Texan newbie on a mission

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dadmire
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Texan newbie on a mission

#1 Post by dadmire » Wed Mar 02, 2016 9:27 pm

Hey guys!

I'm a member of a volunteer fire department in north Texas with a medium sized lake in our district.

We were given a pontoon boat several years ago and it has sat........and sat. The best guess is that it was last in the water 3 years ago and the engine was started last Summer. Several days ago my Chief asked me to head a project to repurpose it into a "fireboat" of sorts, with a mounted water delivery system and pump rather than to just let it rot.

Anyone ever accomplished anything like this, or heard of it being done?

Here's a picture of the beast. She's really not in that bad of shape considering. I know the carpet is trashed and it needs cleaned (as well as the trailer), and the wiring is a mess.

Image[/URL]][/img]

Can anyone tell me the manufacturer? I need to talk to them about safely mounting a pump somewhere on the deck.

I'm a recently retired US Army healthcare worker and have zero experience with any of this......so I'll be asking A LOT of questions as I get into the rebuild. First thing I need to do though is get it on the water!

I'm looking forward to digging into this project and talking to everyone on here.

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HandymanHerb
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Re: Texan newbie on a mission

#2 Post by HandymanHerb » Wed Mar 02, 2016 10:38 pm

Give us a few more shots of it, so we can see it all, inside and out, so we can see your whole lay out.

I see no problem with a pump mounted and just drop a suction hose in the lake to pump, but you are going to have to power to hold it in place or anchor or you would be pushing the pontoon around.

Looks like a fun project and a few of us big kids would like to have a pump on ours, water canon to take out jet ski's :happy
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dadmire
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Re: Texan newbie on a mission

#3 Post by dadmire » Thu Mar 03, 2016 9:26 am

Thanks.

I'll start a thread in the rebuild section.

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Re: Texan newbie on a mission

#4 Post by Waterlogged » Thu Mar 03, 2016 10:40 am

Welcome aboard dadmire. That sounds like a fantastic project you have. I would get rid of the carpet and use spray on bed liner for a durable surface. A pump with enough capacity is going to be heavy, so make sure it is mounted on the CG so the boat floats at the same angle. Have some fun with it.

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Re: Texan newbie on a mission

#5 Post by margaritaman » Thu Mar 03, 2016 11:31 am

I haven't seen a hull with a front shaped like that on a pontoon boat before. Post a picture from the front of the hull for us curious guys. Welcome to the forum.
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Re: Texan newbie on a mission

#6 Post by Mad4sax » Thu Mar 03, 2016 11:47 am

Did a Google of a 1990 Spectrum Pontoon and found this:

https://www.boats.com/power-boats/1990- ... tiGWE-o2_s

Looks about the same.

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Re: Texan newbie on a mission

#7 Post by smltooner » Thu Mar 03, 2016 3:37 pm

Welcome to the club and good luck.
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Old Puddle Pirate
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Re: Texan newbie on a mission

#8 Post by Old Puddle Pirate » Thu Mar 03, 2016 7:59 pm

Welcome to the club, talked with my assistant chief and are pretty sure a pump (10 HP) or better should power a small portable monitor. Any hose and nozzle should work but you would need to keep the engine running to maintain position.
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HandymanHerb
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Re: Texan newbie on a mission

#9 Post by HandymanHerb » Fri Mar 04, 2016 12:55 am

10 horse pump and a small portable monitor, and I the only one getting excited.

We could scale it down to a five HP and sale them, talk about a water fight
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dadmire
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Re: Texan newbie on a mission

#10 Post by dadmire » Sat Mar 05, 2016 7:08 pm

Ok guys...more pics of the soon-to-be fireboat.

Front of the hull:
Image[/url][/url]

Someone in the past tried to outfit this boat for firefighting, but did a piss-poor job. Chief says the current pump is too small to supply the nozzle that we need to fight shore based fires. See the rough hole where the intake hose pierces the deck?
Image[/url][/url]

As usual, carpet is in rough shape. this is a picture of the carpet in the bow and is representative of the rest of the boat.
Image[/url][/url]
Last edited by dadmire on Sat Mar 05, 2016 7:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.

dadmire
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Re: Texan newbie on a mission

#11 Post by dadmire » Sat Mar 05, 2016 7:22 pm

.......more pics of the soon-to-be fireboat.

The basic bones of the furniture seem to be in OK shape.
Image[/url][/url]

Unfortunately the same cannot be said of the console.
Image[/url][/url]

The wiring is a mess too.
Image[/url][/url]

So there she is in all her glory. Weather is turning nasty here in North Texas for the next several days, so it will be next weekend at the earliest that I can get her into the water. I want to do that first, prior to any tear down and rebuild.

Thoughts???

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