Inflatable boat, DIY wooden floor?

[bill fish]

Hi all...<br /><br />New to the forum and recently used a friends inflatable. Started another thread in the evinrude engine forum regarding fixing up the 4hp engine.<br /><br />Anyway, the boat itself is a 8 to 9 foot Avon Redcrest, rated for 4 hp, 700 lb capacity (gawd, it would probably barely float/move with that load!), with a pointed/uplifted front end and a rounded/flat back end where the main seat is (ie, not the straight back tapered tubes and vertical transom like the zodiacs), as well as an inflated tube across the center for another seat.<br /><br />Now, currently the boat only has the "plastic"/pvc? floor.<br /><br />And it was a royal pain in many ways.<br /><br />Moving around at all on it was no fun.<br /><br />Nothing in the back half of boat would stay in one place.<br /><br />And perhaps most importantly because things (gas tank, anchor, tools, rope etc etc) wouldnt stay in place, and the fact the wobbly floor really limited where I could sit, it wasnt easy to get everything in the proper location to get the CG just so, allowing me to plane as best as possible. And even when I did, things moved and I'd loose it....<br /><br />In addition, I suspect the highly irregular and non-flat "trampoline" bottom did little in terms of planing or efficiency.<br /><br />Now, dont get me wrong.....I never realized how much fun you could have in a little boat with just 4HP.<br /><br />But it would be nice to gain to lessen the aggravation as well as gain a few mph (which is a BIG deal when your only going about 5 mph to start!)<br /><br />So, assuming I could live a single piece wooden floor for the back half....<br /><br />Any ideas of how to do it or not do it?<br /><br />Any ideas of the best shape to optimize the boats planing ability at a 1 or 2 light person load?<br /><br />And I suspect once I've got a more flat, stable and predictable boat hull, the motor placement and prop would be able to optimized a bit more as well....<br /><br />thanks<br /><br />take care<br /><br />Blll

 

[Luna Sea]

Re: Inflatable boat, DIY wooden floor?

Two different things here:<br /><br />I've seen people overpower larger inflateables, 10-12 ft. range, and replace the 4 or 5 piece wood floor with one solid piece. This made them more stable as the floorboards wouldn't "buckle" while screaming along. So yes, you can make some cardboard templets and fit one solid piece of wood in there. And you'll get a more "stable" platform.<br /><br />As for the speed though, if you don't have the inflateable keel in there, I wouldn't expect more performance out of it. I don't believe you have a "planing hull". So I'm not sure if you'll get the extra mph.<br /><br />Good luck!

 

[mellowyellow]

Re: Inflatable boat, DIY wooden floor?

a piece of carpet over the plastic floor might<br />work and wouldn't add any weight...cheap too <br />one with a rubber back would be needed.

 

[kernal3]

Re: Inflatable boat, DIY wooden floor?

I recently purchased an old Sears inflatable boat with a soft rubber type bottom, no seats etc. I would like to put a hard floor in it so that I could fish out of it. It does have a transom that mounts off the back of the tube, and I have a small trolling motor and battery. I have some marine plywood and 2 inch styrofoam insulation board. Do I just cut it to shape and slip it in after blowing it up? Do I cut it to size from the bottom of the boat and just make it a 1/2 inch smaller? Do I need to cover the plywood with something?

Thanks,
Kernal

 

[DO NOT use company names]

Re: Inflatable boat, DIY wooden floor?

It would be greatly appreciated to millions of ppl searching for a

Do It Yourself (DIY) tips or guide or advice on how to fashion yourself

a homemade reliable hard floor for their inflatables or SIB's

I have look at some pics of them online, but I have never seen one

in real life, otherwise I would be able to build one myself by

mimicking the design of sevylors or other companies that make them.

So ill be a repeater

Does any one have any suggestions as to what type of material:

(plywood, styro-foam, plastic) could I use to make my own floorboard

for a soft-floor inflatable? Here is an example of a pic i saw online of a

floor board

I see the shape, but i need more detailed advice, my my buddy kernal3

asked above, what type of material to use to build it? do i let the DIY

floorboard sit on direct contact with the soft floor of the boat?

do i need to cover the bottom of the floorboard with something so it

it sits softly against the floor? Is this safe?

 

[DO NOT use company names]

Re: Inflatable boat, DIY wooden floor?

Wow I just found this link on the same forum check it out.

has some good info'z

http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=317546

http://www.defender.com/category.jsp?path=-1|294&id=299769

 

[DO NOT use company names]

Re: Inflatable boat, DIY wooden floor?

Wow guys I did it.

I made my own Floorboard for my 9 ft Solstice Voyager

I will post pictures and details a bit later on this post,
I just got thru taking it out on the river for a test run, and it all worked beautifully. I'll say a few things though, I did it for less than 20 Bucks.
I DID not use Marine ply ( too expensive) I use some finished weather/Water proofed 10mm Ply, I drew my own schematics to make it just by taking the demensions of the floor area space inside the Soft Inflatable.

I was able to stand in the 110 inch SIB that specs are:

110 inches long 62 inches wide
Maximum Load 750 lbs
4 chamber Heavy Duty PVC
With 420 Denier boat boot

I will post more details later,,.,

 

[Maid_Of_Rubber]

Re: Inflatable boat, DIY wooden floor?

DO NOT use company names -
please post your details/pics/plans/etc - I'm just about to do the same for an 8ft Campari inflatable sailing dinghy (don't laugh...it works for me!).
I'm planning along the same lines you proposed (WBP plywood) and I've taken a template from the boat floor. Having spoken to friends with *similar* sized craft, I'm envisaging a 3-part floor connected with canvas or something. I'm not sure whether plastic/metal stringers are needed or not, what with it being 8ft long an' all.
Any and all suggestions appreciated.

 

[Les Robb]

Re: Inflatable boat, DIY wooden floor?

I think I would protect the boat from the edges of wood with a split piece of vinyl tubing or similar idea.

Sounds good anyway

 

[Maid_Of_Rubber]

Re: Inflatable boat, DIY wooden floor?

Les Robb: I agree; a friend suggested a split piece of hose-pipe. I was thinking about using some of those swim noodles round the edge; turns out swim noodles could be quite handy in another way: to replace/stand in for inflatable keels. How much improvement do you get from a v-hull, however slight the vee? I'd love to know...

 

[canningkiller]

Re: Inflatable boat, DIY wooden floor?

hey guys i just put together a 2 peice plywood floor for my 9ft inflatable , thought id share , plywood.... if you pop in to your local door fitting shop they should have sizable bits of strong ply out back being thrown away , saves $$$ and i bought 3 pool noodles as a soft outside edge all up cost me $10.50 and shes solid as a rock , can anybody suggest something to seal the ply with i can build another floor but id rther be fishing , only took me 2 hours with jigsaw

 

[WIMUSKY]

Re: Inflatable boat, DIY wooden floor?

canningkiller, please don't post to threads that are over 90 days old as was stated in the big red box at the bottom of the screen. Thank you and welcome to the forum...

Rule - 12. Please do not post to threads that have been inactive for more than 3 months UN-LESS you are the original poster. We have very active forums and any thread that remains inactive for that long should be considered "dead". It is especially confusing when there is an entirely new question posted to an old thread. This is considered a hijack. Please start a new thread of your own.

 

[CopperFox]

Re: Inflatable boat, DIY wooden floor?

Kernal,
You might want to look at what has been done as far as custom floors for the Sevylor and Intex inflatables, as been described on this website in considerable detail. If somehow you are unable to locate anything, search my posts on the topic. Though I never started such a thread, I have added quite a bit of info, with a number of photos. Good luck.

EDIT: Sorry. Somehow this thread got elevated and I assumed I was responding to a recent post. My mistake.