Intex Mariner 4 modifications and Tips

[Slayer33]

No Title

alright, so after a couple hours in my garage after I got my girls down to bed, I was able to start on my wood floor... finally!

I ended up going with a 2 piece configuration made out of 5/8" plywood. I used a long hinge to connect the 2 pieces. cut and routered all edges. Then I think I made the mistake of using Thompsons waterseal to treat the wood. As my plan to use up a box of adhesive linoleum tiles i had kicking around won't stick to the wood after being treated... does anyone know if there is anything I can use to get something to stick to the wood now? I need to use something to put on the bottom to protect the boat, especially around the areas like the hinge and where all the t-nuts are located. The wood isn't very smooth underneath, I think I need to do something here... I can get automotive carpeting, but again, even with 3M spray adhexive I have a feeling it won't stick to the watersealed wood..... think PL400 would work? I have a feeling my only choice is to rebuild the floor with new wood or try to sand this one down...

I attempted to use 3 - 8" strips of 1/8" steel to brace the floor at the hinge when it is mounted, but it didn't feel too solid, so I opted to use a 30x18" piece of 3/8" hardwood I had kicking around my garage. Once I had that on the floor felt pretty solid.

I was able to glue on the foam pipe insulation on half of the floor til I ran out of the glue, will have to finish that tonight maybe. And I will need to cut the wood I want to use as my table in the middle, I plan to mount my fish finder there and somehow attach it to my blue cooler.

Almost there.. here are some pics of the build.

 

[Slayer33]

Slayer
I don't have an M4....but one guy in the thread, seeing that he did not need a floor all the way to the very ends of the boat, used just one piece of 4X8....I think you lose 4 inches on each end( check the length yourself..but I think I have read it is 106 inches)...most every one else..and there are many thread references, using two pieces would have to use (2) 4x8 plywood sheets.If you can live without the 4-5 inches at each end( my thought is how many times do you actually stand in those areas???) one sheet would do it.See post number 556 for pics.
The other thought is using the new floor over the old floor..most comments are in the range of not using the double floor..only using the new one. If you decide on this course, when I measured mine( same concept) I measured about 1 inch under the edges of the inflated side tubes , and then took about 3 inches off( 1 1/2 inch from each side) figuring about 1/2 inch for the pipe insulation thickness on each side.(original measurement under tubes was 37 inches for the M4..)
THIS TURNED OUT TO BE TOO SNUG, AND SEEMED TO CAUSE EXCESS PRESSURE ON THE FLOOR / SIDE TUBE JUNCTION... as shown by the sudden discovery of the same amount of water on the floor which you described above. It started small..but got progressively more, the more I used the really tight floor. I ended up taking another 3/4 inch off each side.

Crap, I just saw this... I only cut off about 1" around the perimeter, sounds like I need to cut off another 1"...

But.... I measured the width of my new floor, and it is approximately 33-1/4"... if the stock floor is 37", that would mean I took away 3-3/4" off which sounds like I'm close to what I needed, maybe another 3/8"-1/2" around the entire boat is needed?

can't find much on the web about what I can use as an adhesive on waterseal treated wood definitely don't want to recut this floor...

 

[flukesofnature]

Slayer...The issue with any Gloss application, polyurethane, thompsons etc is an easy fix...home depot( any hardware store) offers a commercial deglosser, for exactly your application...but Wait....it gets even better. lightly sand with 200-300 grit sand paper till the shine goes away....it creates enough surface area for what ever adhesive you may use , or paint with KILZ or BINZ( both are sealers that allow for adhesive or paint after drying..a couple of coats will protect the floor from splinters etc...if your bolts for the seats go through, use some rounded hex-head nuts, or counter sink the holes so the nuts will be flush with the wood .Then..dab all the nuts with silicone on the bottom side
Your floor should slide easily in place with the side tubes and floor about 1/2 filled with air...if you have to push real hard it may be too snug.Then top off all the tubes and floor to working pressure. Some guys have used a strip of carpet directly under the hinge.
You Linoelum tile will add A BUNCH OF WEIGHT TO YOUR SET UP TIME, THE ADHESIVE USED FOR THOSE WILL NEVER DRY, THE FIRST TIME YOU GET THE SMALLEST AMOUNT OF WATER IN THE FLOOR( SPLASHING, GETTING IN WHEN WET ETC..YOU WILL HAVE A GOOEY MESS THAT WILL SPREAD THAT ADHESIVE OVER EVERYTHING, AND RELEASE THE TILES TO JUST SLIP AROUND.

 

[Slayer33]

Thanks for the help flukesofnature. I appreciate it. I've decided to move forward with the build, hopefully I can get a few hours into it tonight and have it all done sooner than later.

I'll post some pics and comments of everything once its all done.

 

[Slayer33]

No Title

Alrighty... Here's an update.

I scrapped the first attempt at my floor that I used waterseal on. There were a few little things that I didn't like about it.

So...
Step 1 - I put polyurethane on the wood which was cut a little smaller based on flukesofnature's recommendation. Routered all edges on both sides before doing so.
Step 2 - I used indoor/outdoor carpet adhesive, trowelled it on and put on some outdoor carpet.
Step 3 - I made installed a 28" long hinge on the bottom side of the floor so that this would allow me to fold the floor up and load into my car
Step 4 - I installed a center bracing board on the top side which I had put polyurethane on, I decided to go with 4x 1/4" bolts/T-nuts to secure it. The floor was pretty solid after that.
Step 5 - I installed the 2 - 13" seat pedestals with 1/4" bolts/t-nuts as well.
Step 6 - I didn't know what to do about the center area, I wanted a work surface but was also wanting to place the battery in the middle to even out the weight. But for now what I have done was placed the cooled in the center, the battery behind me by the motor and then made a temporary work table, I used some adhesive backed linoleum tile I had laying around the garage as the top surface. I mounted my fish finder on this for now and it will use Velcro to keep the wood attached to the cooler lid for now.
Step 7 - I installed the foam pipe tubing around the entire floor and I also used the linoleum tile/duct tape to cover up the t-nuts and the hinge on the bottom side to prevent any damage to the bottom of the boat.

That's it for now, took me 5 hours to complete this start to finish on my own. Not including the drying time for the urethane

Oh and last but not least, I picked up the lowrance trolling motor transducer mount, its pretty big, but it fits on my enduramax 55.

Thanks to flukesofnature for the advice, it made this build a lot easier in the end. And of course to all the others in this thread who have posted their past experiences to give me several ideas on how I wanted to complete this.

This weekend is the guys annual fishing trip, I'm excited to take her out! Happy that I've got it all done just in time, with all the headaches of the courier losing my Mariner 4 from Amazon the first time, my composite mount being seized by customs, Intex shipping me the old wooden mount when they said it was the new composite model and me screwing up the initial floor build with the watersealer.

It's been an adventure, but the real adventure now begins

Thanks!

 

[Slayer33]

No Title

Here's the photos

 

[flukesofnature]

Is good looking Boat..man...only thing missing is the bottle of champagne to christen the lady of the lake! May the fish swarm to you!! I wish I could take credit for one original idea here , but the crew of the mariner Modification thread is to be praised all the way back to DESODE. Kind of cool , in a way, the one place where everyone really wants to help, and creativity flows like water on a river....Take a basic rubber raft and let your mind go and 85 pages of thought and ingenuity later.....we got cool boats!!! Very Nice.

 

[Slayer33]

Is good looking Boat..man...only thing missing is the bottle of champagne to christen the lady of the lake! May the fish swarm to you!! I wish I could take credit for one original idea here , but the crew of the mariner Modification thread is to be praised all the way back to DESODE. Kind of cool , in a way, the one place where everyone really wants to help, and creativity flows like water on a river....Take a basic rubber raft and let your mind go and 85 pages of thought and ingenuity later.....we got cool boats!!! Very Nice.

Thanks flukesofnature! I definitely was great to be able to use the information from all other members on how to modify my Mariner to how I wanted it. The weekend trip was a success, well other than the crazy hailstorm we got caught in. (note to self, never again go as far as I did from the boat launch with my trolling motor again).

Many fish were caught, almost all northern pike (jackfish). I reeled in 6 myself, I think between the 7 of us, we took in about 15 pike, 2 walleye and 3 whitefish. Not a bad day considering the conditions!

The boat performed great, that was until I was almost left stranded getting back to the launch. We ventured out about 4 miles from the launch, trolled for 4-5 hours and then almost ran out of power on the way back. I am thinking my 90ah battery doesn't quite have the capacity I need (I'm thinking at least 120ah and up) would be better. My battery gauge on my EnduraMax said I had 50% battery life on it when we ventured back, but not even 1/3 of the way back the guage said there was nothing left.. but we still made it in.

I'd like to try to get a little more open water speed and am considering the Kipawa propeller, I've read mixed reviews on it, but I think I am willing to take the risk on it. Plus I kind of chewed up my stock prop on a few big rocks... oops.

One more mod I am looking to do is to place some decent rod holders on the boat, trolling with the holders that come on the boat isn't the greatest, I have some RAM holders that I can use, I just need to figure out a good way to mount them... I don't think I want to glue on one of the holder base plates to the Mariner, maybe I will mount them to my work table.. will have to see what I can do!

Didn't get any photos of the boat in action from afar, but I have one my friend took when I was trying to get a fish on board

 

[GraysonAC]

Anyone have advice for finding leaks? Added a MK 50lb and a 27 marine battery today (no wooden floor), and I think the weight popped a seam or something. Didn't have the keel inflated - does that make much of a difference? Noticed I was losing air pretty quickly after about 20 minutes, and my motor started to sink - looked like it was going to fold right under the boat! I've got the old 2-chamber boat and wood-backed Intex transom mount, and it feels like the mount arms don't have holes far enough down - the motor kind of hangs off the boat, instead of being nearly flush with the bow.

 

[sadarahu]

I apologize for duplicate posts. I was getting errors, and thought the posts do not get saved, then all of the sudden all of them appeared on the list and I see no way to delete them.

BTW.

I'm getting ready to cut my 1/2" floor (possibly 3 pieces) with the insulation foam on the sides. No carpet etc.
I'm planning to get original floor lay it on the plate of playwood and just draw the outline, then take 1" on each side. Would it be enough ?

Could anybody share the dimensions ?

Arthur

 

[Brusac]

No Title

I was finally able to get out and test the M4 after reducing my leak to as slow as I could. I was out for 4 hours, after 2 hours the #2 chamber started to get a little soft so I topped it off and it held tight for the next 2 hours I would have stayed out longer but when the thunder started rolling I made a bee-line back to shore. Now it it time to make my final seat mod and ditch the milk crate! The bite was slow this morning but when they did hit hold on because they were hitting hard!

 

[Desode]

Is good looking Boat..man...only thing missing is the bottle of champagne to christen the lady of the lake! May the fish swarm to you!! I wish I could take credit for one original idea here , but the crew of the mariner Modification thread is to be praised all the way back to DESODE. Kind of cool , in a way, the one place where everyone really wants to help, and creativity flows like water on a river....Take a basic rubber raft and let your mind go and 85 pages of thought and ingenuity later.....we got cool boats!!! Very Nice.

It is Amazing how far this has gone ! I Never would have guessed my OP would have started this ! So many Great mods here and hats off to everyone keeping this thread still going !

Sincerely DESODE

 

[Desode]

Is good looking Boat..man...only thing missing is the bottle of champagne to christen the lady of the lake! May the fish swarm to you!! I wish I could take credit for one original idea here , but the crew of the mariner Modification thread is to be praised all the way back to DESODE. Kind of cool , in a way, the one place where everyone really wants to help, and creativity flows like water on a river....Take a basic rubber raft and let your mind go and 85 pages of thought and ingenuity later.....we got cool boats!!! Very Nice.

It is Amazing how far this has gone ! I Never would have guessed my OP would have started this ! So many Great mods here and hats off to everyone keeping this thread still going !

Still using my Mariner,, On it's 5th season now !

Sincerely DESODE

 

[mrdrh99]

Awesome Desode! Stop by a little more often bro!

 

[sadarahu]

Rule 6

 

[Guest]

@desode How is your boat treating you and what thread you hang out now?
@Brusac i use a 99 cent spray bottle i got in family dollar. i inflate then slowey spray the tubes, take your time and try to hit every part of the tube. If there is a leak then you will see it sizzle like a steak. To repair i am not sure what intex suggests but i use stabond and i hear good things about hh66. I used a a plastic shot glass to mix the stabond and it melted the bottom. good thing i had a paper towel under it. Most small holes are caused by hooks or fish. i have patched over 6 holes already and none of them i used a patch. i dropped a little but of glue over the hole and let it set. Works like a charm. Before using stabond or hh66 make sure its ok to use on an intex boat. I used it on my zodiac, the material is a bit thicker.

 

[Brusac]

@desode I have sprayed the tube down multiple times with water, with dawn mixed in the water and with bubble soap and I get zero indication of a leak. I was able to reduce the leak significantly by using 400 grit sandpaper to clean up the seat where the boston valve screws into the main fitting. I am convinced that is where the remainder of the leak is. Fortunately the leak is now slow enough that I can still enjoy my time on the water with minimal concern.

@sadarahu - we are all aware of the facebook page now - some of us don't like or use facebook.

 

[Guest]

@Brusac wow thats weird. Did you try spraying the valves to see if they are leaking?

 

[Brusac]

@weimed - on the mariner 4 the valves are recessed, not only did I spray them down I completely covered them with soapy water and saw no bubbles.

 

[Desode]

@ Weimed, Its still going strong . I had a Catfish get it with a fin last month but it was a easy patch.. I have a pontoon too, and I use the M4 for a Dingy tied to the side of it. That way I can pull in a cove then anchor and work the Cove with the M4.
@ Brusac, that is Strange.. Make sure to go over the seams really well, Maybe the leak is under a little fold of the PVC ?

Are you sure it just isnt a temp change ? Since the tube press against each other,, thy can have different pressure in them and one can deflat in the cold at the end of the day more then the others.


Desode