Weight distribution problem in 14' aluminum boat

[Questor]

With me, a trolling motor battery, an outboard, and six gallons of gas near the stern of my boat, the bow gets blown around a lot in the wind.

Can you recommend a way of making the bow less susceptible to being blown around?

Thanks.

[Scott K]

Bring a friend along for dead weight! Or bring along something heavy to put in the front when you are alone,( cooler full of beer).

[marine_man]

Or move your gas tank (and your trolling motor battery if you're up for a little project) to the front of the boat. If you move the battery make sure you get wire that's close to 4-6 gauge to handle the current drop you'll see in that long of a run.

marine_man

[sparcebag]

I had the same problem! I moved the gas tank forward under the bow seat,I also put the battery next to it.I have bow troll motor.I left 1 battery in rear for electronics,and a 3 gal tank for rear if I need it on trips.Menards 6 Ga.wire & eyelet 6Ga.terminals.To run 14ft.wire to rear troll motor.

[PerchJerker]

What Marine Man said.

[Bassboy1645]

Same thing! I cut slots in my carpet when I put that down too. It dosent look as pretty but it does a niffty job of holding the feul hose out of the way!! What did you guys use for wire connectors to extend the leads for a rear trolling motor??

[sparcebag]

6 Guage terminals available at menards.clamp on type but I also soldered mine there aluminum so solder hot.

[kunk]

I don't know if you're up to this much work, but my last boat was a 14' deep v, and I put a plywood floor in which added a little weight. Then I moved the battery to the front and ran the wires under the floor which pretty much took care of the problem. Made the boat a little more stable too.

[dkf]

Move the battery and tank towards the bow. Put some sandbags in the bow too that should help to keep the boat flatter on the water

[LanceJ]

Hi everyone. I have also run into this problem with my little 14ft glorified row boat. What I ended up doing is fabricating a mount for my battery at the bow, flipping the head on my trolling motor, fabricating a bracket for that and putting that at the bow as well. This works great as I have my electronics and switches mounted on the front most bench. I have probably about 100-120lbs of motor and fuel in the back, and 30-50 lbs of battery and electronics up front. To tackle the chore of running the wiring in the boat, I used PVC piping with T's and elbows and caps. I drilled holes in the caps for the wires to feed through and seeled the holes, and cemented all seams. Quite a project, but for the money I put into it, I have a heck of a little boat now.

[Down Deep]

I had a 14 footer and relocated the batteries to just in front of the center line. (one on each side) It is not necessary to move weight all the way foward because a boat trims out just as fulcurm would level and you want to keep the bow up to avoid plowing. To run the wires I used black wire loom and ran it just under the gunwale to avoid punching holes below the water line. To secure the wire loom I used matching plastic wire straps and drilled holes through side of the boat and used stainless screws with cap nuts to secure the loom. Made for a very professional looking and effective installation. Serveral of my friends copied the design.

[Josh8481]

Much like everyone else said, moving a few things up to the front can work wonders. I have a transom mount trolling motor, but I "converted" it to a bow mount, and moved the battery up front, and it's been great ever since.