was just curious....

i had an inflatable and hated how long it took me to set it up/take it down (which really wasn't even all that long, i'm just impatient).  now i have a kayak, just drop it out of the truck bed and go!

nice engineering on your rig though....

I had a kayak for a while... Not exactly the right rig for a bigger guy....  I also didn't like how low I was to the water... I like to look down and see what's in  there.... in a yak I felt a little blind... 

 

Same with an inflatable pontoon...  too low.. too uncomfortable in the seat..... too much of a feeling like I was about to go swimming...

 

The construction talent needed for this boat is pretty minimal....  once you see how to do it I bet almost anybody could pull it off...

my suggestion if you have room for the prop to rotate inbetween the toons is to take the single bolt out of the TM head, turn the head around and rebolt so you have a bow mount, much better to control...extend the TM wires so you can put the battery what is currently the front to help balance weight out...leave the oars in the water so when you move they will lay to the side and cut the water which will greatly help with tracking...since oars are a secondary/back up use...i'd make hangers for them so they stay to the side and in the position you need them to be with being in the water enough to act as rudders...

my suggestion if you have room for the prop to rotate inbetween the toons is to take the single bolt out of the TM head, turn the head around and rebolt so you have a bow mount, much better to control...extend the TM wires so you can put the battery what is currently the front to help balance weight out...leave the oars in the water so when you move they will lay to the side and cut the water which will greatly help with tracking...since oars are a secondary/back up use...i'd make hangers for them so they stay to the side and in the position you need them to be with being in the water enough to act as rudders...

yup... you could convert it to a bow mount easy enough...just duplicate the motor mount holes in front and back.. then you could easily switch it over... just be sure the height is set to clear the bottom of the toons...  I run it in reverse quite often... Tracking doesn't seem to be a problem even without the oars.

 

A nice part about this size boat is the maneuverability... it's a zero turn radius and so easy to figure 8 all over when I'm in a trolling mood...

Next step is to add the wraps that will hold the pontoons on to the deck.    Use a double row of staples to connect the 47" wide side of the wrap to the bottom of the poplar board..  then bolt the poplar boards to the outside edges of the deck.  When you get done it should look like this:

 

 

Then lay your pontoons on the underside of the decking one at a time... make sure they are centered front to back.   These images from a different boat are clearer:

 

measure and cut the wrap so that it's nice and tight around the pontoon.  Then staple it to the other poplar board.. with double staples.   When you get done it should be a little short... so that when you tighten the bolts it cinches up a little.  See the photo below:

 

 

When you have both pontoons mounted flip it over and start working on how you want the railings...

 

That should be all you need.    If you have any questions just ask... ok to PM me too...

you got any pictures of that thing on the water and how it sits, handles in the water?  Pretty neat set up

Sorry, not many action pics...  It's hard to get those on a 1 man boat.....   Water comes up to a little less than the half way mark on the pontoon.  With a 30 lb electric motor it moves about as fast as a 12ft johnboat.  Very maneuverable because it's so short.   

 

Christen her, "Archie Bunker's Sofa"!  Looks good. Time for fish catch selfies!

Now all you need is to throw a La-Z-Boy on that rig. Don't forget the ottoman, although the tackle box will work in a pinch.

 

Seriously though, nice setup.

I did that on my larger boat a couple times...    a nice shady spot in the middle of a lake can't be beat....  You can make a boat like this with 4 of the same pontoons.

 

made some fun boats as well...  This one always got a reaction...

 

Worked good though..

 

this is just awesome. If club rules allowed me, and I owned one of these, id totally fish a club tourney on one of our smaller waters with this thing.

Here's the latest version.  I made this with just square cut sheets of insulation.  Easier than round and cheaper.   Fill for these 2 pontoons only cost about $50 on craigslist.  A little more sewing but still very easy.. even lighter for my old back..... If anybody wants more info let me know...