the cabin this month, Ill be back on the rebuild. I want to be on the water for Spring '13.

...Been kicking around the idea of a rod/gun locker, but I don't want to encroach on the existing floor space. It did help to confirm some of the ideas I had like removing the middle bench and getting some flooring put in with a nice anti-skid (grizzly grip) applied (wet/frozen aluminum at 4:30 a.m. is pretty darn slippery!!), I have the bruise and knot on my right shin from this past Saturday to prove it...

I am thinking about having an open floor plan and lockers as well. I ran across another post from Bigwave and hes building some now. You might find it helpful, so check his post out and let me know if this helps. [Bigwave's Rod Lockers]
Let me know or keep us posted about the anti skid solution you come up with, I'm interested. I was thinking about just adding sand to my paint mix, but I'm all about easier solutions.

 

[BigTerp]

Thanks for the link. I like what Bigwave did with those lockers. But I don't like how they intrude into the floor space, which seems inevitiable. I may revisit this idea once I get back into my build, but for now I'm going to pass on the rod/gun locker idea.

For the anti-skid I'm going with grizzly grip. https://www.grizzlygrip.com/

Probably a bit more involved and more expensive than just paint with sand since they reccommend you use their primer. But since I'm using aluminum I'd have to primer either way. I emailed them awhile back asking for samples. They sent me several tiles of different colors with the different options they had (fine, course, etc.). I was rather impressed with it which is what convinced me to go with it. I also had some samples of Hydroturf sent to me. It was nice and seemed like it would be comfortable for bare feet in the summer, but didn't seem very durable. Plus for my boat, I'm planning on doing some sort of camo pattern by painting the grizzly grip with some sort of camo stencil.

 

[panFried]

Nice! Ill have to check grizzly grip out.

 

[BigTerp]

Since this thread is somewhat alive again, I wanted to see if any of you had some ideas for me. Starting to get back into the planning stages now that I have a solid idea of what I want to do.

1. Looking for some kind of interior led lighting. Don't need anything super bright, but something to nicely light the floor of the boat and to keep me from using a headlamp when night fishing or putting out decoys at 4 in the morning. I'm planning on running aluminum sheet up to the gunwale. So I'll have a nice mounting surface for some lights. Just not sure what kind to get. Anyone have some installed they are happy with?

2. I'm planning on having storage area under the rear bench (on both sides of the pin mounted seat) and under the front deck. Trying to figure out what I'm going to do for hatches. I orginally was going to use the spare aluminum from my floor/deck, but not sure how to go about making a decent hatch out of it. Looked into the tempress hatches, which are nice, but a bit expensive. I'm thinking I can make hatches for a fraction of the cost, just need some instruction/guidance.

3. I ran across this mp3 player on Amazon. I originally planned on installing a stereo head unit, but this thing would save some space by not having to mount a head unit. Mp3 is all I need anyway. Anyone have experience with something like this?
https://www.amazon.com/Pyle-PLMRKT2A-2-Channel-Waterproof-Amplified/dp/B003GSLDUO/ref=sr_1_15?s=sporting-goods&ie=UTF8&qid=1357833038&sr=1-15&keywords=waterproof+radio+for+boat

4. Still having trouble locating some aluminum angle. Everyone has the 6061 which I've seen cause problems with making things square. I'm looking for the 6063. My local metal shop can order some in, but that will probably get a bit expensive. I've seen some builds on here were guys used angle from Lowes. They carry the 6063? Good idea?

Thanks for all the help so far!! Can't wait to really tear into this thing and get it the way I want.

 

[BigTerp]

So after waterfowl hunting out of this boat around 10 times or so this year, I've got a pretty good handle on what I want to get accomplished with it this spring. Apparently so does my buddy. He picked up a 1994 50/35 Johnson jet drive over the weekend for next to nothing. It needs a minor rebuild, but other than that is in great shape. I guess he got tired of the old '65 5hp Johnson we were using all winter. Great motor by the way, just a tad under powered at 5hp :? I haven't got the chance to check it out yet, but plan to stop over at my buddies tomorrow to get a look. I'll try to remember to grab some pics.

Even though this will involve more $ and more work, it's got me excited again to get back to working on my boat. Plan on making it a stick steer and keeping all my other most recent plans for the boat. Looks like I'll be needing to make a jack plate for the motor. But other than that, shouldn't be to terribly much extra work..............I hope!!