16' John Boat Floor Installation

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hutch10

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Sep 9, 2008
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I just purchased an older 16' john boat that I want to use for duck hunting first and fishing second. I would like to instal a floor in the majority of the boat just on top of the ribs, and then put a small deck on the front of the boat. I need help on how to instal these type of things, most importantly how am I actually supposed to fasten the floor and decking to the boat without causing problems. I want to try and keep the boat light since it will have 2-3 people gear and a dog in it.

Also I have an 18hp Evinrude that I will use to power the boat will this be adequate?
 

tmcalavy

Rear Admiral
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Aug 29, 2001
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Re: 16' John Boat Floor Installation

Your 18 hp should do fine. I like removeable decks, so I just lay down wooden stringers parallel with the ribs and put ply on them, or decking boards...in panels so I can pull them out for cleaning. Make a tight fit and it will stay in place. Be careful of putting a bow deck too high, can affect the stability.
 

halas

Petty Officer 1st Class
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Jan 27, 2009
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347
Re: 16' John Boat Floor Installation

You might want to use an old aluminum ladder like I did on this old 14' Mirrocraft. Floor (deck) and battery tray base under front deck.
 

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Bob_VT

Moderator & Unofficial iBoats Historian
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Re: 16' John Boat Floor Installation

Moving to Building and Restoration ;)
 

5150abf

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Re: 16' John Boat Floor Installation

halas A+ on the reengineering job, I love doing stuff like that.

hutch, I concur with tm, a removable floor is really your best option and it is the easiest to build, you really don't need to attach ti to the boat.

I ahve seen plywood floors with strips of wood fastened to the bottom to match the contour of the hull, just make the strips so they catch oposite sides of the ribs and you will have a very stable floor.

The deck on the front will require some L brackets screwed thru the hull to attach the deck to that, but as stated , the higher you go the more unstable it is.
 

tmcalavy

Rear Admiral
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Re: 16' John Boat Floor Installation

Great idea on re-engineering old ladders for another life...I've passed many by in the scrap heap cause I couldn't think of a ready use for them...now I know how to be a true ladder recycler.
 

fishrdan

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Jan 25, 2008
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6,989
Re: 16' John Boat Floor Installation

Cool idea with the ladders.

Here's a shot of the front deck on my 1436.
dscf2187.jpg


The deck is flushed to the tops of the ribs, with 1 additional 1x1 pine stringer in between each of the boat's aluminum stingers. You can see one of the pine stringers at the bottom of the pic. I used 3/8 plywood and was lucky enough to find a piece that was bowed to the contour of the front deck. The seat bulkheads have aluminum angle's riveted to them and the decks are screwed to the angles so they are removable.

I foamed the bottom of the decks for soundproofing, but I live in the desert and they will dry out when wet. If the bottom of the deck is going to stay damp/wet, don't foam it. Foam adds a lot of strength to the deck, so if you are not foaming it, use 1/2" plywood. If not foaming I would also add some type of soundproofing (carpet, felt) to the deck and boat ribs so the decks don't clack while motoring and stepping on the deck.
 

CN Spots

Lieutenant Commander
Joined
Oct 19, 2005
Messages
1,612
Re: 16' John Boat Floor Installation

Ditto on the removable deck. The boat I am using is my Step-Fathers so I didn't want to punch a bunch of holes in the boat to secure the deck so I had to get creative. Where as the lower deck had to be fastened to the ribs (6 screws) the upper deck was clamped to the underside of the front bow seat using some long bolts and some L brackets.

The layout was done in the computer and although not necessary, it made making adjustments during the planning stage much easier...

Layout:
JonBoatDeckLayout.jpg


In progress:
SubDeck1.jpg


This shows both decks installed. The upper deck is attached to the lower deck in the rear by those two 2x2s.
Deck1.jpg


I was originally going to leave the deck open but I found some GatorBoard (foam laminated between plastic) to make a bulkhead out of. The hatch is held closed by velcro.
Deck2.jpg


If you'd like, I can post a blank layout so that you can use to plan your deck out with. Good luck on your project!:)

spots
 

Bassmaster342

Recruit
Joined
Jul 21, 2009
Messages
1
Re: 16' John Boat Floor Installation

I would like to find out what program on the computer you used to do that...please let me know, I am trying to layout my project on my 1436 jon boat.
 

CN Spots

Lieutenant Commander
Joined
Oct 19, 2005
Messages
1,612
Re: 16' John Boat Floor Installation

It was Adobe Illustrator. A bit pricey but I use it in my career. There may be less expensive applications available.

Sorry for the late reply. Repair threads move quickly 'round here and I missed this one.:redface:
 

gtracer226

Recruit
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Aug 11, 2010
Messages
3
Re: 16' John Boat Floor Installation

You might want to use an old aluminum ladder like I did on this old 14' Mirrocraft. Floor (deck) and battery tray base under front deck.

So I have a 1984 starcraft in need of a floor. I like your ladder idea but im curious as to how you mounted the aluminum ladder to the boat and what you used to hold it all together. My boat is just bare ribs so I have no idea where to start.
 

reelfishin

Captain
Joined
Mar 19, 2007
Messages
3,043
Re: 16' John Boat Floor Installation

I just got done doing something very similar with a Starcraft 14' aluminum hull.
On this one I ran a single wood stringer down the middle, matching the taper of the keel versus the hull's spray rail ledge. I ran the deck from just below the rear bench, up to about the front edge of the front bench. The floor will end up being flat snug up against the bottom of the factory bench seat bottoms. I then will mount pedestal seats on top of the benches.
I used 1/2" ply, and the only seam in the deck is under the middle bench seat. The center stringer that I added was cut from a 2x6 and simply glued in place with some 5200. The deck is screwed every 6" down the center to the keel and to two reinforcement panels along the seam to keep the deck from warping or opening up. The outer edges of the deck are set snugly into the ledge on each side, each panel set in place and pushed tightly forward to where it belongs. I'll just give the deck a final coat of heavy epoxy paint for now with some grit for traction. The deck slopes upward towards the bow area about 2 1/4" or so. It's not noticeable when in the water and actually seems to help the stability of the boat over a deck set lower or flat along the keel. Adding the deck also made the boat feel bigger as it gave more flat foot space, and the bit of space left open under the forward deck makes for the perfect place to store life jackets and other odds and ends. I stopped the deck short of the transom so as to be able to access the bilge, allow the battery to sit lower in the boat and out of the way of the motor when tilted, and I used the last section beyond the last rib as a battery tray, with a 1/4" rubber mat under the battery box with a strap between the rib and the transom. I had some concerns as to adding too much weight as well as to how the deck would 'feel' in the boat, but the result was absolutely perfect. It made the boat so much nicer to use and so much more comfortable on the water.

I attached a few pics of the deck in progress to show how it sits in the boat.

The area most improved by this design was the bow area, it made the forward bench area usable as where before you had to walk in the V portion of the hull, basically only in the middle. Its a far easier boat to keep balanced now. I used 1/2" ACX plywood, one 2x6 cut to fit, just over 8' long to span the fore and aft ribs properly, and about 30 1 1/4" SS wood screws. I'd say the overall weight is about one full sheet of 1/2" ply, plus another 1/4 sheet and the keel board. About 80lbs in all I guess. The seats are padded fold down bass boat seats on steel pedestals, the bench tops are now made from red oak. The deck is painted on all sides with 3 coats of light gray epoxy paint. The boat is powered by a 9.8hp Mercury, its gets on plane with two guys at about 600lbs total weight onboard, so the deck and seats didn't ad that much weight. A 20hp makes it move a lot better but we've got a HP limit here to deal with in several lakes. Next is to permanently mount the fuel tank in the bow. I may opt for a small V shaped tank with a permanent fuel line under the deck. This will be the icing on the cake as far as it's handling and running speed with the small motor.
 

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Revenge

Seaman
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Jan 28, 2009
Messages
50
Re: 16' John Boat Floor Installation

The best I?ve seen was someone made channels that laid on top of the existing ribs horizontally. The channel was approximately 2 x 2 and the length of the rib. Keep in mind the ribs in the boat were bent in contour of the ?v? in the boat. By laying the channels on top of the ribs it made it now a flush mounting surface for the floor. They then took 1/8? aluminum sheet and notched for each rib and fasten it down with rivets. I did something similar, but my Jon Boat?s ribs were flat so using the channels wasn?t necessary. Beware. On some boats the ribs don?t go vertical. They tend to angle back, so the notch you cut in the floor for the ribs may be correct at the top before dropping it down, but not correct at the floor height. I cut my sheet metal in half long ways to avoid this. Make a template!! Once you have your floor in you can then build a deck frame out of angled aluminum and fasten that down to your floor using rivets. It you want to remove the deck use a chisel and shear the heads of the rivets.

Best of luck.
 

wjmuncie

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Mar 17, 2020
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Hi, ok so I’m new to boating, I have a 1995 14’ Starcraft v-hull. My question is my bench seats have a piece of aluminum about 8” wide from bottom of bench and attached to the floor, how can I take my seats of to add a floor??
 

GA_Boater

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Hi, ok so I’m new to boating, I have a 1995 14’ Starcraft v-hull. My question is my bench seats have a piece of aluminum about 8” wide from bottom of bench and attached to the floor, how can I take my seats of to add a floor??

Start a new thread. This one has been dead for 10 or 11 years.

Closed.
 
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