welding in texas

[MerkFalc]

Anyone know of a place that does good welding on pontoons in the waco area? I'd rather travel to a reputable place than one that has never added strakes on before . Thanks

[RcgTexas]

Sorry, know some around here close to Beaumont but that would be too far I think.

[MerkFalc]

Yeah, that'd be a bit of a drive! I'm going to try and find someone in Austin or temple.

[Bamaman]

You'll need a very experienced TIG welder. There are some out there in some of the better welding operations. If you have a boat dealer selling many pontoons, ask them if they know a qualified aluminum welder. (I'd never use a dealer for welding, however.)

[MH Hawker]

Most times having them added causes nothing but problems

[Cowracer]

Most times having them added causes nothing but problems

Please elaborate.

Tim

[MerkFalc]

If you could elaborate that'd be great. Everything I've read says it's the best thing you can do to a high powered tritoon

[Bryden24shp]

I'm not a strake expert, but I have owned boats with both positive and negative angled strakes. The Negative angled strakes (PTX) lift fast and work good, but create a lot of drag. They scrub off a lot of speed. They turn very well, but feel like they are constantly dragging the boat down. The Positive angled strakes (SHP), don't lift quite as fast, but they create more of a V at the bottom of the pontoon and make for a seriously faster hull and very bankable turns.
I prefer the Positive angle and would love to cut mine off the PTX and swap them side to side, upside down, to make them Positive. A set of positive angled strakes, with that flat 36" center pontoon lowered about 4", would be absolutely deadly! But with a lifetime warranty on the pontoons, I'm stuck with what I got. I need to build a boat... TOONGUY.....HELP!
I could not get the Manny strake pic to enlarge. I have some pics in my business laptop, I'll try get them posted later. This gives you a good idea of the difference.

[MerkFalc]

Do you have a bigger picture of the positive angle? The voyagers have the u shaped pontoons, and I was planning on it angling upwards just a bit. I was looking at pictures of hydroplaning boats and it seems as those boats are angled up a few degrees.

[RcgTexas]

I thought I had a pic of positive but turns out they were negative and I can't delete the post

[ToonGuy]

Bust out the drawing board Bryan...I bet we could come up with something

OP if your U shaped toons are foam filled that may present a problem. That's something you and your competent welder will need to discuss.

As far a strakes go, like Bryan mentioned there are differences in design and both have advantages. My suggestions is go for it if it's in your budget. I've never heard some one say "boy I hate these strakes". If your toon has the power to use them you won't believe what a different boat you will have. Yes, there are some draw backs such as turning performance on some set ups, but then again if you have the power to use strakes and don't have them you aren't getting the most performance possible from your toon any way. So despite a (possible) slight down side the upside far out weighs it, IMO.

[TDJ2591]

Anyone have pics they can post of positive vs negative angle strakes? Anyone regret having added strakes? I've read some postings where it was said that you get a harsher ride with strakes. Is that so?

[ToonGuy]

Here's the best I could steal from Google Images. From my personal experience, the ride is much BETTER with strakes...if you have the power to use them. The more lift you get, the less the water beats the bottom of the boat and in turn it's a much smoother ride. I can still remember the first time took a triple tube straked boat out...I was amazed. My exact words were "it rides like a new Caddy".

[MerkFalc]

That's exactly what I was planning on doing. That looks like the one with the short strakes. I don't remember seeing that pic, but it is a good representation of what I was thinking. I was thinking of doing wider strakes and not putting them on the outside. Any thoughts on that? Of course, that is after I find a good welder and figure out how much this is going to cost

I just went back to his post and sure enough he used 4x4x.25 on all tubes. I went to looking and it looks like the 5x5 is quite a bit more expensive. I think the 4x4 on 6 sides will be they way to go.

[ToonGuy]

It will do just fine. If you are extremely concerned with cornering ability, leave them off the outsides of the outer tubes, or stop them forward of the stern as some manufactures did (such as this Sweetwater). It keeps the toon from "digging" in the corners.

If you really want to get crafty and have the best of both worlds, get your motor set back behind the outer tubes if it isn't already (i.e. jack plate) and have your welder fab risers to your center tube to place it 2-4" lower than the outer tubes.

And keep in mind depending on how far you take this project you may need to re-prop and/or adjust motor height to take full advantage