putting a floor in my boat.

[Wiskers]

Hey fellas, I need your expert help here.

I have an older 14 foot Lund with the three bench seats and a nice 25hp Evenrude I use for puddle jumping and river fishing now and again.

Any how, I want to make it more fishable by putting in a floor and perhaps connecting the front seat with the bow to make a deck area. Nothing fancy, just a small lake and river rig. Any one done this or have any ideas or photos to share with me to get started? I am no carpenter!!!!!!!! I suck at this kind of stuff but I want to spiff it up a bit. Maybe even put a storage door in that front deck area????? That would be way cool for battery, life jackets and such.

Tired of the loud bottom when dropping stuff on it, tired of standing on the angled foor and such. No storage space and stuff like that.

Thanks for your help.

[broken_line]

what i would do with your boat..

you will need

4x8 sheet of 3/8 ply wood.

15 feet of 2x4s

zink plated screws

bolts

take the ply wood and cut it so it fits over the middle and front seat then mount the 2x4s on the under side for support. it would be best to bolt it to the seats but if you dont want to im sure the wieght will hold it down. then you can cut holes for a live well, storage or evem put a chair on it!

if you have any more questions feel free to ask..

[Eskimoman]

Only go from the front bench to the front. If you go from the middle bench all the way to the front the boat will be rally tippy. Believe me

[broken_line]

you could do the same thing just make it fit the bottom of the boat. try standing on the seats with the boat fully loaded and if its really tippy dont put it on top of the seats..

[Wiskers]

Ok, that is what I was thinking of. Put the front seat up to the front as a deck. Then put a false floor on the bottom between the rest of the seats to the back. Hard part is figuring out how to fasten down the floors between the seats and making it fit right.???

What I should do is get a bunch of cans of maulted beverage, post a date and perhaps some of my fellow FMers might show up and assist in the construction and then we could go test it out for some kitties.. LOL.... How about carpet? will outdoor carpet work? or should I look for some marine carpet? I am not a real fan of carpet for river fishing but I will have to put something on the wood.

[marine_man]

You can get decent marine carpet at fleet...

marine_man

[Mallard1]

wE DID THE RUBBER FLOORING IN OUR 16 FOOT LUND. 1 "COW MAT" FROM FLEET. CUT IT INTO STRIPS TO FIT IN BETWEEN THE RIBS ON THE FLOOR, MADE A REMOVABLE DECK FOR CASTING TO FIT IN BETWEEN THE FRONT SEAT AND THE BOW, WORKS PERFECT, THE RUBBER STRIPS ON THE FLOOR ADDED A BIT OF WEIGHT, BUT THE BOAT IS MORE QUIET NOW, AND WARMER IN THE FALL WHEN SET UP FOR DUCKS. GOOD LUCK.

[broken_line]

if i can figure how to get pics of my phone i would show you how i did it to my 13 footer.. if you put wood on the bottom of the boat it stays there... the front seat to the bow will be hard to secure..

[polarsusd81]

Let me go take some pictures, I will be right back...

[Tullibee]

Here are some pictures of what I did to me 14' Lund last spring. Hopefully it will give you some ideas. I am sure polarusd81 will be a big help. I know he was for me when I did mine.

I finished it all up with some carpet from FF, new wood on the bench seats, and some swivel seats. I will try and find a pic of the finished product. It has held up great so far.

Cory

[polarsusd81]

Mine still isn't 100% complete, but it works great the way it is. I would like to enclose the front triangle to make a casting deck up there and put a bowmount on the boat, but money is tight so I deal with what I got. My boat isn't out there for looks, it is all function. The open floor without that middle bench really makes it easy to handle larger fish and easier to fish out of in general. Standing on a level platform is so much better than the bare aluminum floor.

Removed the middle seat similar to Tulibee, cut the aluminum bench supports down, and instead of cutting all the way down, I left about 2" higher than I wanted the floor and used some tools to break a lip to mount the floor to. Helps with the rigidity of the boat, completely removing the middle bench supports would make her pretty wobbly in the middle.

Here is the back 1/2 of mine.

Here is the middle front

Rather than using wood 2x2's like Tulibee, I went to Ace Hardware and got a 6 foot section of 1.5x1.5x.0937 aluminum angle. I cut that in half and mounted it on the seats to make a floor. I used 3/8" plywood and with the supports positioned the way they are, I am fine walking on it all day long. Going on the third year in this configuration and it is still holding strong.

Here is a closer view of the angle under the floor and the rod tubes I installed to store rods on the sides of the boat. I mounted the angle with the leg up rather than down to help keep the screws from pulling out. Would probably be alright with the lip down, but this way works so why mess with it.

I have some sheet metal formed up for the rod lockers, but I don't have the tops done yet, so the rod lockers are waiting just a bit longer.

[Wiskers]

Those are the BOMB!!! That is exactly what I want to do to mine with the exception of puttting the front two seats into a deck. wow, you did a great job there. This should help a lot. Did you use a duct work crimping tool to bend over the support?

[jigginjim]

I put a floor and a casting deck in a 14ft crestliner. I used 3/8 on the floor with outdoor carpet. The casting deck was 3/4" plywood, alot stronger to stand on. I also put extra foam under the floor for floatation, also added more warmth for Nov. duck hunting, and Feb. river fishing.

[polarsusd81]

Wiskers, yes I did use a duct bending tool to form the edge. You have to do it a little bit at a time to make sure you don't warp it much. Only takes a few minutes though so it is pretty easy. Take the foam out of your middle bench and cut it down and put it all back in under the floor. You don't want to take out any flotation foam.

[shizzy]

here are a couple of pics of the casting deck I put on my 14' Alumacraft. I used a scrap piece of 5/8 plywood I nabbed from work and a 4'x8' I/O rug I got on sale at one of the box stores. I basically cut it to cover the front two seats and then cut it right over the front seat so it was still supported. I just used a couple of cheap strap hinges. I added a hasp and a padlock to it so I now have lockable storage.

[Far-I]

Shizzy- that is the shiz-nit! haha anyways...that is exactly what i want to do with my 14ft alumacraft. can u please give details on what materials used and method for doing it. The hinged deck is awesome! i was planning a small trap door on top but this way makes much more sense as it is smooth and level on top! i'd appreciate the pointers as i am a read the manual kind of handy-man...whats running the side length of your boat, rod locker, or do u have a middle bench still?

[Far-I]

oops. i got so excited when i saw the pics i forgot to read your post explaining it. thanks all three of you for great ideas. looking forward to hearing about your floor too wiskers.

[Wish-I-Were-Fishn]

Nice job guys!

[shizzy]

its just a small side compartment. I built it to hold smaller items.

one side note. Although mine is simple the one problem I have is when I need to get in to the compartment I have to take everything off the deck. I usualy have my tackle box, a beverage, the anchor and line that have to be moved.

[lureman]

Does a person need to be concerned with losing the structural support when you remove the seats? Should one consider doing some foaming for flotation safety? I have an 18" lund which I use on the river and if that were the only use I would pull the seats and go to a flat floor and pedestal seating. However, we go to LOW and it can get rough, when pounding whitecaps I would be concerned with the boat buckling?

Also what grade type of plywood should you use? I understand you should use green treated due to the chemical possibly damaging the aluminum?

Thanks!

[lureman]

Ignore the prevoius post my question were answered on page 2.

[Burnham]

ok i really want to get a flat platform to fish off of in my boat, the thing is is that my front seat is so close to the bow, and my boat isnt very sturdy. i was just wondering if ya guys have any suggestions..heres a pic, or do ya think i should just wait till i buy a nicer boat a couple years down the road(im just a high schooler)

[polarsusd81]

Burnham, your boat would be difficult to do a flat floor mod like I did in my boat. You could probably do a casting deck up front, but it might be tippy as you would be up pretty high on a relatively small platform. Not having a solid bench that goes all the way to the floor makes it very difficult to do the modification, because the seat you have is the structure of the boat in the center. With mine, by reworking the existing aluminum that was in the floor of the boat already, I didn't loose any strength.

If I were you, with that boat I would rather wait than do something you might regret.

Lureman, I have had mine out in 3 footers on Mille Lacs running full throttle (22 mph) with two in it and she held up to the beating. I also just about died one day on a lake north of there when a storm came up and I tried to beat it to the launch. Running about 32 mph came around a point and caught a wind gust and it spun me around like a rag doll. I was nearly thrown from the boat. Very weird day with strong wind gusts and intermittent storms. The boat held up fine that day too, but I was a bit shaken up.

[shizzy]

burnham, with a boat like yours I would only put a flat floor in it. that will keep you down low but give you a flat surface to stand on. I think a casting deck would be unsafe.

[Far-I]

Hey tulibee, i'm looking forward to more pics if u got them. this post is gonna put a dent in the 'ol wallet i think thanks so much for putting distant ideas into workable images for my brain u guys! i appreciate it. anyone else got something similar?