Lund 14 ft mod questions

[Tullibee]

I have a 1977 14 ft lund fishing boat. This spring I would like to modify it by taking the middle bench out and making a false floor, along with adding a few comfy seats, etc. Anybody else take this project on??? Any tips or suggestions welcome. Thanks.

Cory

[polarsusd81]

Yes, we took on the project last year with a pretty cool turn out. What I did was take out the middle bench, and put in a flat floor through the center section of the boat, really opened it up and made it much more comfortable. The way we did it, was pretty cheap but it gets the job done, and since the boat is stored in the garage, we just used regular plywood. Marine plywood would be better, but this was the first round and we wanted to see how it would turn out, before it is finalized I plan to replace the regular ply with marine grade. I drilled holes through the front bench, along the sides of the boat, both front and rear sides and placed 1" diameter PVC tubes through them. I also drilled holes in the front of the rear bench to make rod storage spaces. I have room for 6 rods in the storage system, and I am planning on putting some aluminum sides and tops on the rod lockers to clean it up a bit and make it safer to bring my little boy in the boat.

When I removed the middle bench though, instead of cutting the aluminum sides all the way out, I figured out where I wanted the floor to be in relation to the front and rear bench, and then figured I would chop the aluminum down and form a 1" break to have something to attach the floor to in the middle of the boat, and it tied everything together and kept some of the structural integrity of the boat. If you want a better explination, you can send me an email (polarsusd81 @ yahoo . com)and I will send you my phone number and I can explain it better over the phone some night. It was pretty easy to do, and with 1/2" plywood, we didn't need to add any other structural support in the middle. On the front and rear bench (flat floor side of each) I used a 1 1/2 x 1 1/2 x 1/8" aluminum angle screwed into the bench to support each end of the plywood floor. This has worked pretty well for us all of last season, and it still looks like new after probably 25 times in the boat after we finished it up like that. Once I get the marine grade plywood, I plan to carpet it to make it more comfy for my little boy.

I have been toying with the idea of adding a front casting deck and storage for things like life vests and such up there to clean it up a bit more. Overall, I wish I had a bigger boat, but for the time being, my 14' Lund works pretty well for what I do. I have even had it on Mille Lacs on a not so friendly day, little rough, but manageable.

[rodmaker]

There is a place in White Bear that does this. (I'm not sure if I can say the name)They have been around for a long time.

They do excellent work. I would contact them before doing anything like that. You need support where that middle bench is.

Contact them before you do anything.

[MNice]

Polar, would you have any pictures to post of your rod system? I think I can figure out what you've done, but the old picture worth a thousand words is very true in this case. I have WC-14 deluxe, and my biggest challenge is rod storage.

[polarsusd81]

Yeah, I will take some pics tonight if I get a chance. Basically what I did, is drill the holes through the aluminum seat supports, and tunnel out the floatation foam enough to fit a PVC tube through them. Once I got that done, and placed the PVC tubes, I then applied enough silicone sealant to hold them in place. I have found a store in Minneapolis that sells aluminum sheets pretty cheap, so I plan to enclose the "rod lockers" here before the lakes open up. Luckily I have access to a break press to form my aluminum. Just make sure you get the right size PVC to hold your largest rod. The butt on my muskie stick doesn't fit into the PVC tube I have on the rear seat, so that one goes into the bottom tube up front and lays on the floor in the back. I can fit whatever length rod I want in them within reason, probably up to 9 feet.

[polarsusd81]

Rodmaker,

The way I did mine leaves the bracing in the boat for the center bench. I just cut them down 1" higher than the floor height I wanted, and formed a 1" lip to bring it down flush to the floor height I needed. Then I put chalk lines in and predrilled the holes in the plywood through the support lips from the center bench, and it really pulled the boat together and it is pretty strong. I can't wait to get the marine ply and finish it off the right way. I think it would cost me $150 to get it done with carpet and all.

[Grant]

Polar- if you have the pics could you email me at [email protected] ?

I have a 14 ft Crestliner open and am looking to do many of the same mods, just having a time visualizing.

[polarsusd81]

I will post em up here later tonight. I am at work right now and don't have any pics of the boat layout.

[polarsusd81]

Here are the photos I was talking about...

First, we have the back seat with the holes in it (these will receive a small plastic grommet to protect the ends of the rods

Then we have the rear portion of the front bench, you can see the PVC tubes sticking into the seat, they are sealed in place with white silicone sealant. You can also see the aluminum angle I used to secure the plywood to the seat.

Here is the front of the front bench. You can see the PVC tubes sticking through the front, and you can see the 7'6" muskie stick poking through.

When I can afford to do it, I plan to replace the standard ply with marine grade and finish off the rod lockers with the aluminum sides and lids. Then the floor will receive a nice layer of carpet to be easy on the feet for my little boy.

[Grant]

that's a clever way of using the existing structure to store the rods... I wouldn't have thought of that. thanks!

just to clarify- did you leave the bottom little bit of the seat in place to rest/secure the center of the false floor on? I think that's what you are describing, correct?

thanks

[polarsusd81]

Yep, but instead of just resting it on there, I cut it off an inch higher than I wanted the floor and bent over that extra inch to make an angle out of the seat base. That strengthened the seat base by not allowing it to flex, but also made a perfect spot to secure the floor. It worked really well and buttoned up nice and tight. The floor doesn't even have any extra intermediate supports and doesn't flex much at all (unless I jump really hard on the spot that doesn't have extra support.)

[MNice]

Tom, very neat idea, I can see I have some work to do before open water. thanks for posting the pictures.

[Grant]

very cool.

I understand now what was done. I bet injecting spray foam in the void would deaden sound, stiffen it up, ect. not to mention replace the floatation lost when the seat was removed.

[polarsusd81]

Yeah, but spray foam is not the same as floatation foam. I know it would help a bit, but at this point it is working pretty well. I would like to add a livewell, but don't think it is worth it really for my boat. When we want to keep fish, we bring a cooler out and set that in the middle of the floor and just throw fish in there over ice. I did cut the foam down that was in the seat so there is still some foam under there, just not as much as once before. I am trying to come up with some ideas right now for how I want to rig the motors this year and battery and tank placement. I really enjoy fishing out of that little boat.

[Tullibee]

Thanks everyone for the info!! This is going to help a ton.

Cory

[Tullibee]

p.s. I agree these little boats are awesome, I love mine. The fishability is unparalleled. Once I do my mods it with be even better. I was also going to skip out on the livewell thing. I am just going to use a cooler too. A cooler is nice because you can take it out and wash it, and its cheaper. I have always been a big believer in putting fish on ice. On a hot summer day fish out of a livewell are well not so alive if ya know what I mean.

Cory

[Grant]

I've got a 48qt I'm going to use as a baitwell/cutbait table. ( I CPR catfish almost exclusively in summer, occasionally other species when the kiddos are with) it will be mounted centerline and forward, but close enough for me to reach from the driver's seat.

what I love about mine is how shallow I can run it, and how easy it is to pilot on the rivers. the only thing I wish it could do was a bit bigger motor so that I could use a jet drive.

[polarsusd81]

Yeah, I am currently running a 15 hp Mariner long shaft. I wish I had a shorty cause running the rivers can get a little scary. I knocked a good chunk of skeg off on the St. Croix when I came up on a big rockpile one time. Flyin full throttle then "Crunch!" talk about turning red. I thought for sure I just knocked the whole lower unit off, but was fortunate it was just the skeg. Then I broke a blade off of the prop another time. I pitched down the prop when I re-ordered though and it really brought the power out of the motor. Ideally, I would like to have a 4 stroke 25 shorty yammie or merc, but for now, the Mariner does the job.

I have become a lot more careful with how I run the boat now though. Props aren't cheap.

Grant I see you are from Big Lake, do you fish the Monti area of the Miss? I used to run through there with the boat back when it was my dad's and we had an old 9.8 merc short shaft. Lots of skinny water up there, but good water.

[MNice]

"I pitched down the prop when I re-ordered though and it really brought the power out of the motor."

Please explain what you mean. I have the identical motor, and with just me I can get up to about 20MPH according to my GPS. Could I achieve better performance with a different prop?

Again, thanks for your time

[Grant]

I do fish it up here, and I wouldn't want a long shaft motor- mines a shortie. at that I've still found a few rocks

I use the boat quite a bit in the first half of the year, more walking the farther we get past July.

[polarsusd81]

MNice

When I bought the motor it had a 12P prop on it, and with two people it was hard to get the boat on plane. After knocking a blade off, I figured with the sour performance I had with the first prop, I would go down to a 10.5P prop. Now it pops up on plane with 2 and even with 3 it moves along pretty well. I haven't clocked it on GPS but it moves good. Solo, it might be scary fast on some lakes for such a small boat.

Going down in pitch on a prop will raise the RPMs of the motor, so say your motor is running around 4000 RPM, if you were to go from 12 to 10.5 like I did, you should be able to get an extra 300-400 RPM out of it, freeing up a lot of the high end power of the motor. General rule of thumb is 1" in pitch equals about 200 RPM.

[1lkstage]

Here's mine I picked up last fall and re-did right away. I wanted to remove the center bench but was concerned with messing up the structure of the boat. I just glued the carpet to the floor,and sides, put new plywood in, added and enclosed the back over the battery and gas tank, front deck with storage. Now I'm currently trying to figure out where or what to do about a livewell and will be putting a false floor in. Sure gives me some options if the bench was gone.

Polar, Did yours look like what mine does in the first picture? Do you have pictures of your bench cut-out? You've talked me into ripping it out and re-doing it again.

Thanks Lonnie

[Grant]

How's the stability of the boat with the forward seat mounted that high up? I've heard they can be a bit tippy when configured this way.

[polarsusd81]

Grant, they can be a bit tippy mounted up like that. When I get around to doing a deck up front, I am just going to have a pad for a passenger to sit on at the back of the deck, probably removable for fishing and just leave it flat.

I don't have any photos, but I will try to sketch something up and kinda do a tutorial on it. It worked really well and it is really sturdy. You just have to be sure you don't jump in the middle of the floor where there isn't any extra bracing, no need to do jumping jacks in a 14' lund. I will work on the tutorial sketches tomorrrow. It was really easy though.

[VMS]

One thought: Are you replacing the foam somehow that you removed from taking out the middle seat? Without it, you may find a very hairy situation if for some reason you get swamped out there...

Just something to keep in mind that you may want to add below your deck, but yet allow for some drainage in the center of the boat.

This would do a couple of things: it would help quiet the boat, and it would add some more rigidity to the floor. And...the extra floatation would help to keep the boat a little more seaworthy if it takes on water somehow.

Last thing I noticed: when you mounted the board onto the seat, I noticed you had the piece of angle aluminum coming up...any thoughts of turning it upside down for a more finished look?

Rod holder idea is a good one...I like that touch.

Steve