2011 Base Weldbilt 1760 build

[vahunter]

I had the same problem with the 4-6 week delivery. It turned into 8 weeks. Probably the longest 2 months of my life You can't exactly rush those rednecks (don't worry I are one too) at Weldbilt. But it was worth the wait. Very few complaints. Trailer looks awesome though and I will be watching the build.

 

[OverMyHead]

I am now officially done with as much as I can do till I get the boat in. I am holding off on buying a jack for the trailer till I can decide whether I need one that will rotate to give more ground clearance. I have had them before and they have always felt flimsy. Have you folks used a certain brand that you liked better than others? I called the boat dealership today and got a voicemail like they were closed, seems odd they would be closed on black friday, but then again I know little about marketing in the boat world.

I got all of the bunks mounted. It was pretty straight forward, since I laid the concrete in my driveway I know it is not level enough to use to measure the hight of the bunks, so I used two 2x3's and some old scrap plywood stacked on the braces on the trailer to get my bunks level with the trailer. Put on the u-bolts I made from all-thread, measure from the edge of the trailer, accidently bump it, measure again, and so on. I was rather proud of myself, I drilled the holes in the bunks straight from one side to the other, free hand. This is an accomplishment for me especially since I had to repeat the process 14 times. There are still 4 mounts that I have to build for the rear of the boat, but I dont want to attach them till I have the boat in case I need to adjust side to side a little. I still have to mount the side bunks (guide bunks?). They are eight feet long as well. I went to lowes and looked at the angle iron to mount them and they are very proud of their iron. So, another trip to the scrap yard is in my near future.

If you look in the pictures you can see what I was talking about on getting to thick of a coat of the fluorescent paint. It shows up really well in the dark. I will leave it as is for now and call it character, I may just cover it with glossy black like the rest of the trailer later on, right now I am still getting a kick out of it.

 

[OverMyHead]

So far the hardest part was getting the stupid wires to go down the neck of the trailer, It was 4+ feet then I added a little more than 4', but the hard part was getting the wires past a LARGE wasp nest in the middle of the neck. I almost gave up and ran the wires outside the neck when I remembered I had some bailing wire; a little electrical tape and a lot of patients and I finially got it in.

 

[OverMyHead]

It's in. Finially... 4-6 weeks turned into 8-10 weeks, then the 12th turned into the 14th and now I have it home. I have some pics I will post for you. I got a call a week or so ago from the guy at WeldBilt wanting to double check my design request. I had asked them to place the "center" seat one foot from the seat in the front. He called me before they welded it in to find out what I was looking for. My idea was to put a deck across the front of it and to build a frame to even out the gap between the front and center seat. They went ahead and raised the seat even with the front. It is going to save me a lot of trouble in the end. I really appreciate them taking the time to find out what I was planning and adjusting their build to fit what I wanted without trying to throw in some more dollars. I am really happy with what I brought home. And No, the boat is not pulling the truck... LOL

 

[hotshotinn]

Looks like those Weldbilts are some heavy duty boats =D> IF i lived closeer to them I would be buying one.You going to add to the front end of it so there is a bigger casting deck?

 

[OverMyHead]

The casting deck is going to be a total of 30" + the triangle in the front. Most of the time we fish down in the hole so it is going to be wide open.

 

[OverMyHead]

The old Bass Tracker is no more, or should I say it is now a lot less.

It is now in pieces, ready to be a floor, steps, braces, and storage.

 

[flatboat]

nice boat .like weldbuilt

 

[lowblazah]

that trailer makes me chuckle...the colors that is...you did a great job on it otherwise.

 

[2007NNBS]

WOW that boat is a beast! Going To be a great build

 

[vahunter]

Updates??? what's the deal the bar and plate running width ways on the transom?

 

[hsiftac]

Looks like a splashwell

 

[OverMyHead]

Sorry it has taken so long for me to get back to this. To answer the question first, yes it is a splashwell.

I originally had cut the old boat up to use as a floor, after getting it cut out and laying it in, it didnt lay as flat as I had hoped. Too many stumps had graced the bottem of the old tracker to get a good flat surface. So I ended up getting some pieces cut and bent. It was hell trying to find someone locally who sells sheet aluminum at a price that is anywhere near reasonable. I finally went with Holiday Sheet Metal in Tyler, TX. I can get the sheets 4x10 sheets in Dallas for $150 per sheet. Holiday charged me $225 + tax for the sheet, cut to size, and one sheet bent @ a 90*. After gas, time, and hassel I think it worked out well.




I am still using the old braces from the Tracker for bracing and mounting angles. Some of them are shaped like a u with wings and they work well for mounting. I cut some of the U shaped pieces in half to give me 90* for bracing as well.





My 10 year old drilled and rivited the bracing along the rear bench and only got off by about 1/8" on one of the bars. Not bad, I think. I did about as well as he did on the one on the front bench. LOL
After getting the base bracing up now I am going to have to go to somewhere and get some c channel for bracing through the center. The longest pieces I have are 22.5". But this is what it is going to look like when finished, sorta. It will have storage for batteries and such and seat pedistals in it as well.. I still have to do the cutouts for the ribs. I haven't gotten those pieces yet.

 

[OverMyHead]

that trailer makes me chuckle...the colors that is...you did a great job on it otherwise.

LOL you have no idea, I have had like 4 people stop while I am working on this thing to talk about the color of the trailer. Appearntly I am entertainment for the block and people are keeping track of my progress for me. I had some people stop by and check to see if I was ok after I didnt work on it for a couple days. Gotta love small towns. I think some of my neighbors are just as eager to see it finished as I am. They will have to wait though. I can only do so much before my hands quit on me. Neurologist suck, they order tests like EMG, which means "come on in and lets shock you with a cattle prod and stick 5-6" needles into every muscle you have and make you flex." My favorite was the MRI of my neck and spine, lets place you on table that isnt wide enough to support your shoulders and cram your head into a device built for a child, lock your chin into place with a metal and plastic bracket, cram you into a space about as big as you would have trying to squeeze under your car without a jack. Now sit there for half an hour while we play the drums. The only part that was bad was that I had to hold my arms and shoulders up without support and keep still for 30 minutes.. you try it. Bad deal.

But I digress.

Did I mention that I did get the motor on. I wasnt about to pay a couple hundred bucks for a template and guide for drilling the holes through the transom. I built one out of plywood and 2x3's. It worked great, no funny holes, straight and true.

 

[OverMyHead]

I am sorry it is going to slow, but since the surgery I can feel my fingertips again, interesting feeling. Lol. After I get these stiches out I will have another surgery on my right hand and have a couple weeks of recovery and maybe I can get this beast wet before I run out of springtime.
All this free time has given me a chance to order a lot of the smaller parts I will be adding and I figured I would let you in on my goodies.

The boat will be wired and plumed from scratch so I got most of the stuff I think I will need. 100’ of 14/2 for the lights and the majority of the electrical items, 17’ 4awg for power distribution, and 10’ 14/3 for the bilge. 50 or so crimp connectors of various types, and heat shrink. All of the wire and connectors are tinned for marine use. I got it all from Greg’s marine wire supply on Ebay, they had the best prices and shipping I could find.


I went to Academy and found a switch panel I liked, but it was missing the labels. They had it marked down from $89 to $40 since it was missing the labels. BEP Marine Contour Generation 2, with 6 switches. I went ahead and picked it up not knowing that the labels would be almost impossible to find. The only place I could find them was a marine shop in Australia, so I went ahead and ordered the labels and another panel with 4 switches to finish off my switch needs. I still came out ahead since the additional shipping was only $14 to ship overseas. I got the 10 fuse block and ground bus from o'reilly auto parts. I looked at several different brands and types of live well timers and couldn’t find one that worked the way I wanted it to. I ended up running across a company called Eng-Genius Technologies INC. that made what I was looking for. They have adjustable on/off timing, run time between charging timer, and a low battery shut off. After reading about the company and products I liked what I saw and got two of them for my two live well and bait wells @ $45 each.


I had the 1992 version of the cable rotary steering. After looking at my setup and the work, drilling, bending that I would have to do to get the old cable through the floor and to the motor I decided to go with hydraulic steering. Bendable hoses and 45-90* connectors make for a much cleaner install and I don’t have to drill as many holes in the bracing of the boat. Again after several hours of searching the best deal I could find was on Ebay for a full setup by Bay Star. $485 and it comes with everthing to install, including the oil.


I want to be able to light the inside of the boat at night without having to carry a bunch of laterns and flashlights so I chose to install 10 – 9 light led strips along the walls of the boat. They are just over 6” long and 1” wide. I think they will do the job nicely. I looked online and in stores, they were all basically the same price. Academy had them for .50 cheaper than I could find anywhere else. So… saved $5 in all. $14.25 each light.

 

[OverMyHead]

This is the console and how its comming along. I havent screwed the switch panels into place yet and they are a little crooked.