Alternative boat storage on Jon

[Newyota]

Besides buying 'Marine" storage boxes has anyone used anything else.Thinking about cutting holes in my floatation bunks from rear bench set to transom and dropping something in there for storage.

 

[Ned L]

I would consider your idea only if you want the boat to sink to the bottom if swamped.

 

[Newyota]

Why?Only want to remove one area not the whole piece of foam in there or the entire boat just enough to put some storage..See it done all the time.

 

[GA_Boater]

I'm with Ned. The flotation is the bare minimum and removal of even a little may compromise you and your passengers safety.

It sounds like you are doing it anyway. Just because others do something doesn't mean it's a good idea. Good luck and hope for no disasters.

 

[fishrdan]

What ever flotation you remove, you need to replace.

I cut open the seat bulkheads in my jon boat, rolled the edge over 3/4", then lined the entire compartment with 2" sheet foam. The foam block inside the bulkhead had more volume than what I put back into the compartment, so be aware you may need to do multiple layers of 2" foam, double bottom, double sides. FWIW, the foam block inside the bulkhead was surprisingly smaller than what I thought was going to be in there. I installed foam lined decks, so even though I have less in the bulkheads, I have more total foam in the boat.

Don't go hacking a hole into the compartment until you know how big the opening needs to be. I cut twice, once to figure out the size of foam block and remove it, then cut a second time to the actual dimension. Also, you must roll the edge over, or the top of the seat bulkhead is going to be very weak.

Here's the best pic I have, of how the foam was installed.

 

[Ned L]

You might consider thinking of it this way. If you are the boat builder and when you develop a new boat design your testing indicates that you need 10 cubic feet of foam to pass the USCG requirements for the flotation test, .... why would you add more than that? You would add cost and eliminate more usable passenger space from the inside. Or, ... would you add more foam than needed with the thought that some guy may come along years in the future and want to cut our some of the foam for storage boxes? See where we are coming from. You take out a couple of cubic square feet and that could easily be enough to keep the boat from going to the bottom.
Water weighs 64lbs per cubic foot. One storage compartment that removes 10" x 10" x 18" of foam total (not much storage space) is the same as tossing 2 1/4 concrete blocks into your flooded boat and hoping it will still float.

 

[fishrdan]

My Tracker 1436 had the seat bulkheads about half full of foam with a LOT of wasted space on the sides. I could have kept the same amount of foam in the bulkheads while still creating a lot of useful space, by just putting the foam off to the sides instead of directly in the center of the bulkhead.

Problem with doing something like this is it's a leap of faith, hoping that the compartment is not completely full of foam... Some MFG's use pour foam to maximize space, so the bulkhead could be completely full. I poked and prodded around with a wire snaked into the bulkhead to semi-figure out how big the foam block was, before diving in.