Polar Kraft 1651 Mods

I have some ideas as to things I want to do to the new boat to make it more the way I want it. I'm sure as I use it I will come up with more ideas of things to change.

The first thing i did was buy a cover to keep the rain, leaves, & other junk out of it. The cover went on pretty tight but with the small amount of rain we had yesterday the cover still puddled some. Using ideas I saw here I made some bows out of 1/2' pvc and some 4 way unions.
Materials:
5 1/2"x10' pvc
4 four way unions pvc

I have a seat tower on the front deck so I started at the rear of the front deck, with the height of the chair riser I figured the top of the bow needed to be 27" off the floor. I took on of the 10" 1/2" pvc pipes and placed the end against the far side. I then bowed it til the top was aprox 27" from the floor and marked the pvc on the near side. In my case this came out to be 71" so I cut a piece 71" for a test fit. Seemed to work well. Now I have to allow for the 4 way so I had to cut a 1 12" off the pvc pipe. I then cut it in half. I how cut 6 more to match the 1 set. The bands for my straps are about 26 1/2" apart so I cut some 25" pieces from the left over pieces of the bows. Assembled all this on the driveway using now glue at this point.

Carried it over and set the one side against the boat on the far side just below the gunnel, grabed to of the poles on my side is arced them til they droped in below the gunnel. Did the same for the other 2 I now have 4 bows with a center section which should keep it from falling forward or back, this is still to be tested.









Threw the cover over the new bows and cinched it down. Looks pretty good but it needs a little tweaking. I either have to shorten the front bow a little or move the whole thing back as it isn't even because the boat starts to taper a little at the front. It was getting late the sun had gone down and it was getting cold so I stopped for today. At least if it rains I don't think it will puddle again. I will tweak it some tomorrow and clue it all together.

nice design...don't think it would last a winter here....snow weight would make short work of that pvc....cold weather makes it brittle.

Yesterday was a test fit and I still might tweak it some more, but today I took it out and glued it all togeether and also moved it towards the rear a little. Should keep the rain off and leaves & twigs from gathering inside. I may have to put some upright supports in it to support any snow fall. At least we don't get the snow fall here like they do up north.

I like the idea! I may use it (but with different materials). I live in GA now, but the Army is moving me to Colorado (RIVER TROUT!!!!) next year. Let us know how it works out!

dettmer13 said:

I like the idea! I may use it (but with different materials). I live in GA now, but the Army is moving me to Colorado (RIVER TROUT!!!!) next year. Let us know how it works out!

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So far it's workign good I can complain. It does get a little water in the one cornor but that might have been the way I had it sinched down.

We have decided to rewire most of the boat. I don't like where the switches for the live well and the running lights is located and there are fueses all over the place and I'm not even sure what they are for. So I ordered a Blue Sea fuse block and made a switch panel with some switches and a project box from Radio Shack. Still need to get one more switch, they had 2 I wanted 3. I also ordered a Johnny Ray swival mount for the fish finder. It needs to be raised up with a little angle to make it easier to see.

The boat wiring was not to my liking so I rewire it. Here's a discription and some photos https://www.tinboats.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=24496

The wiring on the trailers wasn't much better than the wiring on the boat so out it went and in with the new. Trailer wiring thread https://www.tinboats.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=24561

Before I rewired the boat & trailer I started by rewiring the motor.

I tackled the rewire today. Wasn't all that bad just took all day, guess it's a good thing I wasn't working on Flat Rate. The last wiring diagram that I posted looked just like the wiring for the motor once I got into it. Thers's a mag or stator not sure which but there are a pair of points inside of it. I took pictures as I took it apart so I could get it back together the same way. Did have to check a couple of times. All went well until I was cleaning up and putting the tools away. I found 2 screws that I forgot to put in. Looking at the pictures I'm pretty sure I know where they go. I have to take the top off again and go under the flywheel to fix my screw up. On well live and learn.

I searched over at iBoats and some other boat forums and the general thought was to use butt connectors, soidering because of the virbration causes the wire to fail just past the soider joint. With what I had to work with the butt connecters was much easier. I used the ones what have the heat shrink for the installation. They appear to seal up real nice.

BTW yesterday when I had the boat out the key switch would kill the engine when turned off. I removed the wire from the kill button as it was giving the ignition another way to ground, so you would have to turn the switch off and then press the button, the key switch had to be off for it to work. So when I did the rewire today I didn't include the kill button.

Here's some photos of before and after
https://gramps50.smugmug.com/Boats/Mercu ... 701_wShkFs

The boat cover supports started taking on a bowed stance and were starting to slip down the side some. So off to Lowes to get some more PVC pieces. What I found was a 1"x1/2" T but this wasn't a conventional T as the bottom was open and would slip over my gunwels. The 1/2" part was threaded so I got some 1/2" adapters, thread to slip. and some 45 degree elbows.

I cut 1.5" off each side of the existing cross bars and used then to go between the adapter and elbow. I think the pictures will tell the story better than I can explain it.

This is what the original design looked like


This is how it rested against the side of the boat. It was just held there by pressure


The update version with the mod complete




Closeup of the new side support made with the 1x1/2" adapter, adapter, 1.5x1/2" pvc, & 45 degree elbow


View attachment 2

With cover on

The cover worked fine until I put the new TM on then the TM head sticking up on the one side through the whole front mid section off. It caused the one strap to create a valley which would hold water and times and just didn't look right.

I added one more bow up in the front so that the cover would flow off the front seat pdestal and TM head better and also give a center bar for the strap so I can't create the valley. I also added a support on seach end to help with sagging. Got dark on me so I didn't get any pics with the cover on but did get some of the frame mods.

Boat is looking great Gramps! Those PolarKrafts are tough boats. =D> =D>

KevinWI said:

nice design...don't think it would last a winter here....snow weight would make short work of that pvc....cold weather makes it brittle.

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I don't know how much different ABS is but thats what I used.
Lasted 3 winters so far,1st winter it did colapse but it was because I didn't have enough turn downs and wrapped the boat in a canvas tarp.The snow stuck to the canvas and I didn't have enough turn downs.I use the same ABS as guide-ons,been 4 years and the havn't broke;filled them with spray foam.

I'll see how it goes when winter gets here, may have a boat full of snow.

If the schedule 40 doesn't hold up I will go with schedule 80 and may go from 3/4 to an inch or 1 1/4"


Zum, I like your design looks to be stronger than mine as your using 1 1/2" I don't know if ABS is stronger than PVC or not, I"ll have to ask my buddy that sells that stuff.