Need Help with Boat Loading

[maintenanceguy]

I bought a 17' jon boat. I've stripped everything off the haul to paint and as we get some warmer weather, I'm going to paint the hull and reassemble everything. I would like to have the fuel tank and batteries in the stern behind the only bench seat. I'm afraid that having 790 lbs in the rear 1/3 of the boat may be a bad idea. The hull only weights about 350 lbs empty.

I can't put the fuel tank and batteries under the front deck because that area is foam filled. So, if I need to put that weight forward, that leaves the fuel tank and batteries sitting on the floor taking up usable space. In addition to the normal fishing gear and people, we do some crabbing and commercial crab pots take up a lot of room. Any floor space is valuable.

Moving the fuel and batteries to the bow also makes the space behind the bench seat kind of useless. I just don't have enough junk with us on the boat to make that space really useful for storage.

The drawings below are pretty close to the actual dimensions of everything on the boat. I'm hoping that rear loading everythign will be fine but wanted to hear from others who own a similar sized boat.

Thanks.

 

[MrGiggles]

I bought a 17' jon boat. I've stripped everything off the haul to paint and as we get some warmer weather, I'm going to paint the hull and reassemble everything. I would like to have the fuel tank and batteries in the stern behind the only bench seat. I'm afraid that having 790 lbs in the rear 1/3 of the boat may be a bad idea. The hull only weights about 350 lbs empty.

I can't put the fuel tank and batteries under the front deck because that area is foam filled. So, if I need to put that weight forward, that leaves the fuel tank and batteries sitting on the floor taking up usable space. In addition to the normal fishing gear and people, we do some crabbing and commercial crab pots take up a lot of room. Any floor space is valuable.

Moving the fuel and batteries to the bow also makes the space behind the bench seat kind of useless. I just don't have enough junk with us on the boat to make that space really useful for storage.

The drawings below are pretty close to the actual dimensions of everything on the boat. I'm hoping that rear loading everythign will be fine but wanted to hear from others who own a similar sized boat.

Thanks.

One thing I would do is move the batteries to the port side to offset your weight, might keep the boat more level.

I think you will be okay, I have pretty much the same setup, although I do have one battery and a trolling motor up front. My outboard also weighs quite a bit more. Most boats are set up this way from the factory.

If you are going to run a bow mounted TM it would be smart to move a battery up there to simplify wiring, but there is no need to relocate the starting battery IMO. It may not be that difficult to carve out some foam and put in an access hatch.

 

[Weldorthemagnificent]

Whenever shifting weight around in a boat, experience has taught me that I’m better trying it in the water before building or making anything permanent. Sounds like a lot of weight in the back.
I have a 16’ V-hull and just use one battery for both trolling and cranking. The trolling motor is small at 36 lbs thrust and I can use it for 3 days of bass/pike fishing on a charge and it will still crank the 35hp motor. A budget way to run power from bow to stern or vise versa is repurposed booster cables. I wait for the good long ones to come on sale. If you decide to stay with 2 batteries, you could put them up front and make a deck extension to cover them. Then it’s still useable space without losing floatation. Even mount an on board charger underneath. A little weight up front is good especially on the rough days.
Post pics!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[LDUBS]

Whenever shifting weight around in a boat, experience has taught me that I’m better trying it in the water before building or making anything permanent.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

X2.

Unless I misunderstand your comments and you have already done this, I would run the boat with the stuff in the back where you want it, and coincidentally where it was designed to be, before I started making any modifications. Who knows, everything might work out well. Worse case is you confirm the need to re-trim the boat.

 

[eshaw]

I'd suggest that you do your weight distribution scenarios on the water. Some other suggestions for balancing out your weight would be moving the steering if required, adding pods if needed or utilizing the space under the rear bench seat. I sank a truck box into mine. It's lockable storage and I have two batteries in it, one for cranking the main motor and the other for cranking my kicker and doing other house functions like the radio, lighting duties, depth finder/fish finder, etc.. My boat is a 16 foot flat bottom so you should have plenty of options with the 17 you have.

 

[ppine]

I think you easiest sollution is to leave everything where it is and move the passengers forward. Move the helm amidships with a passenger seat facing forward across from it.

Look at the design of other boats. Every configuration has been tried. Do not reinvent anything. It is not necessary.
No offense, but you weigh almost as much as your boat. You may be much better off with a bigger boat, say 17-18 feet plus.

 

[CedarRiverScooter]

Try the simple solutions 1st, it may not even be a problem.

 

[surfman]

You can always install smart tabs, they work great.

 

[maintenanceguy]

Thanks for the suggestions. I guess I'll make it's maden voyage with the fuel tank and batteries in the stern and see how it goes. I'l wait until later to make the fuel lines and battery cables permanent until I see what works.

I like the smart tabs. If I can't get things level with trim, I may install a set.

 

[LDUBS]

Hope you will come back and let us know how the water trials went. My previous 15' side console boat weighed about the same as yours. Main diff is it was a V bottom boat. Anyway, I am not a small guy and I used it without any problems with the batt and gaso tank in the back. Hopefully you will find that the layout works in your boat.

 

[maintenanceguy]

Hope you will come back and let us know how the water trials went. My previous 15' side console boat weighed about the same as yours. Main diff is it was a V bottom boat. Anyway, I am not a small guy and I used it without any problems with the batt and gaso tank in the back. Hopefully you will find that the layout works in your boat.

Won't happen until spring. I need some warm weather to get paint on the hull and then I'll spend a week putting everything back on the boat. But I plan to get some video of it from the shore because I want to see how it rides so I'll post that video.

 

[eshaw]

I was going to suggest that you get some pics from shore so you can see how it sets in the water. If you want to simulate people in the boat you can load it with old tires where they would sit, etc.. It's easy to shift the weight around that way too.

 

[Pappy]

All great suggestions so far.
Definitely move the fixed weight batteries to the port side to offset your weight.
Other than that your weight will never be where you want it all the time due to the fact you will be adding crab traps, bait, etc. to the boat all in a day's outing. In short....don't worry too much about it as people can move as has been mentioned.
Merry Christmas and good crabbing!

 

[richg99]

While I love Smart Tabs and often recommend them, they won't help your hull balance unless you are moving forward.

Sponsons will help while just floating.