My 2010 tracker 12Ft project Jon with 40 HP evinrude (1975)

[Jim-Iowa]

Being over a 1000 miles from the flats, I only know what I have read? Still think there are places here in Iowa where I would like to try a flats boat. And have been facinated with Flats Boats so have read and searched the internet for everything I could find about flats boats and flats fishing.

My understanding is that it is very shallow water fishing. I understand that it is important to get on plane quickly to reduce draft?
But with the weight of the motor on a 12 ft, is there not a big risk that one would bury the prop in the sand??
Would one spend a lot of time replacing shear pins at the very least?
How long is your lower unit and are you going to have to use a jack plate to get it close to optimum?

I don't disagree with others that that's too much motor for that boat, but honestly would like to hear your comments and motivation in using such a large motor on a 12 ft boat? Do post pictures and keep us up on your conversion, I want to do a flats jon conversion for some of our shallow lakes up here.

 

[fishshtick]

It's definitely dangerous to put that much motor on such a short AND narrow boat. You can potentially balance out the hull rise with enough screwing around with weight distribution and the motor weight isn't too big of an issue in of itself (its only about 20lb off from a 9.9). However, the shortness and narrowness of the flat hull is likely to make it respond dangerously in turns. There simply isn't enough boat to anchor the motor in a turn if you get that thing going too fast. Importantly, without enough hull width you risk hopping or keeling over in corners and an attempt to correct for that on the fly could send you flipping. Width is what makes those racing boats able to corner at high speeds.

You might also have some torque issues. Larger HP motors create more torque at the prop and such a short/narrow boat might respond to it more. You want to be careful about trying to offset that with any fins available on the motor (it it has them)

If you keep the boat speed down, you can probably avoid disaster, but definitely govern the throttle somehow to avoid the potential for mistakes with the acceleration. You might find that smart tabs or some other trim tabs could provide a bit more stability and help to get your bow down. They put them on inflatables some times to help with some of the above handling issues.

Beyond those thoughts, this is uncharted terrain for me and I hope you take the warnings people have offered seriously. Please be sure you have a properly working kill switch on a lanyard, so no-one else has to dodge your torpedo.

 

[free jonboat]

Rick James...... Im very saddened by your non beliving soul, i hope this youtube video will give you some insparation. And also, i will be posting pictures of how i will be reinforcing the transome and balancing the weight. Also as far as the tipping goes, once this weight is put on the boat it should be much more stable from my expirience. Anyhow this is just for fun and i have no need to take it full throtle, just moving nice through the flats of florida bay and the keys will be sufficient. thanks for the intrest and lots of pictures to come Mike!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJ7dgWW6KRs

This was probably the dumbest, most boring youtube video I've ever seen! I can't believe I watched the entire 3+ minutes of it. I kept waiting for something cool to happen...still waiting.

Good luck with the boat, seems to me that a 40HP is kind of overkill though.

Hows this one for ya?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BO6EbCTKwM&feature=related

yea dyeguythat is a good 1 but i still perfer this one instead :twisted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDx2jyO3usc

 

[bobberboy]

Inshore - in spite the fact that these guys don't know you they're just trying to prevent an unnecessary funeral. A 40 hp on a 12' boat isn't an experiment, it's lunacy. There are hp recommendations for a reason. I just looked at some 12' ratings for MikeyBob and all of the ones I found rated a 12' for a 10hp motor. Thing is that with all that weight and power on the back of such a small boat you'll never see the performance the 40 is capable of. Porpoising up and down the river is just going to shake your kidneys loose. Maybe that extra hp could run the dialysis machine you're going to need. You actually might do better (if you insist on overpowering your boat) with a 20-25hp motor that won't be so heavy. That dope on the river was lucky he didn't have a jon boat. At least the v-hull won't let the wind under the hull so easily. If it were a jon boat and he ever got it up to speed the wind would certainly flip the boat up. If you liked the video of the guy going up and down the river you'll love this one - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuuCL1zi5gs. It begs the question - Got Cockpit?

If you expect the people on this site to participate in your dangerous "experiment" I think you'll be disappointed. Don't be defensive, be smart. These guys know what they're talking about and they're just looking out for you.

 

[gregk9]

Over kill is an understatement....not to mention there is no way you could ever insure that boat which opens up an entire can of worms dealing with liabilities and RESPONSIBILITIES if anyone besides yourself should get hurt in an ACCIDENT....

X2

 

[InshoreAngler]

well...this weekends outcome was not so great. I had a good friend come over with a compression tester. Once we checked the engine the compression was horrible, about 40-50. Which leaves me with no engine. The engine was free so no damage done there.
Now i need to plan something else out but have no idea what to do and im on a real tight budget. I am now planning to wait of on some of the decking features until we figure out what will power us.

Any ideas?
I was told that a trolling motor with a good battery can push us about 10mph..is this true? how about against the current? will the battery run out on us?

 

[Jim-Iowa]

There are a lot of varibles pertaining to speed using a trolling motor.
Far too many to give a definitive answer as to whethere you could make 10 mph. Size of the motor, battery or batteries total weight your pushing etc. The search function will get you into the archives and you can read to your hearts content and learn a ton.

There are at least 4 nice aprox 100 acre state and county lakes within an hours drive of my house that are restricted to Electric Power only.
And I am looking for a jon the size of yours to set up for electric power only.
I'm looking at a 55 pound thrust Minkota with 1 12v battery and expecting closer to 3-5 mph. Since the motor would be run intermittantly(just moving from spot to spot) I think I could fish all day without running out of power.

Since your on a Tight Budget(as am I) I would reccomend you look at Froggy's build. He did a conversion that minumized added weight(important if your going electric on a budget) and made a very nice boat.
https://www.tinboats.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=12778
Also look at the Electric Bass tournement thread for ideas too.

 

[Froggy]

From 40 HP to electric! Dude you coming to your senses! I was gonna check you out on darwinawards.... you should be able to unload that monster for 350 bucks on GL, then get a 10 or 15HP in running condition! Good luck. Looks cold in Miami!