Fisher 1860AW... New Boat -- New Construction

[Country Dave]

That looks great. =D> What material did you use on the front deck step up?

 

[russ010]

That looks great. =D> What material did you use on the front deck step up?

We used aluminum - well Dawson bent 1/8" alum and welded it to make a little platform for the trolling motor... the material that is on there is Hydroturf. $50 for a 4'x8' sheet that they say is blemished... the only thing not to their specs is the color is supposed to be black with gray - but it's mostly black... worked great for me. It's about 1/4" thick

I also picked up a blemished sheet of flat (no groves) Hydroturf to line the rod lockers with

 

[DOA_CatDaddy]

BEAUTIFUL rig Russ...CONGRATS & sure hope you enjoy it!!! :beer:

Dawson...you do some ABSOLUTELY AMAZING work!!! You are a true artist with your trade!! Just sent you a PM concerning my project! AWESOME JOB!!! =D> =D> =D>

 

[JonBoatfever]

looks great!

 

[Brine]

Looks great Man, and I like the name 8)

Good luck this year =D>

 

[bassboy1]

Russ, I left the camera at the shop again, so I can't upload the loft pics yet. #-o I'll try to remember it tomorrow.

 

[bassboy1]

Here are the pics I had.

 

[Brine]

Man that looks good 8)

Looking where the carpet meets the hull, reminded me that I used a heat gun on the edge of any cuts I made on carpet for the bunks, and it cleaned up the line and seemed to melt the edge from not fraying anymore. Not sure what downside there is to it. Just a thought I'd mention it.

 

[russ010]

been busy the last few days... even lost track of time the night before last and it was 3:00am and I was still in the garage working.

All plumbing is done, most electrical (one fish finder and rear transducers left) and then I have to figure out what I'm going to line the rod lockers with... I'm thinking I'm going to use the left over hydroturf. I'm not going to be using that color (black) on the floor anywhere except for the bow once I saw how much it actually shows in dirt (foot/shoe prints)...

Here are the pics, I really don't have much time to comment, but ask away and I'll get back to you asap.

recirculate/pump out combo pump -

Pump out hose is running across top - the other hose is Livewell Fill from transom

Fill & bilge pump (both the fill and recirc pumps are 1100gph... the bilge is 1000gph) -- and the rubber mat I'll mention later

Here is the livewell intake... the piece to the left is a transducer bracket I got Dawson to bend and weld on

Inside the Livewell... to the left is the pump in from transom.. on the right is a recirculate/pump out combo valve. When it's pushed in, water recirculates within the livewell - when you pull it out (the red part), water is converted to another hose and is pumped out

And I installed new Bluewater LED lights ... these are clear, the last ones I had were red. I liked the red, but I didn't have anymore, and I destroyed the wires on the pair that were in there before - so new color it is.... for now

And the batteries are in... and charging. Actually, these 7 batteries haven't been used in over 4 months and I checked the voltage on them - everyone was at 12.91 or 12.92. Hooked them up on the Genius Chargers and they were all glowing green in under 4 minutes.

7 batteries in transom area... I did get a rubber mat from Home Depot that you can get to put under washers and dryers (I'll find a pic). I put this down to stop any vibration. Then I found some straps (similar to ratchet straps, just no ratchet - you pull the cord and it tightens against the object). I screwed it down to the floor in the transom, and centered the batteries so that I could strap them to themselves and the floor. They aren't moving!

I even put the big MG 109 on to make sure it works... and I got the tilt/trim wired up and it's awesome

And last but not least... the HDS units in the bow area. I installed the transducer, ran it up the foot pedal control cable and used high strength electrical tape and covered the whole thing. It then goes down into the access hole for about 8 inches, then it comes back out and into the unit. All 3 cables (power, transducer & ethernet) are covered in braid loom. I like it, but it's a pain getting it to not unravel on you if you cut it. I wish I had a heat knife, but I don't.,... but, nothing a little electrical tape can't fix when it's on.

I have to take the foot pedal out to be able to reach everything under the bow, so it's really easy to get to. I routed the cables into a channel I cut out of the original deck, and goes out of the way of the recessed foot tray.

 

[JonBoatfever]

Looks amazing! can't wait to see her all painted up now!

 

[Bass n flats]

Very clean! I especially like the tilt and trim for the trolling motor!

 

[russ010]

Well.. got the rod lockers carpeted and decided to put a piece of carpet on the floor in the area between the front and back deck. Measured, cut and put in place. Pulled back one side and glued it down... went to do the next side and figured I'd speed the process up with the heat gun on the glue --- BOOOOOM!!!! Needless to say I wasn't thinking, but that was the quickest shave I have ever experienced (arms and face (eyebrows, eyelashes, partial beard, and worst of all, all nose hairs (but I've never breathed so well)... and the hair on my head... it was already only a 1/4" long, but now it looks like I frosted the tips even more blonde than it already is).. So, I'm clean shaven, along with a tanning bed burn at the same time . Scared the bejeezus out of me and you can see where I was sitting on the carpet and the steps I took as I frogged out of the boat. I made sure nothing was on fire (besides the crisp carpet on the floor, and some parts of the lids of tan ](*,) - but atleast it's still tan. But still - I could care less about the boat - it's the 1st degree burns on my arms and face (and 2nd degree burns on my right elbow and hand) that worried me. I peeled off clothes as I left the burnt hair trail behind me and went straight to the shower and took a cool shower in 30* weather for about 30 minutes until my burnt skin was back to regular temperature (needless to say the kids finally came out). I downed about 2 gallons of water to keep hydrated and used a good bit of Bacitracin, then applied Solarcaine about 30 minutes later and applied it every hour to control (try to control...) the burning sensations. After the first application of Solarcaine, I was cold on my torso, but hot everywhere I was cinged - so I walked outside shirtless and got the strangest look from my neighbor. I guess in all the confusion, I forgot to put pants on and was out there in my boxer briefs.

So...here it is 10 hours later and I'm no longer red, but have an awesome tan [-X . So when I said use a heat gun in an earlier post to speed up the glue tackyness - don't do it in the garage, and not anywhere the fumes can accumulate and combust.

I'll take some pictures later... but right now my pride is the only thing hurting! [-o<

 

[bigwave]

Wow :shock: I am glad to hear you are ok, with the exception of your pride. Take it as a lesson learned, kinda like throwing gas on wood to start a fire. It works really good, but it will burn you, and real quick. I do not throw gas on fires anymore [-X .....my pride has been swallowed a few times. I am real happy your boat did not catch on fire. Keep up the good work.

 

[Baxtertroy]

Russ first time posts but I have followed your builds for a while. You do some great work and bassboy obviously takes great pride in his. Glad to here you're OK and the boat is good. I know I have had my share of flash burns.

I am hoping you could answer a question. My wife bought me a new Tracker Grizzly 1648 last Memorial Weekend. I was able to fish on it about 3 times before a long temporary assignment kept me away. I'm soon to be back and my 14 year old son is itching to get it wet again. I sketched up an idea that is almost identical to yours

My question is..... Now that you have yours decked with the center open do you think my 1648 is wide enough to have rid lockers on both sides and still room to two people to stand behind a center console?

 

[russ010]

How wide is the top of your boat from one side to the other?

I think you would have enough room to put it down both sides. The bottom of my rod locker is about 7" at the bottom, but gets longer towards the top. I was able to access all 8 rods I had in there for our tournament this past Saturday with ease.

 

[Baxtertroy]

Thanks Russ! I'll have to measure it when I get back. online tells me it's 72" but I believe that's probably at the transom.

your boat is really looking good. Now I have to get myself convinced that it's ok to cutout some decking up front for extra storage and the rear bench as well. The wife is gonna flip if she sees me cutting on the new boat :shock: [-X .

 

[russ010]

I think you will have plenty of room for 2 rod lockers up each side... if you have 72" across, you can figure the top of each rod locker will be about 18". I will measure mine tonight when I get home and see what they are. But if you have 36" in rod hatch, that still leaves you 36" of floor space in the middle

 

[RiverBottomOutdoors]

Holy smokes! That's some nice work. What are all the batteries for?

 

[JonBoatfever]

Holy smokes! That's some nice work. What are all the batteries for?

He fished mostly all electric tournaments and lakes I believe.

 

[russ010]

Holy smokes! That's some nice work. What are all the batteries for?

3 are for the front TM (36v Minn Kota Fortrex 101) and 3 are for the rear TM (36v Motorguide 109)... and then I have another that runs all the electronics, bilge pump, livewell and anything else that needs 12v

Top speed with about 450lbs (2 guys), 7 batteries (350lbs), all the aluminum fabrication (approx 450lbs) and probably 100lbs of tackle -- the boat did around 5.4mph with just the trolling motors. Fill up the livewell, and last time I looked at it was at the end of the day - 4.9mph. I checked the voltage before and after the tournament, and I stayed on the front motor a lot due to wind, the starting voltage for both groups of batteries was 38.6v; when I got it back home the voltage on the rear TM batteries was 36.8v and the bow TM was 36.1v. I think that's pretty good considering how much water we covered, and the fact that I turned motors on and left them running just to keep us in the same spot a few times