Grumman 1449 River Boat

[linehand]

Well, this is what I am building. I have a Grumman 1449 that I have been converting to my ideal river fishing boat. It is sitting out in the pouring rain right now checking its drainage design. I didn't want any wood or carpet in this one. I have 2 young kids who like to fish and live bait is always a mess. My other tin has no wood as well but it does have carpet and all of the other creature comforts so this one is pretty much a utility boat. No plans or scetches except in my head, my goals were light weight, river friendly plenty of power, and ease of maintenance and cleaning. Still to do: Mount the front winch, build the small aluminum top with canvas, lights, switches, bilge pump, battery boxes. No plans for a livewell. She sits in the water nicely and gets out of its own way in a hurry. Handles very good.

 

[linehand]

Sorry, I cant load the pictures I have taken that are over 2mb. I resized them and tried but I get an error. So here is half of the story.

 

[PATRIOT2]

Nice work! How much of welder would a guy need to do this? What alloy are you using, and where? Continuous beads aren't necessary on non-structural sheet stock, or are these just tack welds?

 

[linehand]

For the tacking I just use a xra push pull. If you can pull a trigger you can weld with a mig gun. Seams I used a small miller tig 180 sd air cooled. If you were to do aluminum production I would recommend a bigger water cooled tig but for this it works fine. Sheet is 5052 .080 seconds I get them for 60.00 per 4x8 sheet. For a jon boat seconds are fine. Under the floor is 2" insulation pink stuff "r" board or whatever they call it. Tacks are all you need for most areas. seams where there is a load. Drain in the middle... just common sense stuff. different opinins on tig or mig they each have their place and you need both to be efficient.

 

[ditchen]

What was the before and after weight? Looks good, glad to see the all aluminum approach.

 

[linehand]

Hey Ditchen. Thanks for the compliment. I don't know the exact weight savings but I took out soggy plywood and a center bench with a steel lid; so I would guess after the aluminum conversion I had to shave 60 to 90 lbs. I added a battery and used light weight conduit to run the wiring under the floor. It was originally powered by a 15 4 stroke tiller replaced with a 50 Johnson 2 smoker. So It definately will get going compared to when I got it.

 

[rusty.hook]

Great looking rig, good fishin to ya.

 

[linehand]

Thanks man.