[UPDATE]Finally my tracker 1542 is done! well almost........

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Leelatt

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[UPDATE] See page 3 for new progress on boat.


Made some significant progress on my build this weekend, been slowly working on it over time, but it's 3/4's of the way done.

Front shot of frame work. used 1 inch aluminum box tubing along with 1 1/2 inch aluminum L angle.
556907_10151003494955320_1728362229_n.jpg


Deck installed. it's 2 pieces, 1 covers from bow to middle of the gap between front and mid bench, the other covers from middle of gap to the far side of the mid bench. both are 1/2 inch ply wood sealed with 2 coats of spar urethane. screwed down into the aluminum supports with 2 inch wood to sheet metal screws.
IMG_0787-Copy-1.jpg


Hatches are also 1/2 inch ply, installed locks on both to keep the stored stuff secure when the boat is sitting in the drive way.
IMG_0792-g.jpg


Under the front deck:
IMG_0793-g.jpg


Mid section floor and side walls. floor is same as front deck, 1/2 ply with urethane coating. it's sitting on a box frame of 1 inch aluminum box tube. left side wall is for tackle trays and other loose storage plus the collapsible oar and rear pole navigation light. eventually I will add cup holders to either side.
IMG_0788-g.jpg


Early stage of the electrical, needs to be organized haha it's a mess at the moment. but everything works perfectly.
IMG_0803-g.jpg


DSI transducer mounted on transom, board is sealed and marine epoxy-ed to the transom, feels very solid.
IMG_0799-g.jpg


Left side box holds collapsible paddle and rear nav pole light:
IMG_0807-g.jpg


Aerator in live well, going to silicone around the hatch edge as whenever it pours the live well fills with water, most of it drains but as you can see some stays and becomes stagnant sometimes.
IMG_0795-g.jpg


Rear section, at the moment it houses 2 group 29 DC batteries and a bilge pump, can also see pole light base and all the missing paint, paint just rubs off of everything :(
IMG_0797-g.jpg


That's it for now, plan to get a lot more done this week as I'm off all week for the 4th. Picking up my gas motor tomorrow, it's a 25HP rude w/ electric start.
remaining plans are the rear deck, and seat mounts.

still need to decide on the following,
1.) what seats to get for the boat
2.) what trolling motor to get, I've narrowed it down to either an 80lbs maxxum or an 80lbs terrova, never used a foot controlled motor so I have no idea which is better.
3.) what size gas tank I should get, not sure what the average/normal size is.


If anyone has any input and suggestions I'm all ears as this is my first boat and first build.
 
The pictures are to big I think. Yup that's the problem, resize them to the largest side being 800 pixels max. I generally resize all of mine to 640x480 for forum view.
 
Nice job! I like the side boxes. I am going to copy yours when I finally get started on mine. I keep putting off modifying mine thinking I might trade it off and hate to loose even more money by doing so.
 
hmmm I resized all of the images to be 640x 480 and it still doesn't work.

thanks tnriverluver, I got the idea from franner's build, you should take a look at hers.
 
Leelatt said:
hmmm I resized all of the images to be 640x 480 and it still doesn't work.

thanks tnriverluver, I got the idea from franner's build, you should take a look at hers.

First one worked for me, but apparently the rest are still over 800 pixels wide. and that one is 536 x 960.
 
there we go, figured it out, the "resize all" option on photobucket didn't save the settings in the images, only when I was viewing them, issue fixed.
 
finished up the back deck over the holiday weekend:

Long shot of the boat:
IMG_0812-copy.jpg


Rear hatch closed:
IMG_0814-copy.jpg


Rear hatch open:
IMG_0817-copy.jpg


Back section:
IMG_0810-copy.jpg


still have a few more small things to do on it but that's a few weeks off.

Trolling motor comes on monday, decided to go with the 80# MK terrova with auto pilot and universal sonar 2. no idea how it mounts to the deck yet, anyone here have one that they can post up a picture or two so I can get an idea of what to expect? going to wire it all up when it comes, need to pick up a 2nd deep cycle battery for it though. speaking of which, I know you shouldn't use an older battery with a newer battery but unfortunately I can't find a battery manufactured in the same month as my other two that I currently have, both of which are a year apart. I can find one that's 2 months away from my newest one, is that ok to use them together?
 
got the seat bases installed, the '98 15hp rude has been restored and repainted, waiting on a few parts for it. the trolling motor came in, thing is massive, cabelas had the 60 inch shaft 80# terrova cheaper than the 40 inch shaft version, didn't realize how much room it would take up, is it possible to swap out the shafts?

will try to get pics up this coming weekend, it's been stormy here and I have a paintball outing sunday so hopefully I can nab a few on saturday.

the issue I ran into now is that my 2 batteries are 6 months apart, can I still use these for the 24 volt system? I thought I had read somewhere that you should use 2 batteries that were manufactured at the same time.

also, 1 says 125 amp hours and the other says 122 amp hours, they're the exact same battery; everstart marine, group 29 DC. the labels are both identical even the sku numbers are the same on the receipts from walmart, any thoughts on this?
 
Do you have pictures of how you built/hinged your side boxes, I'm trying to figure out how to do mine?

Thx,

Scott
 
Scott, I don't have any at the moment, will try to get some this weekend.

I ran a 1" aluminum box tube from the mid bench to the rear bench, riveted to each bench with L angle pieces, this gave me an outer rail to mount the hinges to. might not be the best description but I'll try to get pictures up this weekend.
 
Well..... with hurricane sandy I will be redoing half of my build, central flooring is broken and needs to be ripped out and replaced, side boxes also need to be ripped out and replaced. Small hatch gave out and my foot almost went right through so that as well will need to be ripped out, I had sealed everything with 3 coats of sealer but it seems that the excessive amount of water that piled up in the boat from the hurricane found its way into the boards.

Finally have time to put work into the build, just waiting on the weather to get warmer, I'll keep this updated when I finally get to repair and finish the build.

Ideas on horizon:

1) Repair damages
2) 2nd fish finder, humming bird piranha max 180
3) Ram trolling motor mount
4) interior led lights
5) exterior black lights for night fishing
6) speakers.
7) better storage and protection
 
got all of the destroyed parts of the boat fixed, went with thompson's water seal instead of the spar urathane, only 1 coat needed and after 3 days of leaving a decent size puddle of water on a test board, it didn't soak in so I'm feeling good about switching.

installed cup holders, repainted all of the interior compartments and installed the 2nd fish finder.

one major problem though, with the 15hp motor on the back and just me sitting back there, the water level is 4 inches below the top of the transom, I'm worried about this, that the boat could easily be swamped. I'm thinking about getting the beavertail float pods but not sure if the small pods will fit the boat and allow the motor to have full range of movement.

any suggestions?

I plan to get some pictures up this weekend after I take the boat out for a day trip.
 
Hey leekatt , I see your post is older but I'm new to this and saw your post . Was wondering is there is any stability issues ? Would like to put the same front deck on and also if the plywood is just level from one bench to the other ?
 
Bryan, no stability issues, low transom problem was due to some water logged foam.

Ply wood is level from mid bench to front bench, if you look at the framework picture you can see how I have it running from bench to bench.

Good luck on your build, I plan to update this thread soon
 

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