Lowe Roughneck 1755 Jet boat

[dearl]

As you can see I went with the black/red/camo theme, even sent my 2 position rod holders in and had them re-dipped with a red swirl. So far I'm happy with the color combination.

 

[dearl]

Got the steering helm pump mounted last night, also mounted the custom switch panel and wired the nav./anchor light switch, bilge pump and courtesy lights. Sold my 998 to a friend, and ordering a new Helix 10 Mega SI today.

One word of caution, if you ever decide to install hydraulic steering on your boat, be careful with the bleeder tee's mounted on the steering cylinder. My big arm Son accidently broke one installing the port side hose fitting. Luckily their readily available online @ $32.00 a pair. The replacements should be in tomorrow then I can finish the steering and move on to the fuel fill assembly. I'm still hoping to put her in the water Friday or Saturday.

 

[dearl]

Got the fuel gauge installed and wired last night, Steering cylinders bleeders came in so I got them installed. Working on the fuel fill bezel now, hopefully finish the fuel tank fill hoses tonight plus get my running lights and grab rail installed. Still planning a splash on Friday or Saturday.

 

[dearl]

Well, we got the steering bled and working perfect. Man I love this hydraulic steering, anyone that has run a jet knows how you have to stay on the wheel in current while you idle through shallows, I used to have to 2 hand this thing, not no more, I can drive this one with 2 fingers, its smooth too, no dead spots anywhere. Also got the new Helix 10 Mega Si installed. I've ran side image electronics since they first came out some years back, always Hummingbird. Boy they hit a home run with this one, screen is crystal clear even In bright sunlight, and the mega side image was worth the extra $500 bucks trust me.

With all that done, me and my son put $40 bucks worth of high test In the new fuel cell and head to the closest ramp which is about 8 miles from the house. Get her off the trailer and I immediately like what I see, bows up, water line on the pods is good. I hit the key, bam fired right up. we idle through the shallows and I can tell she's gonna run real shallow now. Hit the main river, winds blowing pretty good but still managed to check out the steering real good make sure we had no issues, than nailed it...boy she jumped out the water and skint back, I managed 34 mph then the proposing came. The wind might have played a part In it but I'm happy with what I see so far. Throttle response is awesome, no hesitation at all anywhere. My son even said, this thing rides like a totally different boat. I'll probably take her back out early this week, and dial it in. If need be I can run my bait tank on the front bow to hold the nose down, I've done it before.

We come back home and start installing rod holders and the rear rod rack. Pretty much everything's done, my new live well and front deck hatch arrive tomorrow, I'll get those installed along with some paint on the front and rear decks, then I'm going fishing.

 

[DPI]

The boat turned out great. Your craftsmanship is impressive and I enjoy reading your threads because of it.

What are you doing about a hatch? I need to get one fabbed for a bow mounted battery box I made.

 

[dearl]

The boat turned out great. Your craftsmanship is impressive and I enjoy reading your threads because of it.

What are you doing about a hatch? I need to get one fabbed for a bow mounted battery box I made.

Thank you. I ordered 2 custom hatch's from R&R design, 1 for the Live well and another for the Forward hatch, they are suppose to arrive tomorrow.

 

[dearl]

Hatch lids came in yesterday, very nice work by R&R Design as usual. I prepped and painted the front deck and got the forward deck hatch installed last night, along with 2 more 12 volt accessory plugs on the rear bulk head. 1 was wired to the cranking battery and the other on the house battery. Planning to prep the rear deck and paint it and install the live well hatch tonight. Then all I have left to do is make the side plates to cover the ribs, I'll get to that after the Tournament, I got to put some thought into that one. I have an adjustable Bimini top that mounts to it, but I'm thinking of making a bracket to utilize the gunnel track instead. still up in the air on that one, until then she'll be ready to fish come Saturday.

 

[fool4fish1226]

Great build thanks for sharing =D>

 

[DPI]

The hatch looks good.

Would you mind measuring the mounting surface of the hatch frame to the lowest part of the hatch? I need to see how far they insert into the cutout because I have limited depth.

Also, do you happen to have the distance between the cutout and the hatch opening? I ordered a hatch yesterday and i was told the cutout was about 1.25" larger than the hatch opening.

 

[dearl]

They are 1" deep. All of my hatch's are 2.5 inches total over the inside measurement.

 

[DPI]

They are 1" deep. All of my hatch's are 2.5 inches total over the inside measurement.

Perfect. Thanks for the information. I had to call R&R and change the size of mine so it would fit between the main support rails.

 

[tomme boy]

that is a nice boat. Have you heard about running a vent in the tunnel? Supposed to give you a couple more MPH as it sucks the air out of the tunnel that gets trapped.They do this on a bunch of tunnel boats around here that run in a few shallow rivers.

 

[dearl]

that is a nice boat. Have you heard about running a vent in the tunnel? Supposed to give you a couple more MPH as it sucks the air out of the tunnel that gets trapped.They do this on a bunch of tunnel boats around here that run in a few shallow rivers.

I have heard of guys venting their tunnels, but everything I've heard is venting of prop tunnels, not sure how much improvement it would make on a jet tunnel like mine.