Working on my Tracker 1448 Grizzly

[bobberboy]

Nice boat and upgrades. I to would like the 1448Grizzly, they are nice user friendly boats. Well Done

Thanks. I'm pretty happy with everything so far.

 

[Jeffrey Curtis]

SO you have it running out in the river or lake?

 

[bobberboy]

SO you have it running out in the river or lake?

Yes but not at top speed yet because it's not broken in. I know it'll do 27 but still don't know what the top end will be.

 

[bobberboy]

It's been a while since I've worked on the boat. It's either too hot, it's raining or there is fishing going on. I've had two problems I couldn't figure how to solve. One was a location for the second seat. The one on the front deck was fine for the butt seat but not for running or trolling. The other problem was where to put the battery for the TM. I decided to try to solve both at the same time. I finally managed to get hold of a road sign without resorting to stealing it. A friend had one (that he probably stole) from the 90's that gave me just enough material. I can't weld aluminum so I decided to construct a box made from cut panels and alum angle. I pop riveted the corners, it was simple to make and strong enough for this purpose.

I made the top of 3/4" hardwood plywood in order to mount the seat bracket.

A few coats of OD paint...

...and the finished box.

To hold the top on I used angles attached to the underside and drilled through the side of the box into the angles and tapped for 1/4x20 threads.

Two screws on each side and the top is held in place.

The battery is tied down to the floor of the box and the wires go under the floor to the front of the boat...

and at long last I have my TM battery and wiring installed.

Finally with the seat on..

...and one last detail I've been meaning to get to for a while.

I have to take the top of the box off to charge the battery but this was the best compromise I could come up with. One possible solution to the charging problem could be replacing the clip ends of the charger with a TM plug and essentially run the current backwards through the socket to charge the battery. Has anyone ever tried that and would it work?

 

[cprince]

Nice work bobberboy!

I have a small collection of road signs that I will be putting to use once I have my boat in dry dock!

Keep it up, and I will be following your progress.

Craig

 

[Howard]

Very resourceful and nice work. you might want to put some vent holes in to let the battery breath a bit.

 

[bobberboy]

Very resourceful and nice work. you might want to put some vent holes in to let the battery breath a bit.

I wondered about that. What kind of ventilation should I put in?

 

[Zum]

Nice job.
I can't see why that "charging"through the plug wouldn't work.The wires are big enough the handle the trolling motor.
If you were to do it though,I'd put vents in,charging will make heat .

 

[Howard]

You used a vent cover on your last mod I think would work well. Why did you not go back with the Sintra floor?

 

[bobberboy]

You used a vent cover on your last mod I think would work well. Why did you not go back with the Sintra floor?

I used it on the 1236 because I wanted to keep the boat as light as possible. This time there was no question the boat would always be on a trailer. The Sintra is great to work with and will last forever but I guess this time I wasn't afraid of a little more weight. Also, at about $120/sheet it would have cost me $240 for this boat and I decided to put the money to other uses. I keep my boat covered when I'm not using it so I expect to get a lot of years out of the plywood floor. In fact, at this point it'll probably outlast me.

 

[bobberboy]

I have a boat about like yours but a little older. Mine has a 15hp Mariner and she will travel at 22 to 23mph on my hand held GPS. What will that 25 hp do on your boat?

The motor is finally broken in. It takes a long time when you just run to the fishing spot and then use the TM the rest of the time. I don't have GPS but hit 34.5 on my paddle-wheel speedometer the other day with just me in the boat and didn't get the trim as good as it could have been. Even if the speed from the paddle wheel is 10-15% off, that's pretty good. Yesterday with 2 people in the boat I managed 30.5 on a glassy smooth lake.

 

[fishshtick]

Nice job.
I can't see why that "charging"through the plug wouldn't work.The wires are big enough the handle the trolling motor.
If you were to do it though,I'd put vents in,charging will make heat .

More importantly charging produces hydrogen gas that is explosive. You absolutely must have a vent if you plan to charge the battery inside that box.

 

[smittles1179]

Nice!

 

[peabody]

wonder how it did with the 9.9 ? ..... i have a yammie 9.9 ... all i need is the boat.

 

[inlovewithsurfin]

very nice looking boat! great job on the work!!!

 

[Kwack1448]

Where did you get the black cover for under the casting deck?

 

[bobberboy]

Sorry, I haven't been active for a while. I need to get at some updates for my projects soon.

I am pretty sure I got the hatch cover at Great Lakes Skipper. I've found them to be reliable, quick shipping and reasonably priced.

https://greatlakesskipper.com/en_us/boat-doors-hatches-port-windows/deck-hatches

 

[bobberboy]

bobberboy » 21 Aug 2010, 08:45[/url]"]

I have a boat about like yours but a little older. Mine has a 15hp Mariner and she will travel at 22 to 23mph on my hand held GPS. What will that 25 hp do on your boat?

The motor is finally broken in. It takes a long time when you just run to the fishing spot and then use the TM the rest of the time. I don't have GPS but hit 34.5 on my paddle-wheel speedometer the other day with just me in the boat and didn't get the trim as good as it could have been. Even if the speed from the paddle wheel is 10-15% off, that's pretty good. Yesterday with 2 people in the boat I managed 30.5 on a glassy smooth lake.

I haven't been able to get an answer to Jeffrey's question yet but I got close recently. I finally got a GPS (iPhone app that seems very accurate when compared with car speedo) this year but the lake I fish has had very high water levels all summer and "no wake" postings. Last weekend I went to my brother's and we fished the weekend on a large lake in central MN. In moderate chop with three people - into the wind - we hit 25mph. I was really glad to have a welded boat because the pounding to the boat (and some other more delicate things) was much more than I'm used to as I'm generally on small, smooth lakes. You guys who fish coastal waters or very large lakes may be used to not seeing over the top of swells, but that's not really what I'm used to. It was good to have the boat on a busy lake in wind to increase my confidence in its ability. The waves and wakes posed no problems and we bobbed around without incident - even when a dumb-ass in something that looked like a fire boat decided to come between us and a pontoon about 50 yds. away.

 

[fishingeezer]

Damned good job you did. I only hope that once I am able to get my trailer hitch and my boat trailer, that I will find a deal on a 9.9 outboard. Hoping I can buy my 1436 by next summer. My plane is to deck the second seat forward enough to put in a livewell and pedestal seats in the aft and center seats. Wishful thinking for me right now...but we can hope!!

 

[mook1754]

Any issues with your transducer mount location?