Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

Well Haley's Comet 2.0 is getting an upgrade, Again. 2.0 included a complete re-deck, new furniture, and a center tube but the old tubes decided they couldn't handle the stress off a 140hp Pushing it to 40mph. Both outer tubes developed cracks right where two sections are joined together, about 9' from the front of the tube. I expected it might crack eventually since that's where the water line hits while up on plane and with a 9" wide flat surface and only .070 material it just couldn't handle pounding in waves. Re-weld or upgrade , UPGRADE . Since I was able to pick up quite a few extra shifts at work I took a 12 hour drive down to visit Bill in Missouri and picked out 3 new tubes, well Scratch n' Dent but new tubes. Bill is a great guy, very helpful, and had PLENTY of parts to choose from if someone wanted to build an entirely new chassis. I grabbed a Pair of 20' outer 25" tubes with Single Strakes and a 21.5' Straked 23x25" U-Tube to build a center tube with. Bill does offer to add transoms but I like tackling my welding projects and the money saved there allowed me to grab a bunch of other goodies! I also grabbed a bunch of cross member so I can add a few between my current members at the rear for more beef and ALSO to make a spacer to move down the U tube since its ~2" shorter in height than round tubes. So far I've cut the back off the U tube in prep for making a transom and pulled all the foam out to inspect it from the inside just to make sure there are no burn thru on all the welds and man is it a beefy tube, the nose cone appears to be double .100! and the rest of the tube measures just over .100 too! Hopefully I'll be posting pictures of my progress as I go but I have a BAD habit of getting too involved in a project and forget to take pictures! The outer tube I plan on pressure testing as soon as I make up a pressure tester for them. One has an obvious scratch and needs some finishing welding on a few risers/strake and the other looks good but has some obviously visable touch-up welding done to it right where there are some magic marker marks so I have some work to do to prep them before I install them. and YES, that's SNOW on May 14th, typical Minnesota Fishing Opener.
Untitled by Rancherlee, on Flickr

Awesome, can't wait to see some progress!

awesome! should have had you look at bill's transoms he has. been wishing about one for awhile....

Those logs look good can't wait to see the pics and the finish!

Well things have been moving along, I Just about finished the center tube but I ran out of Argon for my Hobart 210 spoolgun setup and need to wait for a day off to go get a refill. I'm pretty much designing it on the fly but I think I have it PLENTY beefed up for my little 140hp engine. Most manufactures only have about 2/3 of the pontoon diameter and couple of small tubes in their transoms for up to 300hp engines. Basically I cut the rear 2" off the tube, then cut a 4:1 ratio for a ~14* transom angle which is basically 6 1/4" more in on the bottom of the tube compared to the top on a 25" tube. In the rear 2" section I welded in some SERIOUSLY beefy aluminum stock which I got from Bill that specifically designed for transom building. Its 3.5"x1.75x.180 rectangle with 2 additional ribs inside. This stuff pushed my 230V buzz-box to the limit but I got good burn in with a little help from some propane torch preheat.

Untitled by Rancherlee, on Flickr

Inside the tube I welded a pair of 4' long 3x3x.180 angle for extra support and to spread the load out since I removed some foam from the rear of the tube. The manufacture of this "blem" tube claims the foam isn't needed and only added as a safety feature but I beg to differ, with the rear 8' of foam removed the tube was a bit pliable. I slid the 2" cutoff inside the tube and welded it completely around to seal it (hopefully). The lower "legs" of the transom got welded directly to the 3x3 inside the tube and I added 2x2x.180 angle struts to triangulate the transom to the supports. After welding the supports and struts I put all but the last 18" of foam back in and when I weld the top plate on I plan on putting a wet towel over the end of the foam for protection. There will be an 8" access plate installed on the top plate. Support for the top/side is provided by a frame made from, you guessed it, 2x2x.180 angle!

Untitled by Rancherlee, on Flickr
Untitled by Rancherlee, on Flickr
Untitled by Rancherlee, on Flickr

Well I finished up all the welding and building the 2" spacer so the U-tube would be level with the round ones. I kinda neglected to take a few pictures while I figured out how to drill all the mounting holes. I bought 3 sheets of cheap 3/8" ply wood and cut the sheets down to match the mounting rails, clamped them up under the pontoon, drilled the holes in the cross members, then used those as a pattern on the tube.
Untitled by Rancherlee, on Flickr

You can REALLY tell the difference in size in these pictures. I mounted the tubes to the modern 101.99" width and it looks just fine with only a 96" wide deck.

Untitled by Rancherlee, on Flickr
Untitled by Rancherlee, on Flickr

And here is a transom shot, set it up for my XL shaft Suzuki.

Untitled by Rancherlee, on Flickr

Today I need to finish installing about 50 more mounting bolts, hang the engines, and start on the under skinning.

I am enjoying this build very much. Keep posting the pictures!

What is the reason for a center U tube?

I mainly went with the center U-tube because that's what Bill had new with 2 full length strakes welded on. I also thought it would be easier and have less welds to build a transom on the back. In hindsight I really don't think this is the case. I probably have 4 hours time into building the "spacer bracket" alone as It wasn't as simple as I thought. The tube manufacture claims the tube is strong enough and the foam is only added for safety, but I beg to differ. The top skin on the U-tube is THIN I felt the need to add cross member between the full length spacers to support the foam, every 24" to match my toons cross members. From the factory that isn't an issue since the u tubes are bolted directly to the cross members. The foam is in the form of blocks and it transfers stress from the bottom to the top skin and I was worried about the long term effect of big waves pounding the bottom of the tube and what possible damage that thin skin on top would take over the years. I;ve been keeping track of hours and so far I have 80 hours into it and it's about 90% done.

Finished the underskinning, took it out for a very quick test run, weather is non-cooperative. First of all I didn't realize HOW flimsy/flexable the old octagon tube were as I don't hear a peep of "metal" noises at all at speed, just the engine. So far it seems I may have lost a bit of speed but notice that the throttle wasn't quite opening all the way. I managed to get 34.8mph out of it with a Amita 4 13.75x17p aluminum prop which got me 36.8mph with the old octagon tubes. I'm not sure if the throttle adjustment will get me those 2mph back but if not I don't really care, the all around performance was GREATLY enhanced, I can crank the wheel hard, bank it into a turn, and only loose 3-4 mph now and passengers need to hang on Cruising speed is still ~20mph @ 3800rpm as it planes cleanly @ 17mph. The back end at rest now has the tubes over 1/2 out of the water, before only 3-4" were out. One more test is needed with the throttle adjusted so I can start playing with props, I was only turning 5600rpm @ WOT which gives me a 9% slip. This motor needs ~6100rpm to max out performance. I previously had trouble with 3 blades but I'm curious to see if the new tube layout will let me run 3 blade props now without having blowout issues.

Well she is pretty much buttoned up, project over throttle adjustment got me 4mph back and she runs faster with the cheap aluminum Solas 4 blade now then she did with the old flat bottom Octagon tubes. 40+ should be a cakewalk with a 3 blade stainless.
Untitled by Rancherlee, on Flickr

I also snapped a shot of the underskinning, .090 is over kill but the price was right and ONE 10'x6.5' sheet from Bill was plenty!
Untitled by Rancherlee, on Flickr

nice!

Good to see that adjusting the throttle did the trick.

And congrats on finishing the project!

Great job, Lee! One more rebuild and you'll pass Al (Mark III)

Still looking at hitting Vermillion for about a week towards the end of August

Looks great!!!!