Intex Mariner 4 modifications and Tips

[Jiggyjay]

I just brought this boat. Currently I have a si fish finder 5 inch humminbird, a 30 trolling motor and a 3.5 hp motor. Haven't used the fish finder or the hp motor yet.
My first day out with the trolling motor didn't go so hot. I'd get about 2 cast in before I had to sit down and bring the boat back to it's spot. I also didn't find the trolling motor that easy to control but it might be me. Thinking of maybe going with a foot one.

In a perfect world I would like to go with a bow trolling motor with the hp motor in the transom. But looks like that is going to require some work judging from the first post here. I haven't been able to read through the whole thread but has their been easier to design motor mounts? Without the specialist work required to bend pipes?

Any ideas on how to attach the fish finder would be helpful as well.

I've done this just using the stock intex mount. I u bolted a board on top of the mount and installed the bow mount trolling motor on it. You can see my setup here.


https://youtu.be/3s7_znZR7E8

Look at my newer videos as well and u can see me new motor with i pilot! It works great
I haven't don't a video on this yet but I recently cut up my old m4(yellow one) and used the old motor mount from it to the new M4. Used HH66 and bought another intex motor mount and the plan is to have my Suzuki on one end and the Minn kota bow mount on the other. I'll try to get a video of that setup soon. The mount seem sturdy but again I have not gotten out to test it. You can buy the motor mounts on eBay here.

Look at this on eBay http://www.ebay.com/itm/262053512689

I bought a couple of pairs of these mounts but did not use them in my setup. They are the same diameter as the m4 motor mount. Watch this guys video and u can see how he mounted it on an inflatable kayak

https://youtu.be/GF9Uim20R6A

 

[robdogj]

So I'm working on my mods now and I can at least tell you what I will be doing. I will attach pictures once I'm done.

1. I'm going with the two piece version of the floor since being able to stand and fish is important to me and I worry that the 3 piece version will give up too much stability in that respect. I agree though that this will likely put some bad pressure on the seams which will need to be patched now and again, but that will probably be necessary regardless. Also, the three piece version would make one rather large middle piece which would be harder to transport in a car.

2. I'm guessing this is to put the battery at the front to distribute the weight? I would just put your anchor and other gear at the front and keep the battery in the back. I don't want wires running across the floor of my boat.

3. I was conflicted on this myself. I didn't want to bolt any seats to the floor since that would be a very tedious process when setting up and tearing down the boat. My solution (NOT TESTED YET) was to buy some foldable swivel chairs (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1). I'm not sure yet if these chairs will be stable enough on the two piece floor, but if so than it will be a great way to have very portable bass chairs. If they arn't stable than I will find a way to leash them to the floor boards with bungies.

4. You can either buy/make a inflatable boat license plate or use stencil and sharpie. For the actual state decal, I bought a velcro patch which I will attach to the sticker when I go out and then put it in my bag when packing up.

5. Shouldn't need any reinforcement as long as your motor is less than 40 pounds.

6. Concerning anchors, I would go heavy (10 pounds at minimum). I plan to drop anchors off both the bow and stern as I've heard that one of the biggest drawbacks to these boats is that the wind will constantly blow you around. Just use an anchor line or paracord (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1). I'm going to clip my anchor line to the rope that wraps around the boat.

how did your project turnout? Also are you having any issues w/ the anchoring of your raft?

 

[Bonaventure]

For jurisdictions that require licencing all powered boats, could the Registration Numbers be mounted on a board and tied in place on an inflatable?

 

[coldclearwater]

Keep in mind though the Endura Max is supposed to extend the life of batteries compared to standard Endura models. Having only ever used the Max models, I cannot say just how effective this is.

On the subject of the older line of Minn Kota motors being operated at only 50% power, the new motors should run much more efficiently because they employ Pulse Width Modulation. The older line of motors didn't have their "Digital Maximizer." Yeah it's cheap sounding nomenclature, but basically the older models would consume the same amount of juice at 100%, 75% or 50%, and to consume that juice, it would do so by transforming it into heat energy. I was told this over the phone by one of their employees.

I always maxed out my old 30# thrust, so I probably won't notice a big saving in energy. But if you used the previous model only at 50%, batteries should last a lot longer.

 

[coldclearwater]

Are you guys putting your plywood floors over your factory floors? I hope not because those floors are about 3/4" thick and my plywood is 3/4" thick making a 1.5" floor. Curious how y'all did it.

Here's a cool mod: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_okvxzXVgY

 

[maizenblue]

Hey all, just made an account to participate in this thread since it has been such an awesome resource. I've had a mariner 4 for a few months; so far I've taken it on quite a few high alpine lakes in the PNW and it's really opened up access for me. I'm building a two-piece hard floor out of 1/2" ply next week, painting it with Sherwin Williams Armorseal tread-plex (an industrial application acrylic-latex enamel) since I got a good deal on it and it seemed to have positive reviews. Thought about going with oil based enamel paint or an epoxy/ poly seal but the cost was prohibitive based on how often it's being used. Skipping the carpet - I may apply some crushed walnut shells to the first coat of paint to add traction. I'll update with how it turns out if anyone is interested.

I was wondering if anyone has modified the attached rod holders to accommodate a fly rod. I usually only use my 5wt rods in the mariner, and they have very short rod butts that won't really hold well in the rod holders. There are two ideas I had to mod them but both seem slightly flawed.

First would be to cut a channel in the existing rod holders so that the reel seat can sit deeper, like this:

http://dizzybigfish.co.uk/wp-content...YFlyRodHo4.jpg

However, the plastic on the rod holders seems like it would be a pain to cut, and it might not turn out so great.

The second option I could think of would be to buy some pvc and cut some slots into it like so:

http://wavewalk.com/blog/wp-content/...-the-kayak.jpg

(I guess I can't post image attachments, so I used the image URLs)

I would attach the rod holder to a post that fits into the existing rod holder so that I could remove them when I pack down the boat. This seems like a better option, but some similar problems exist. I'm not exactly sure how I'd go about rip cutting short pieces of pvc. Anyways, if anyone has any thoughts or has done something similar, I'd really appreciate some tips. Thanks!

 

[M4SaltLife]

Hi Everybody,

After being inspired by everyone's great ideas for the M4 on this forum, I thought I'd share my mods so far..

After using the M4 for 2 years as is out of the box, I've made the following modifications:

double 1/2" plywood floor with indoor/outdoor carpet wrapped around it, glued with construction adhesive.

Custom engine mount made out of 3/4" galvanized pipe mounted directly to the floor with flanges and carriage bolts (not attached to raft mounts at all)

Transom is 4 pieces of 1/2" plywood sandwiched together with construction adhesive, attached to galvanized pipe with u-bolts.

I've also attached a carpeted piece of 3/4 plywood to the galvanized pipe for the engine mount for a seat and to house the gas tank underneath.. and mounted some stainless rod holders to the pipe as well.

For the bow of the boat I built a storage box and pulpit which service as storage for the anchor line, tackle and pfds. The box is secured to the floor with carriage bolts and hand nuts so it can be easily removed.

The box also has 2 flush mount rod holders and is the base for my 42" Magma bait/fish cleaning station.

Currently using a 2 stroke 7.5 hp Johnson seahorse. The motor is about 60lbs and the mount handles it without issue.

I primarily use the boat for fishing in Long Island Sound. The boat handle 3 foot chop and the wakes of much much larger boats surprisingly well, even with 2 guys a full cooler and gear.

Lastly, I grabbed a used jet ski trailer to haul it around on.

I've got a vid on YouTube titled Intex Mariner 4 with 7.5 hp..

Here's a few pictures as well
https://photos.app.goo.gl/u7kLokm6SdgGEwsf1

 

[marn]

not sure if this is the right thread for this read through a lot of it and after weeks finding this thread i have decided on the mariner 4, however any suggestions where to buy from? was going to do walmart but its through a 3rd party i have not heard of so any opinions?

 

[Brusac]

not sure if this is the right thread for this read through a lot of it and after weeks finding this thread i have decided on the mariner 4, however any suggestions where to buy from? was going to do walmart but its through a 3rd party i have not heard of so any opinions?

I bought mine from Amazon as at the time they had the best price and shipping was free. Amazon's service can't be beat either. The pump that came with my M4 had a cracked handle. I called Amazon and they looked up to see how much the pump was on their site and gave me a credit to cover that amount and shipping (I epoxied and taped up the handle and used the credit to buy something else)

 

[Jiggyjay]

@maizen Glue on some Scotty glue on mounts from Amazon and get the Scotty fly rod holder on there.. the stock mounts are really meant for spinning rods.

@m4salt nice thanks for giving details of your mods. I commented on YouTube video.. good work

 

[M4SaltLife]

@maizen Glue on some Scotty glue on mounts from Amazon and get the Scotty fly rod holder on there.. the stock mounts are really meant for spinning rods.

@m4salt nice thanks for giving details of your mods. I commented on YouTube video.. good work

Thanks! I've got a few more plans for it like lighting and some electronics. I'm also thinking that if I add some galvanized threaded cross ties to the engine mount it'll be able to support a heavier motor. A 15 hp is a 100 or so pounds depending on the make. Based on how the 7.5 pushes the boat, a 15 should get me to my fishing spots in half the time

 

[Bonaventure]

I bought a set of attwood running lights, 2 units that use AA batteries. They have LED lights, all around white for the rear and red/green for the bow. I am not going to use the clamps that come with it. I will mount one on the outboard motor and the other to a board at the bow.

 

[PondPickle]

I just finished reading the whole thread. I really enjoyed seeing the pics and reading about all the things you guys have done with your Mariner. This thread has to be the most-viewed thread in the RIB subforum! And I think it's because it's more fun to read with all the activity and different methods and points of view. I started on our Seahawk 4 about a month ago and today was to have been its maiden voyage, but the weather and wind did not cooperate. So, now that we called it off, it looks perfectly lovely out there!

Mine is modded pretty similar to most of the others, but I also did a few things differently. The floor is only 3/8" thick, but I took the 15" wide by 8-foot long leftover piece, cut it into two long 7.5" strips which I glued to the underside of the main floor. I won't know how that idea worked till we finally get it in a lake. I hoping it gives me the stiffness of a 3/4" thick floor with the lighter weight of the 3/8" sheet. Sorta. I also cut a "subfloor" from rigid 1" thick foam sheathing, but I felt it was too thick with the double-layer plywood on top.

1/2" thick for both foam and plywood woulda been more workable. I was trying to work with the limited stock on hand at my local hardware. One advantage will be when I attach things to the floor I'll have 3/4" thickness along both sides for more meat to fasten to.

-Ed

 

[PondPickle]

Since we didn't go for our first voyage today, Sandy was itching for something to do instead of just working on a weekend and hopefully boat-related. We have this camo cover duck blind somebody tossed in the trash and it looked unused. From that long panel she sewed up a BBQ cover a few months ago and had some material left over, so this is what she came up with in a couple hours today...

A nifty rainproof trolling motor cover!
-Ed

​

 

[Stab696]

Greeting and salutations. I've been following this thread for a few days now (got to page 35 so far) and will continue reading further. Amazing stuff here! I don't have a boat yet but will be purchasing my Mariner 4 sometime next week. The plan is to first buy the boat, mod and test it on a lake with oars, and then add a tolling motor, probably a 40lb thrust Minn Kota. I already have some mods in mind and wanted to ask a few questions, answers to which will hopefully steer me in the right direction:

1. Hardwood floor:

• I plan on using it alone without factory slate floor. What thickness plywood should I go with? It seems that 3/4" is commonly used. Are there any benefits with going thicker?
• Space is an issue. Boat will be transported in a trunk deflated and folded. I need to have a floor that's assembles in pieces or folds. My plan so far is to have it hinged. What are the pros and cons of making it a 3-piece vs a 4-piece floor?
• Can I trace a slate floor that comes with Mariner 4 to use as a stencil for making my custom wood floor? Do I need to go larger, smaller, etc?

2. Seats:

• Call me crazy but I am not a fan of pedestal seats or anything resembling an office chair - probably because I get to spend 50 hrs a week sitting in one I want benches, sort of like what they have on Zodiac boats. Making these is easy but can they be placed directly on the sides of the boat without any additional support? I have seen some you do that with work tables but they are not really load bearing. Should I be thinking of constructing some sort of legs that will attach to the floor?
• Alternatively, I was thinking of getting a couple of tall folding plastic stools. They are lightweight and come in a few different heights, the tallest one being around 19" tall. They also fold completely flat for storage, which is another plus. Thoughts?

3. Overall weight:

• I am probably overthinking this but... Has anyone actually measured (even approximately) the weight of all the mods and gear your boat carries without people?I plan on fishing with a buddy of mine. He and I are both fairly big guys weighting each at around 275lbs give or take. Mariner 4 is rated for 880lbs. Will there be enough for the floor, motor, battery (or two), and some basic gear?

4. Motor: I see that trolling motors come with 2 distinct length shafts: 30" and 36". How do you know which one to pick? is it determined solely by how high (or low) you sit to comfortably pilot the boat?

5. Registration: I will be fishing in NY State and maybe occasionally in PA. So, since I will be running Mariner 4 with a trolling motor, the boat will have to be registered. Is there any reason why I couldn't do registration as soon as I get the Mariner even if I don't have the motor yet?

Thanks in advance for any information or advice you guys provide

 

[trey22]

123

1. Hardwood floor:

I plan on using it alone without factory slate floor. What thickness plywood should I go with? It seems that 3/4" is commonly used. Are there any benefits with going thicker?

I went with 15/32" (to save a bit of weight) and have a fishing buddy in the 250lb range, and we've had no stability issues.


Space is an issue. Boat will be transported in a trunk deflated and folded. I need to have a floor that's assembles in piecs or folds. My plan so far is to have it hinged. What are the pros and cons of making it a 3-piece vs a 4-piece floor?

I went with the recommended two piece floor and have been happy. There is a post in this thread that shows dimensions. Floor, boat and all accessories fit with room to spare in my Escape.

Can I trace a slate floor that comes with Mariner 4 to use as a stencil for making my custom wood floor? Do I need to go larger, smaller, etc?

From what I've read and others experiences, best to go smaller than the actual mfg floor dimensions. I'll look for that post that I referenced in my answer above.

2. Seats:

I'm of no help here as I have adjustable pedestal swivel seats installed.

3. Overall weight:

I am probably overthinking this but... Has anyone actually measured (even approximately) the weight of all the mods and gear your boat carries without people?I plan on fishing with a buddy of mine. He and I are both fairly big guys weighting each at around 275lbs give or take. Mariner 4 is rated for 880lbs. Will there be enough for the floor, motor, battery (or two), and some basic gear?

Other than 2 fishermen, we have the 2 piece floor (estimating 30lbs), 60lb battery, 2 coolers, 4 poles, 2 tackle boxes, net, bucket w/ anchor, tools, patch kit, etc. We've had no issues w/ weight.

4. Motor: I see that trolling motors come with 2 distinct length shafts: 30" and 36". How do you know which one to pick? is it determined solely by how high (or low) you sit to comfortably pilot the boat?

Have MK 45lb w/ 36" shaft (adjustable). Works great.

5. Registration: I will be fishing in NY State and maybe occasionally in PA. So, since I will be running Mariner 4 with a trolling motor, the boat will have to be registered. Is there any reason why I couldn't do registration as soon as I get the Mariner even if I don't have the motor yet?

In MI, did not need any of the motor specs/docs, just boat stuff.

 

[Jiggyjay]

Been awhile since posted.. looks like this thread is still chugging a long. Boating season almost done in N.America. wanted to share some videos of my M4 mods.

Here is my 2 motor setup. Have an electric motor up front and gas motor on the back.

https://youtu.be/QNtuFakrc2E

Going over my new mods

https://youtu.be/lfrdyqt0YeM

Comparison video between M4 and E5.

https://youtu.be/33Vn60z_BpI

 

[clarkbre]

No Title

Great videos. I recently got my Mariner 4 and it's still a virgin waiting for it's first lake and modification. My wife, parents, in laws and brother all surprised me with the boat, motor mount, battery and battery box. I can't wait to get it out and going. I wanted the Mariner 4 so I could fish when we take our travel trailer to lakes, which we do quite often.

 

[Jiggyjay]

Very nice man! Good luck with the mods!

 

[lawdoc]

I'm looking to get into the Mariner 4 game and was trying to join the facebook group as well. Looks like it is closed/private--does anyone here know how to get an invite accepted? Still waiting on a reply, perhaps that group isn't active any more.