Simple Tracker 1436 for the Dogs and Fishing

[CamoLaw]

After lurking around this forum for a while, i just bought a new Tracker 1436 to do a little fishing here in Colorado. I am hauling the boat in the back of my 2008 F250 shortbed with the hitch bed extender for support. It fits great!

My goals:
Fairly light -- I want to load it in the back of the truck myself. I'm considering foam insulation between the ribs and a rubber mat on top. I'm also only running a transom-mount trolling motor -- not sure on size.
Simple -- no fancy, complicated electrical or metal working.
Affordable -- no particular reason other than making me get creative.
Comfortable -- I will mostly take my three old Brittany dogs with me and do a little fishing. I don't care for large fishing decks, but would like some comfy areas for the dogs to rest and two seats for fishing.

So, feel free to discuss suggestions and lessons learned that may suit my needs. Pictures will come soon. Thanks!

 

[Jim]

:WELCOME: Thanks for joining!

I like your idea of nice and simple.

 

[MrSimon]

Welcome!!

So I'm guessing you have a couple bench seats and want a flat floor between them? You could just cut some plywood and lay it between the benches to make floors .... and you could always lay some rubber or foam on top of it for the dogs. You won't need to attache the wood to anything, if you measure and cut well, it will just sit in there with no problems.

 

[CamoLaw]

Jim: Thanks for the Welcome. I look forward to spending a considerable amount of time on this forum.

MrSimon: You hit the nail on the head. I'm not trying to get too fancy and I want to keep the weight down, so I was thinking either foam or plywood (that can be easily removed) covered with one of those rubber truck-bed or shop mats.

What's the concensus for mounting seats to the benches? I think I want to go with actual seats with backs (using a base-mount), but I would also entertain the idea of a padded/cushioned bench seat.

Also, what's everyone's take on a 45 - 55 lb. thrust Minn-Kota transom-mount to push a light 1436 around?

 

[elcapitanmas]

I have the minnkota 55 on my 1860 and it pushs it around nicely. If the price difference isn't too bad between the 45 and 55, just go with the 55, you'll be happy on days that you want to go far. With a new battery, i've trolled for 8 hours on speed 4 before the battery started to noticeably lose power.

 

[CamoLaw]

elcapitanmas:
Thanks for the repsonse. Which particular model 55-lb trolling motor do you have? I like the more economical Minn-Kotas.

Also, what's the best and simplest approach to sealing the plywood for the floor? I think I read somewhere that someone even used a spray-on sealer? Also, what do you do about the slight angle on the front floor section, where the bow slopes up? I assume the best approach is to cut one piece of plywood for that section and not worry about it.

This floor may end up getting carpeted after all, but will not be bolted down and will likely have a handle on each panel to provide for easy removal.

 

[MrSimon]

Here is some advice that you may or may not like.

Since you want to keep this inexpensive and relatively simple .... don't seal the wood. You could just cut some plywood to fit, glue or staple some rubber backed marine carpet to the top and call it a day. You can get this carpet at Lowes or HD pretty cheap. Sometimes they sell indoor/outdoor rugs for like $20 that would be big enough for you to cut two or three squares out of for your floor sections.

Since you won't be attaching these floor pieces to the boat, you can take them out and store them in a dry place. I'd bet you could easily get 5 years or more out of these pieces .... and when they eventually do rot, they are super cheap and easy to re-build.

For the front section, you could just have a slanted floor .... or you could put in a couple stringers going from the bench up to the front to support the floor. Its a little more invasive, but you'd have a flat floor which is nice. You could install the stringers as low as possible to make the floor flat ... that would keep the boat as stable as possible. If you do this, you might want the deck to be attached in a more permanent fashion, and in that case you might want to seal the wood.

I did something similar on an old V-hull I had. It was cheap and took me about an hour to build the entire front deck. Frankly this was a total hack job, but I wanted a deck for a fishing trip to Canada and I only had one evening to build it. It worked great.

 

[CamoLaw]

Now we're talking.

I like the idea of the stringers to level out the floor in the front. I also like how it could provide storage (albeit minimal) underneath. What type of hardware did you use to mount your stringers?

I would like the floors easily removeable, and will likely pull t hem out after each fishing trip, so I'm thinking of even throwing on a minimally intrusive handle on each floor panel to pull it up with.

Thanks for the suggestions!

 

[injunjoe]

Welcome Camolaw.

I just added a deck to my boat and found a very inexpensive waterproofer at Home Depot.
It is like Thompsons water seal but only cost around $11.00 for a gallon.
It is called Multi-Surface Armor made by Home Armor. A gallon will go a long way!
After putting on one coat I found it repelled most of the second coat. Water beads up and runs right off the surface.
Oh and when dry it is my favorite color, clear!

I also wanted to keep my boat light and simple. Using 5/8" plywood I only needed to add one support at the bow.
To keep the weight down I painted the wood with a textured paint instead of carpet (after sealing it first). My dogs also go with me so I just throw down some rubber door mats for them to lay on.

Good luck on your new boat!

 

[MrSimon]

What type of hardware did you use to mount your stringers?

I found some really basic and cheap galvanized brackets at Home Depot that look like this. Again, I'm not necessarily saying this is the way to go, but it was cheap and easy. Some people might say the galvanized brackets and the stainless steel screws I used will react with the wood or aluminum and cause corrosion down the road ..... they might be right, but I didn't care. It worked and was cheap!

If I had it to do over again, I'd probably bend some similar brackets out of thin aluminum sheet and use aluminum rivets to attach it to the boat.

 

[CamoLaw]

Looks good to me. I think I'll try to run some stringers from the front bench up to the front of the boat and put a removable floor panel on top of those. In the middle of the floor panel I may put a hatch to access the storage space below while in the boat. I'm also thinking that it may be just as easy to carpet the panels -- it will definitely feel better on bare feet.

 

[CamoLaw]

Just wanted to give everyone a head's up. I built floor panels this weekend for the middle and front sections. They turned out great. I carpeted them with nice, soft outdoor carpet from Lowe's and attached two handles to each panel to allow for easy removal. I also put horizontal ribs on the panels so they would sit just higher than the boat's ribs. Additionally, I plan to attach some rubber or foam weatherstripping to the bottom of each panel rib to minimize noise and maximize support.

All I need now is to get my 55 lb. thrust motor, battery, and hit the water (well, once the ice melts). Any thoughts on older, small outboards? 1960 - 1980; Johnson/Evinrude; 2 - 10hp?

Pictures to come soon!

 

[MrSimon]

Awesome! I can't wait to see the pics.

With older motors, its all about how well they were maintained. Any motor can be great, and any motor can be a disaster.