Lonnie D A Uptegrow

Made a few changes since you guys last saw her.

Hello everyone, been awhile...been busy with life. I still have my Bass Raider. Anyone located on the Eastern Shore near Salisbury Maryland? Wanted to see if there were any Bass Raider owners near me. Good to see people still posting about these boats. They are great!

Hi Gond, From what I understand two deep cycle batteries will last a life time if you are the only one fishing. For big water I would probably go with a bigger boat. As far as stability...I'm a tall and big guy and as long as you are sure footed this boat is absolutely stable. Before this I had a SCANOE and as soon as I went to try it for the first time it was a big SCA NO. There is a guy on YouTube...his channel is youtubefishvids and he seems to go everywhere in his body of water, but he also has two batteries.

UPDATE!!! SORRY EVERYONE but Photobucket wants me to spend 399 dollars to host my pictures...I just refuse to do that! You can still check the pics out with this link: http://s709.photobucket.com/user/lonnieuptegrow/slideshow/ I don't have time to order these but I'll try to at least keep them in the order in which I did them. Building the Trailer to get the Boat on Prior to Black Friday so that I would have one before they sold out. Went back to Dicks Sporting goods to get the price adjustment on Black Friday. When it was all said and done I got the boat for $456.00. So the Future? Well you cannot see it in any of the pictures but I built a custom boat dolly to get the boat from parking lots to the water edge, well day one and I ran into some issues. The wheels wanted to lock up on me because I had them to tight, the L bracket I was using was on wrong and I didn't put pool noodle on the wood to cushion the boat while on the dolly. I also need to get bigger wheels...with this simple design the dolly was to low. I finished up redoing the axle brackets tonight and switched from screws to bolts. I also got some 13" wheels which look like they might work well. Tomorrow I'm going to do a full test with the boat loaded. I am trying to make very...very...I repeat...very few trips back and forth from the car to the boat so I'm trying to make this thing to take the load of the boat, gear, and battery. I also need to make the supports for the solar panel to sit in the front of the boat right where the legs for the chairs sit. Additionally, I still need to make by cables that will connect to the MC4 connectors on the solar panel and run to the battery with the solar charge controller in the back. I will tell what this has been fun, and a project I have been working on since Sept of last year from planning what I want to do to the research on this site and YouTube. I have tried to incorporate some of the ideas that worked for me, and in some cases made small changes. All in all it has been fun. I have already had her on the water for a short period of time so I no one of my next challenges will be launching at the neighborhood pond with a loaded boat. The banks of the pond are not boat friendly...I may take a pic to show you what I'm working with. Almost forgot once I'm done with the boat dolly I'll throw a pic up incase someone needs an idea. I searched high and low and finally found one that I didn't think would cost me a small fortune however I now have two sets of tires, and a various amount of spare hardware...lol!

Well got it out on the water yesterday...and I found some issues I need to address. First my homemade boat dolly is too low to the ground and the L brackets I used are not good for the weight. Keep in mind that I'm moving all of my gear while in the boat from the parking lot to the water just because of the walk...plus I have a group 29 battery that I do not want to carry that far...lol. Second I forgot to put a bow line on it...with all the other stuff I installed I didn't have a way to tie the boat up...lol...completely slipped my mind. Other than that everything else worked great. The extension for the trolling motor has to be put on while on the water because we do not have a proper launch point but all and all I'm happy. Also for those wondering about the stability of these boats let me tell you I'm 6'-1" and 360 and I didn't need a 7 inch riser which seems to be popular and I found that I could move all over this thing without a problem...you still need to be mindful of your center of gravity but man was it nice...was down on my knees and back up with out issue. Very happy so far with this boat!!

I dislike the plate\light placement as well. The very first issue I had after putting it together was the brake light and signal light not working on the drivers side. Everything you read on the internet points to grounding however in my case I had already ensured I had good grounds when installing the light kit. So I either had a bad light or issue with the tail light wiring harness I bought. I got one of those testers for tail lights and tested the wiring harness connected to my lights. So that left the trailer...well to shorten the story turns out that one of the pins in the harness on the trailer was pressed too tight so I had to expand it a bit for it to make good contact when in the tail light plug. Getting back to the plate and light placement...you could technically make a custom bracket that came off of the trailer at 90 degrees...if you make it as wide as the wheel fenders then you would still be working with the same amount of space on either side of the trailer, and you can make it just high enough to allow tilting. It could potentially still get in the way depending on how you load and unload whatever you are trailering. Just brain storming, maybe someone has already solved this?

This post is dual purpose, first it is to test my resizing of the pics to ensure I can add them and first to show how my Bass Raider adventure started. It all began with the purchase of this trailer about a week before Black Friday of last year. These trailers are a pain in the butt to assemble, but once you get it done it works out just fine. I'm going to do a post with a ton of pics of everything I have done so far. Hopefully someone can get something from it...I researched this site for ideas and watched a ton of kayak videos on how I wanted to setup my Bass Raider 10e. Until I have time to resize all the pics...here is a link to my google album...it should be in order from the first pic back in 2016 up to the last pics I took yesterday. Enjoy! https://goo.gl/photos/ykH8q7QCHjWiwJvc9

Sorry it took so long to reply...haven't had a chance to check this site out until now. I'll look to see if I have any pics while building it. It is really simple....I was going to use relays at first to switch on multiple things but the box would have been crowded so I just wired my outlets to a switch. You may be able to see in the picture I have to sets of double outlets which are wired to one switch a pair. So when I throw the switch to the right of the green switch it powers both outlets of the top pair...one outlet has two USB ports and the other is a 12v plug. When I hit the switch under that the same happens just to the bottom pair of outlets. Now to power everything I used two 7ah sealed batteries from Amazon wired in parallel. This gives me the same 12v but with increased capacity for a total of 14ah. The idea behind this box was that it is a emergency power source for my trolling motor as well in the event I have an issue with my big battery. Inside the box excluding the wiring you will see a bus bar where all of my grounds connect and a fuse panel for the different circuits. I'll take some pics and I'll post them to my Photobucket. I originally was going to mount my fish finder to the box to create my own portable unit but I had didn't have a solution for the transducer so I went with using scotty product. Now I can move this anywhere on the boat without having to move my power center much. The transducer cable is a simple as a little tape. I cannot promise I'll have pics up today but hopefully I can get you some this week. Yeah I agree with the other poster...my battery is so heavy it doesn't budge even when I'm moving it around on the trailer to install stuff. Even more so now that I have the foam padding down. Once I get it on the water I can tell you more but right now with all the moving I have done it doesn't move.

Thanks...I got the mats off of Amazon. Search for ProSource Puzzle Exercise Mat...right now they go for 20.84. I only needed one pack and out of that pack I used 4 and a half...which now that I think about it is simple math being that the boat is 10ft...LOL! If you want black or blue it will cost a few bucks more. Something that I didn't show in the pics is the bottom of the mats...at each seam I tripled taped them so that I could move it around as one piece and so none of the pieces would just go off on me. I used the all weather gorilla tape. I didn't see a rule about links to products so hopefully this doesn't get me into trouble, so here you go instead of searching for it. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00K2TWXD6/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

You could still use the trailer with retractable ratchet style straps....Sam's club sells them for 23 bucks and they come in a two pack and are 10 feet long. If you want to go directly to the boat then without hooks I agree with you I would be worried using screwed in cleats. I use the method you are using now, I just cut off the excess straps so I didn't have to manage extra strapping.

So I have had some time to work on the boat...still.....STILL....have not had a chance to get her wet. Hasn't even seen the rain. I feel so ashamed...lol! Please check out what I have been cooking up so far. The pics are not in any particular order but you can put 2 and 2 together. You will see the solar panel in one of the pics...I have to figure something out with that, but I think I'm going to make a removable deck when I fish by my self and just take out one of the chairs. Thought about using a spare chair bracket and mounting it to that as well....we will see. http://s709.photobucket.com/user/lonnieuptegrow/slideshow/

Speaking of holes...when I reached out to Pelican about running wires through the hull of these boats and asked about the warranty in relation to putting holes in the boat to mount accessories they advised that putting any hole in the boat would void the warranty. Has anyone thought twice about mounting stuff to their boat due to the warranty? I have a bunch of stuff to mount and now I'm a bit timid to do so. I got 4 rod holders, 2 taco paddle clips and my Striker 4 base to mount somewhere. I got to get some pics up on what I'm working on...but first I need to figure out how to put a 24"x24" solar panel in a boat...lol. Have an idea but it means that I will only be able to use it when I'm the loan fisherman. When the son comes with me I'll have to leave it out. I got to figure out a trailer ground issue...one side works fine and the other is ifee at best. Tested my trailer hook up and thank goodness that is working...Gob bless the etrailer wiring harness.

I was looking to get a group 29 battery as well but found an awesome deal at Sam's Club on a Duracell Group 31 battery. Regular price was 179.82. I picked mine up for 94.00 plus 18.00 core charge, which I didn't think was bad. It is an AGM Deep Cycle Marine and RV Battery model 31DTMAGM. It's sealed and maintenance free and vibration resistant. I will say this...this battery has some weight to it so make sure you account for that when planning out your boat setup. I'm running a Minn Kota Riptide 45lb thrust trolling motor.

Hi Everyone, I have been following this thread for some time now and I just bought a Bass Raider 10e from the local Dicks Sporting Goods in my area. When it was all said and done I got it for a steal at 499. With those savings I purchased a 45lb Minn Kota Riptide trolling motor and a Duracell Platinum AGM 31DTMAGM battery. I got a 1195lb Harbor Freight trailer, and trailer jack. So far this has been fun...I already have the boat, and trailer registered and I am just waiting for warmer weather. In the meantime I have ordered my Life Vest, built a push\anchor pole using the garden stake previously mentioned and some PVC, para-cord, and two carabiners. Almost forgot I picked up a Garmin Striker 4. I'm also building a power pack that I can plug a solar panel into...I actually already have that built I'm just waiting on the charge controller, flush mount sae port and Christmas so I can purchase my panel. I'm not looking to run the motor on solar but I want to be able to extend my fishing time by charging it on the go. I will also be using my portable back as an emergency back up and to charge phones, and run the fish sonar. This has been a cool project so far, still got some work to do before I'm ready for spring, but man I'm loving it and I haven't even hit the water yet....darn it I almost forgot that I'm building a boat trolley so I can get the boat from parking lots to the waters edge.