1648 Center console or stick steer?

No matter what set up you will need steering gear and Merc controls. I have both if you are interested PM.

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Over the years, I've owned a number of center consoles.

As I best remember, NONE of them had Binnacle (CC) controls. All of them had a side mount. Some on one side, some on the other. I adapted to every one of them without thinking too much about it. I am a little bit ambidextrous.


richg99

Cool man side controls are much easier to find

I put the binnacle controls on the top of the console on my old 15' Hobie Power Skiff. I had to move the wheel over a little so it would fit and be comfortable to use. Top mount definitely has a better feel but there's often not enough room and side mounts are more plentiful and therefore cheaper. I did get lucky with mine and found a brand new OMC top mount control on Ebay for $48 for that Hobie. It was the year Florida had all those hurricanes and I'm guessing it was insurance sell off stuff.

Well Jeff, you will be happy to hear that I took your advice strongly and ordered the Lowe center console. Thanks to you I have saved myself a ton of time. I am all about fabbing my own stuff but sometimes it doesn't pay off. The guy at the local aluminum yard wanted almost $200 for the supplies I would have needed to build the console. I got the console for $220 and a small lockbox/livewell for $100. Got it all shipped for $400. Can't wait to get it!!

Crazy though since my console will be so far forward I'll need an 18' steering cable and about 20' throttle and shift cables.

Depending on where you decide to mount the console, you may want to wait until you have it mocked up to determine which cables to get. I went with a Uflex steering cable 16' long. Probably could have gone with a 17' if I wanted to run it out the front of the console to keep it along the edge of the deck and a little more out of the way. Take your time and search around Ebay and you can get new cables shipped at a really decent price. I also got the battery cable wire off ebay and put ends on them myself. You might be able to find a complete steering installation kit with helm, wheel and cable for a decent price as a package if you search around.

A quick tip if your floor is a slight V like mine is, I think the dealer installed the console in my boat originally for the previous owner and they took a piece of angle aluminum, cut a small V notch in the middle and bent it to match the floor contour and riveted it to the front of the console so that aluminum angle piece would be flush with the floor to rivet it to the floor cross beam. I wish I took a picture of it before I installed it but I forgot to.

Here's a quick picture showing the angle piece riveted to the floor. There is a gap about 1-1/2" between the console and the front deck which leaves room to put the fishing net and all the leaves that fall during the season. :lol:

And don't pay attention to the flooring that came unglued from the deck edge, so much for outdoor contact cement.

Jeff,

I am uncertain what I will do for a floor, but I know I can get 1/8" (.125) 4x8 5052 marine grade aluminum for $150 a sheet. I do have a 5 degree dead rise so my floor has a V in it and I can't stand it. I was going to run aluminum angle across each crossbeam and Rivet it In a few places all the way across. This would give me a flat mounting surface.

If the aluminum will flex too much I would just get marine ply and nautilex marine vinyl and be done with it.

I actually had someone offer me
$2750 for the tiller steer 20 jet so now I can just buy a bigger motor set up for console steer. What kind of top end are you getting with the 60/45? What is your minimum planing speed? Thanks!!

My floor has the slight V to it but it's no big deal, I got used to it pretty quick. If you put marine ply in the boat, it will add quite a bit of weight and slow you down. My top speed is around 28-32 mph and it planes off in 1 or 2 boat lengths with the weight forward. I normally run upstream around 19-20 mph because it's the smoothest cruising speed(I'm in no hurry and I hate to waste gas). I think it will still plane around 14-15 mph but never really paid attention to it. I have a jet tunnel so my motor is mounted higher up, not sure if that hurts or helps, but I don't worry as much about the rocks. This year was probably the lowest the Delaware River has been in a long time so it was nice to have a tunnel jet setup. I'm happy with the overall setup of the boat and the only thing I might add is a bimini to be able to get out of the sun. Here's a picture before I put the windshield and railing on the console.

Sounds like a good match power wise.

I am trying to figure something out you may have an answer to.
My boat has 50hp on the rear tag. I am not a big fan of overpowering a rig. I would imagine a factory 50hp jet would be okay to run, but if the serial number on my rig said 75hp and I added a jet pump to get 50hp aftermarket, I would be comfortable safety wise but wouldn't think the insurance company would like it very much. Amy insight? I'd love
To put a 60/40 or even a 75/50 on there!!

I never really thought about it too much but I put 45 hp for the insurance since that is what it is rated at. I'm by myself 95% of the time so I could get away with a 50/35 and it wouldn't be a big deal since I'm never in a hurry. I'm running a short shaft motor with the tunnel so I was lucky to find a short shaft 60/45 locally for a great price. The oil injection doesn't work, the overheat module went bad but it runs well so I don't want to mess with it too much. I never run more than 10-15 minutes at a time due to limited range on the river so I just keep an eye on the telltale to make sure water is pumping through ok.

Power is rated at the pump. Weight would probably be your biggest problem going with a bigger motor. Having said that putting yourself so far in the bow would tend to counteract a heavy back end. You could always see how your boat sits in the water by adding the weight of a 75hp motor in bags of sand or cement in the stern and then standing where you hope to have your console. I get about the same speed out of my 16 foot welded jon with a 25hp prop or a 40hp jet but the boat rides much nicer with the heavier motor.

stinkfoot said:

Power is rated at the pump. Weight would probably be your biggest problem going with a bigger motor. Having said that putting yourself so far in the bow would tend to counteract a heavy back end. You could always see how your boat sits in the water by adding the weight of a 75hp motor in bags of sand or cement in the stern and then standing where you hope to have your console. I get about the same speed out of my 16 foot welded jon with a 25hp prop or a 40hp jet but the boat rides much nicer with the heavier motor.

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That's good input right there. The funny thing is that with the20 jet on there (a whopping 124lbs) me in the back (135lbs) a 6 gallon tank and a battery with my buddy (175lbs) and cooler/gear up front, the boat still ran pretty stern heavy. She planed out good but I felt like I needed more power to really get the tail end up. You know when you have an adequately sized motor and you have on plane, then you have ON PLANE? I never really got ON PLANE!! By that I mean the boat was moving good but I still felt like she was dragging some. We would move at 17 up and out of the water but I think moving the weigh up forward and putting more beef at the tail end will do some good.

Got my console in! Looks good, good recommendation Jeff!

I'm easily on plane cruising at 18 mph but another thing to consider is the transom angle. I had to add transom wedges to get rid of porpoising but that also helps get on plane better. Without the wedges and the motor trimmed in all the way, the bow still wanted to rise and then would porpoise when I got over 20 mph. I ended up moving the motor up one hole at a time to see what resulted in the best cruising speed and WOT without getting too much spray back into the boat. I went 1 hole too high and got a lot of spray back and it got louder which meant it was aerating a bit as well so I had to go back down. It definitely takes some trial and error to get everything set up the way you want it.

JL8Jeff said:

I'm easily on plane cruising at 18 mph but another thing to consider is the transom angle. I had to add transom wedges to get rid of porpoising but that also helps get on plane better. Without the wedges and the motor trimmed in all the way, the bow still wanted to rise and then would porpoise when I got over 20 mph. I ended up moving the motor up one hole at a time to see what resulted in the best cruising speed and WOT without getting too much spray back into the boat. I went 1 hole too high and got a lot of spray back and it got louder which meant it was aerating a bit as well so I had to go back down. It definitely takes some trial and error to get everything set up the way you want it.

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You are right about that, for sure!! I think a hydraulic jack plate has its place, even though they are costly and add weight to the transom. Power trim and hydraulic jackplate gives endless options!! I am also wondering about tunneling. At this point I may as well sell what I have and get what I really want.

......"At this point I may as well sell what I have and get what I really want.".....

I've said that many times. Acted on it a few too many times also. Might be why I had all of those boats. My problem was always changing my mind about what it was that I really wanted. Ha Ha. Rich

The only issue with the hydraulic jack plate with a jet is that it pushes the motor further back which can mess up the way the water would funnel into the jet if it's a jet tunnel boat. I got lucky and stumbled on my tunnel jet boat when the guy just had it advertised as a mod v with 40 hp prop. I think if you wanted to plan out a boat new, I would probably still look to buy an empty tunnel jet hull and then put a console where you wanted it. My preference would be a Sea Ark 1660 mod v tunnel jet hull with a floor and then I would outfit it the way I wanted. I think the G3 1656 tunnel jet is a sweet setup, but the cost and the weight scared me away from it.

richg99 said:

......"At this point I may as well sell what I have and get what I really want.".....

I've said that many times. Acted on it a few too many times also. Might be why I had all of those boats. My problem was always changing my mind about what it was that I really wanted. Ha Ha. Rich

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Me too, me too. I have been looking on CL and boy, these welded hulls are EXPENSIVE, even used. I found some tunnel hulls, but most of them have tiller motors on the and are .080 gauge. Mine is .100, although I'd like .125 or .190. Also, if there are any boats with consoles, they are all side consoles and some are center consoles where you sit on the back deck. It is looking like tunnelling this hull and setting it up CC won't be a bad idea at all. Especially since after I sold the motor I only have $1300 in the boat and trailer.

JL8Jeff said:

The only issue with the hydraulic jack plate with a jet is that it pushes the motor further back which can mess up the way the water would funnel into the jet if it's a jet tunnel boat. I got lucky and stumbled on my tunnel jet boat when the guy just had it advertised as a mod v with 40 hp prop. I think if you wanted to plan out a boat new, I would probably still look to buy an empty tunnel jet hull and then put a console where you wanted it. My preference would be a Sea Ark 1660 mod v tunnel jet hull with a floor and then I would outfit it the way I wanted. I think the G3 1656 tunnel jet is a sweet setup, but the cost and the weight scared me away from it.

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Yea you are right about the jack plate. The man at James River Jets recommends just building the transom up.

CMC sells a riser plate that bolts to the transom and then you can bolt the motor to the transom and riser plate and get the height you need it at. I really got lucky finding the tunnel jet boat and then finding a short shaft Mercury jet outboard for it so I didn't need the riser or to build up the transom. I found the same hull as mine for sale locally a couple of months ago and that guy didn't have it advertised as a tunnel jet either and it had a prop motor on it. You can transfer all the good parts to any hull for the most part so it's not worth overpaying for a hull.