16 foot Smoker Craft

[tadpole]

I have a 16' smokercraft I am redoing. Having it bedliner sprayed on this week. Putting in new seats, It has 4 benches, I plan on adding 12" to the second seat from the front, and removing the 3rd seat. Will this cause the boat to be to weak in the middle? What type of trolling motor for the front do you suggest? I do not fish big water (Over 1000 acres) very often. I also use this boat in the rivers. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Tad

[Northlander]

I would go 55# thrust bowmount with auto pilot. The auto pilot is a great thing. You can look away and tie stuff without going in circles.

[Surface Tension]

I've had APs since they've come onto the market and wouldn't have anything else on my boat. 55 lb thrust should do you fine.

As far as removing a bench seat, I would do something to stiffen the boat. You've obviously already got leaky rivets because your spraying in a bed liner. Removing support will worsen your problem. Is this seat in the bow or one forward from the stern?

[Steve Bakken]

We do alot of jobs with bench seat removal. Depending on the design of the seat, sometimes we can remove the center couple of feet and leave a one foot stub on each sidewall. This will anchor it to the floor and also provides handy storage, seating, etc. If this isn't an option, sometimes we fabricate some kind of angle bracket from the sidewall to the floor or even build a storage unit there. Anything you desire as long as you are attaching a point on the sidewall to a point on the floor.

[Leaky]

Steve - I just checked out your web site. Very nice. I just sold a 16ft Lund to a buddy of mine who also posts on this site. He's looking to do some of the same things. It's nice of you to come on here and help people out, especially when it's what you do for a living. If I come across anyone looking to fix their boat up, I'll be sure to send them to your web site.