Floor installation on 14' boat

[rdhogea]

I have bought a 14' Lowe (1976?) 48" wide. It has 3 aluminum benches (standard?). I want to install a floor because the boat is not very stable.
My thinking has been to install a floor between the front and the middle bench using as supports the benches by themselves (set plywood on the top of the benches). This is pretty much as bass boat. Between the middle bench and rear bench install a floor at lower level.
A friend of mine thinks that if I install the floor so high (top of 2 benches) and install two swivel chairs, I would make the boat very unstable (due to raise up the center of gravity) with the risk of turning the boat up side down.
I need to mention this boat does not provide any frame for floor.
Do you think that installing the floor at the bench level is going to work?
I have never done this before so I need some ideas how should I do it (structural frame)
I appreciate your help.

 

[Bondo]

Re: Floor installation on 14' boat

A friend of mine thinks that if I install the floor so high (top of 2 benches) and install two swivel chairs, I would make the boat very unstable (due to raise up the center of gravity) with the risk of turning the boat up side down.

Ayuh,....

I think your Friend is Right.....

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: Floor installation on 14' boat

it would be like setting a chair in the middle of a kids teeter totter, see-saw. you are raising the center of gravity, on an already unstable platform.

you are better of cutting plywood panels to fit between each seat, and then apply 2x2, 2x4 to the bottom of the panel for support. loose lay them so they can be remove for washdown, and so you can get your favorite lure, out from under it.

 

[tmcalavy]

Re: Floor installation on 14' boat

Your friend and the others who've posted are giving you good advice. TD mentions a very good way to put a floor in. Another option is to use tongue-n-groove wood cut to fit and laid down in removable panels, with wood runners (2X2's or 2X4's) underneath the panels for support. My old 15-foot v-hull tinny had this arrangement between the bench seats. Didn't raise the center or gravity, made a stable platform, easy to use/maintain, and once we got to our favorite fishing holes we could put up a fold-out chair between the bench seats for comfort if the seats on the benches got too rough on the back. Caught a lot of fish that way...if I had kept that boat I would now be trying to figure out how to make a swivel folding chair.