Fish Trap Scout Mods

[cRaPpiEMaN8265]

For the past week or so I have been trying to draw up plans for modifying my FT Scout so it has a new boat seat mounted on a swivel which would be on plywood raised off the sled a little ways. I need room for a heater (buddy type although it is really a dynoglow which is only about 6" thick)rods and a minnow bucket. I was thinking I would put the seat right in the middle, and the seat is 16"s wide 14"s deep (boat seat) but everytime I try this I never have enough room for everything.

Anybody modified their scout and would like to share?! Im really getting desperate for ideas since I cant stand that little jumpseat they have in there.

thanks!

Ryan

[zamboni]

I have a Scout and am waiting for boat seats to go on clearance. I am not going to modify it other than put the seat on the swivel that came with it. The only mods I did was installed some speakers using velcro. My heater I set on the ice in front of me and I use a Big Buddy.

[Random guy]

I mounted battery powered speakers under my scout tray that hook to the ipod and I lifted the seat four inches for a little more leg room.

[muc33]

Perchpounder redid the seat in his old Scout. He can explain how he did it.

[cRaPpiEMaN8265]

Started on the mod last night... Went out and got some treated 2x4's at Home depot along with some 1.5" pvc pipe which I will be using for rod holders. I haven't gotten much done yet but I am just starting to work on it again taking pictures as I go. I will probably post some pics of it tonight...

Ryan

[PerchPounder]

My mod was very minimal but definitely necessary in my eyes. What I did was remove the old "seat" that came with the house. Add a Release-a-seat and a swivel to $15 padded boat seat. The total cost was less than $40 and made my long days of sight fishing much more bearable.

If muc decides to put this mod back on the house maybe he can post some pics to make it a little easier to understand.

[cRaPpiEMaN8265]

Just finished up the PT 2x4 frame in the scout here are progression pictures. It took 2, 8' sections to do what I did and I only had about 3 inches left over...

Tomorrow I need to decide if I want to bolt the frame to the sled( I think I am going to so it doesnt slide around on me) and if I do I will need to get some longer bolts because all I have right now is 4" and it looks like it will take 4.5 or 5"ers.

Enjoy the pics!

Step 1 cutting correct length boards to go length of sled.

Step 2 Putting in cross sections and screwing them to the other 2 boards.

Step 3 Adding in left side outline for compartment which will hold my rods on the underside of the plywood in pvc pipes and other things in the bottom of the compartment.

Step 4 Completed frame with compartment on left and right. the smaller compartment will hold a vexilar battery for my led kong lights which should be here shortly and some small tackle boxes.

Step 5 Completed frame set inside the FT Scout

Well thats all I got for tonight! I may be out fishing tomorrow so we'll see how much work I can get done on it then but I will definitely be at it on the weekend. also if you are curious on weight the total weight of the 2x4s assembled and all is 22lbs. But you must remember you are removing the other seat and bars so it offsets a little bit.

To be continued...

[TiNK3R]

Thanks! Keep posting updates... I might be doing something similar soon!

[so haaad]

An alternative for the frame is to use 2x2's instead of 2x4's. They are a bit lighter, which in my opinion is one of the biggest benefits of having a one man.

[cRaPpiEMaN8265]

Yes, the only thing I didn't like about the 2x4's is with the scout the sled is very low to the ground and the seat must be raised up somehow, so I thought using 2x4's would raise that seat up nicely. You are right about the weight but I have a solution for that. I made it so nothing is screwed down to the sled but it is still very stable. Now I'm just going to pop a 5 inch bolt through in the front and back to keep it from wiggling around. This way to lift it out of your vehicle you can lift it out in pieces so its not as heavy.. I should be able to get started on the plywood work tonight or tomorrow.

Ryan

[cRaPpiEMaN8265]

Didn't get too much done tonight since I didn't get started til' late. Started to cut some 1/2" plywood as doors for the compartments. Most of the nigh I was just drawing up plans and measuring lengths on all the compartment doors. I have also been pondering how I am going to make dividers. The 2x4's have made it rather heavy already and I want to keep the weight low as well as keeping it all removable so I still have to think about that some more. Like I said earlier I didn't get too much done just cut out a few compartment lids. Here is an updated pic of what I got done.

You can see on the lid on the right there is a gap. That was intentional because the width from the outside of the 2 2x4s running down the center is only 14"s and my seat is going to be 16"s wide. I want to be able to open that compartment without having to lift the seat so I am just going to make the compartment lid for under where the seat will be jog over to cover that hole.

I will try to finish up the plywood tomorrow and hopefully mount my rod holders.

To be continued...

Ryan

[cRaPpiEMaN8265]

Got a little further today. Got all the boards cut out and dropped into place to make sure they fit. cut a hole for the bucket and it fits nice and snug so it wont move around anymore. Then I took all the plywood pieces off and I am now letting the waterproofing stain I put on them dry. tomoorw evening I will put them all back on and hopefully get the attached with the hinges.

Here are a few pics.

Ryan

[cRaPpiEMaN8265]

I made tons of progress last night. Unfortunately I was up until midnight when I have to get up the next morning at 6 for school(bad idea) Anyway I took all the plywoods pieces off and laid them out on some cardboard. I decided to go with waterproofing stain instead of paint since I like the added water protection. After staining them all and letting them become dry to the touch I laid them all back onto the frame and started attaching my hinges. I put two hinges on each door and on the one I will be attaching the seat too I put on some beefier ones so the added weight of the seat wont snap them. After I had them all secured down I put in the final piece which was the piece that has the hole in it for the minnow bucket. I screwed that one to the frame with 6 decking screws... Here are a few pictures with all the pieces installed and the doors flipped up.

Doors flipped down and a nice flat floor holding the heater and minnow bucket in place.

Here is a close up of the bigger "Beefier" hinge on the seat

compartment door You can see since the two pieces aren't level on the piece of plywood the mounting area on the hinge had to go underneath and on the 2x4 it had to stay on top. this meant the screws had to be put in from the bottom going up onto the plywood platform. I obviously didn't want any screw points sticking up so I took those to the grinder and grinded them down flat.

Then as a final touch I added a flexible wire to hold the seat compartment door so it doesn't put any pressure on the hinge when it fold backwards so it doesn't break.

Then today I went on a shopping spree to Lowes and Fleet Farm. Got a new boat seat for 30 bucks at fleet farm but when I got home I noticed the swivel bracket on the seat that comes with the original scout seat doesn't not fit the new boat seat so now I need a new swivel as well. By the time I realized this it was 9 o'clock so I will have to get the swivel tomorrow and mount the seat then. After that I went to Lowes to hunt down some Reflectix insulation. I found some and decided to pay the extra few bucks for the bigger roll which is 2 feet wide and 25' long. I mounted that in the scout tonight with some zip ties onto the 3 main poles on top. By the way 2' wide is perfect width and now I have lots left over to do my FT Voyager which is at the cabin. No new pictures tonight since nothing has changed except the Reflectix which is hard to take a picture of since it is inside the shack. Hopefully by tomorrow I will have the seat mounted on the new swivel.

To Be Continued...

[WTN4ICE]

I used scraps of panneling scrounged from a friend for partitions.They are rigid enough that anchoring them at the bottom was not necessary & did not add much weight.

[cRaPpiEMaN8265]

Sorry I forgot to post pics of the seat. It is now mounted... I did have to make one slight change. There wasn't quite enough room for the compartments on either side of the seat to open and close without scraping the seat, so I mounted the swivel on the seat and placed it as close to the middle as i could. Then I put the swivel on 2 2x4s so I have a little added height and the doors would have more room to open. Here are some pics of the seat installed.

Closeup of under the seat where the pedestal is and you can see the bolts coming thru. We also added lock washers on the bolts under the plywood so hopefully it holds better.

I also went out to Wal-Mart and bought some Tupperware containers to put down in the compartments which will hold everything in place. Those will just be screwed into the side of the sled to insure they sty in place. I will get some pictures of those next week

[cRaPpiEMaN8265]

Got a bit further today I mounted some rod holders I picked up from fleet farm on the backside of the long plywood compartment so when you flip the long door up your rods are there. I also got the Tupperware containers into the compartment under the seat and the small compartment on the right side. I decided to use the hammock that Clam mounts under the bars of the original seat and i mounted that to the sled in the long compartment just to divide it up so things aren't sliding around under there. I also got some clear tubing that is 1" thick for the lights I got so they will be water proof. I will put the 2 sets lights in there and mount them on the underside of the 2 main plywood pieces that run down the middle of the sled. This should light up everything underneath nicely. That will be wired to a lighted toggle switch which I got at Fleet Farm for 2 bucks. Then I will have another switch for the overhead lights when they arrive. I guess the waterproof led Kong LED lights are made custom so they will take longer:(

I will post some pics tomorrow when I have the lights installed...

Ryan