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What have you done to make your boat special?

Posted: Thu Aug 30, 2018 8:10 pm
by Henpecked
Many of you have personalized your boats in ways that are unique. Iclevel1 and fredeboy have custom mosquito netting, jgrimes built a handsome custom table for his boat, ROLAND has a pretty slick shallow water anchor setup, and I'm sure there are a lot of others. I like getting ideas as I'm wanting to make my first boat unique when I find it. Did you build a custom troll fishing jig or install floor lighting or fishing lighting? I'm liking the "fishing station" live well/storage area. Does anybody have any custom setups? Show us what you've built, especially if nobody else has it.

Here are my plans:

Dad is a retired carpenter and I would like to get him to help me build a table and a custom guage/switch panel from wood. The table will be larger than most and set up to play cards or dominoes on the boat.

Phone/tablet charging station for all the family. (It will encourage them to not keep a phone on them all over the boat and risk losing them + I can use my phone to play music, check weather, and navigate with a boating ap. Som aps give GPS location, marina and boat ramp locations, and water depth at your location.

A hidden or indiscreet pocket in the console for mounting our holstered pistols. My wife and I and most of our friends carry.

A hidden key bypass for accessories in case the key gets lost. (I wouldn't show pictures of that.) You could route the accessory power through a switch that requires a code for extra security.

I want to make a screen room that fits over the bimini top to keep out mosquitoes and give me a place to sleep at night if needed.

I want to install LED strip lights down the sides under the deck for fishing and to keep idiots from plowing into us at night, as well as get drop in fishing lights.

I want to install a dual battery system with 1/2/both/off and put DC outlets at all over the boat for fishing drop lights and clamp mounted DC fans on the railing. (Texas is hot)

A bilge pump to feed a water hose for washing off the deck.

Solar charging to minimize battery depletion. (Can you tell that I get free used deep cycle batteries and don't worry much about battery usage?)

I've considered putting eye bolts under the deck between the toons as a place to hang seating while swimming under the boat. A round cooler lid hanging on a rope with a carabiner from the eye bolt would be nice. You could remove it and store it when not in use. I've even considered putting a hammock under the boat so we can lounge in the water and keep cool.(or have crazy under boat sex) Does this sound dumb? (and I don't mean does having sex sound dumb)

Re: What have you done to make your boat special?

Posted: Sun Sep 02, 2018 6:36 am
by Coldbrew
I know this is nothing unique, but our grill is our favorite part of our boat. There are quite of few boats on our lake that have grills, but I haven't seen any (for some strange reason) that have it permanently mounted on the rail like ours. I mount it in the spring and take it off in the fall. I bought a cover for a weber grill at Lowes that fits perfect so it's protected when not in use. It sure beats the years of cold sandwiches or going in from the water for lunch. I even pop popcorn for the kids (and me) on it. :biggrin2

We also turned our livewell into a "pantry" to store everything we need for grilling and eating like spices, plates, utensils etc..... Of course we bought the boat knowing we were going to use it this way. (I don't fish)

Not sure you're going to have enough height under the boat for a hammock, but your proposed use of it deserves an attempt. :alright

Have fun!
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Re: What have you done to make your boat special?

Posted: Sun Sep 02, 2018 11:38 am
by mgarvie
I only use my boat for cat fishing and hauling camping gear up and down the river. I only have a console and one seat. Every year something gets changed. In the past:

HDPE under skinning - Asian carp proof
Replaced railing panels with FRP - cheap and easy to replace
Floating dock hardware and poles on the front for anchoring
Flood lights on all four sides

This year I repurposed an old truck bed box for my gas tank, batteries, and tackle

Next year I'm planning on wrapping LED light strips on all four sides

Re: What have you done to make your boat special?

Posted: Tue Sep 04, 2018 9:41 am
by fredeboy
Hen pecked sent you a PM

Re: What have you done to make your boat special?

Posted: Wed Sep 05, 2018 7:15 am
by FLOUNDERPOUNDER225
Several things, but most significant, Fresh water wash down system, and a custom bracket to mount my weber Baby Q grill in.

Re: What have you done to make your boat special?

Posted: Wed Sep 05, 2018 7:24 am
by riplipper
Nice water system setup. My Dealer wanted almost 700 to install one

Re: What have you done to make your boat special?

Posted: Wed Sep 05, 2018 9:04 am
by Henpecked
FLOUNDERPOUNDER225 wrote:
Wed Sep 05, 2018 7:15 am
Several things, but most significant, Fresh water wash down system, and a custom bracket to mount my weber Baby Q grill in.
That’s what I’m talking about. I am really jealous of your boat. We use a setup similar to yours to fill wet cell batteries at work. I’m sure it can be built for about $50 or less.

I don’t want to make potable water, but I would like to filter lake water for spraying down the deck. No storage that way. I want a 5 gallon water jug to refill my insulated cups.

Re: What have you done to make your boat special?

Posted: Wed Sep 05, 2018 9:20 am
by FLOUNDERPOUNDER225
Henpecked wrote:
Wed Sep 05, 2018 9:04 am
FLOUNDERPOUNDER225 wrote:
Wed Sep 05, 2018 7:15 am
Several things, but most significant, Fresh water wash down system, and a custom bracket to mount my weber Baby Q grill in.
That’s what I’m talking about. I am really jealous of your boat. We use a setup similar to yours to fill wet cell batteries at work. I’m sure it can be built for about $50 or less.

I don’t want to make potable water, but I would like to filter lake water for spraying down the deck. No storage that way. I want a 5 gallon water jug to refill my insulated cups.
Not $50 bucks, that is a Par Max jabsco 4.0 washdown pump, develops about 45 PSI, people use live well pumps which is ok to just run water, but if you want pressure you have to get a washdown pump. I had the Jerry Can laying around, so that was a freebee. If you want lake water, you could run a 1/2 inch hose under the deck to the stern, and mount to your bracket on the toon if you have one, put a screen around it to filter out debris, these pumps have a maximum lift of about 3 ft. so you would need to measure vertically from the pump to the pick up point.

Re: What have you done to make your boat special?

Posted: Wed Sep 05, 2018 10:19 am
by Henpecked
I’m not sure what pump we use or if it’s submersible. I don’t know the psi either, but water comes out like a bathroom faucet and it runs on 12VDC. I’ll have to ask my coworker who built the watering cart. We pump water into batteries 12 ft up on racks like nothing.

Re: What have you done to make your boat special?

Posted: Wed Sep 05, 2018 8:23 pm
by Henpecked
I found the pump we use at Northern Tool for $89. Self priming, in line, 40 foot head max, 340GPH. It pulls 15 amps, but it won’t need to be turned on for very long at a time. I figure about $120 by the time I get it mounted, wired and plumbed.

Re: What have you done to make your boat special?

Posted: Thu Sep 06, 2018 5:49 am
by Soonertoon
What have I done to my boat to make it special?....paid it off!!!!! lol

Re: What have you done to make your boat special?

Posted: Thu Sep 06, 2018 8:37 am
by Marc K
Soonertoon wrote:
Thu Sep 06, 2018 5:49 am
What have I done to my boat to make it special?....paid it off!!!!! lol
:thumbsup :thumbsup

Re: What have you done to make your boat special?

Posted: Fri Sep 07, 2018 12:15 pm
by KPC
"What have you done to make your boat special?"


Launched it with friends aboard.

Re: What have you done to make your boat special?

Posted: Sat Sep 08, 2018 2:37 am
by steve1313
I see a wash down system being a popular add-on and I agree that it's nice to be able to wash whatever off the deck. I use this https://www.worx.com/hydroshot-portable ... wg629.html and it works perfectly. Comes with about a 10 foot hose that I just throw over the side to get lake water. Battery operated, decent pressure and the batteries hold their charges for many weeks.

Re: What have you done to make your boat special?

Posted: Sat Sep 08, 2018 6:17 am
by Henpecked
Is that 20V battery compatible with a line of drill batteries? That would be nice.