Looking for info on floors on ribs, not decks/casting deck!!

Hi, I am a new user here, I have a 1979 Smokercraft Zepher 16' that I am working on. I have restored the seats, transom, stern tray, capped all the wood seats with diamond plate aluminum. I am waiting for delivery of a new 40hp Yamaha 4 stroke for it to replace the 15hp.

With the large motor I want to put flooring in on top of the ribs, so as to keep feet dry, more comfortable etc.

I have searched as well as gotten to page 40 of the mods section to try to find ideas but all I get is either foam floors in jon boats covered with rubber or deck conversions away from the bench seats style to bass boats style.

I need the seat style as I use this boat in my army reserve unit and bench seats are more practical.

I was hoping rather then spending my week sorting through each thread, if anyone who has added flooring can chime in with pics of how they did it for ideas I would be grateful.

I do want to make the flooring removable as well as find a way to make them be able to placed higher flush with the top of the seats so I could lay down and sleep on top during army training.

You could go through all 95 of my posts here: https://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink?url=httpss%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Eforum%2Etinboats%2Enet%2Fviewtopic%2Ephp%3Ft%3D40637&share_tid=40637&share_fid=21494&share_type=t

Or, I could find this for you: bare floor before and after. Hope it helps. The "joists" were lag bolted to the ribs. You could also run longitudinal stringers ( say 3) and drop flooring on top. I used treated 2x material approved for contact with aluminum. Lowe's sells it as "Severe weather MAX" Above ground treated... Also called eco life.

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I made drop in floor sections in this boat between the seats. Simply using plywood and a couple stringers underneath that ran bow to stern direction and screw to the plywood. The edges of the plywood rest on the ribs of the boat. You have to play around a bit to find the sweet spot for the stringers. My front was a small casting deck. As for being able to raise them flush, maybe use something like joist hangers screwed to the bench seat front and rear faces so 2x4’s can be dropped in for support?


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A movable platform that extends from the front of one bench seat to the back of the other snugly. Maybe do this out of 5/8 subfloor material as it's very rigid. Then right at 5/8 below the seating surface of the benches on the vertical material mount 1"X1" oak or aluminum of suitable strength. These ledger boards would be hardly noticeable to the seated boater but robust enough to support the platform under load in the "raised" (read: flush) position.




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