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2015 Alumacraft MV 1546 DD build
- Thread starter chevyrulz
- Start date
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Here's how it's attached:
I tucked the back of the frame under the corner gussets, and the front is held by the bow line. The long tubes of the frame come apart in the middle so it fits in the shed
the rear portion of the 3/4" PVC pipe frame tucks under the corner gussets nice & snug
I ziptied the "fast grass" to the PVC frame on the left & right sides, but not across the front or rear of the frame to allow the grass to be rolled up for trailering @ highway speeds & so that I can access the rear deck hatch for refueling, switching on lights/bilge, etc...
to build the blind frame, I used:
(5) ten foot sticks of 3/4" PVC
(4) forty-five degree elbows on the front to match the contour of the bow
(2) ninety degree elbows in the rear tucked under the corner gussets
(2) couplers in the middle of the long runs on the left/right sides allow the frame to be taken into halves for storage
I will probably add 2 more couplers, one up front & one out back so I can take the frame into 4 pieces for easier storage, it's a bit unwieldy as a 2 piece frame...
I tucked the back of the frame under the corner gussets, and the front is held by the bow line. The long tubes of the frame come apart in the middle so it fits in the shed
the rear portion of the 3/4" PVC pipe frame tucks under the corner gussets nice & snug
I ziptied the "fast grass" to the PVC frame on the left & right sides, but not across the front or rear of the frame to allow the grass to be rolled up for trailering @ highway speeds & so that I can access the rear deck hatch for refueling, switching on lights/bilge, etc...
to build the blind frame, I used:
(5) ten foot sticks of 3/4" PVC
(4) forty-five degree elbows on the front to match the contour of the bow
(2) ninety degree elbows in the rear tucked under the corner gussets
(2) couplers in the middle of the long runs on the left/right sides allow the frame to be taken into halves for storage
I will probably add 2 more couplers, one up front & one out back so I can take the frame into 4 pieces for easier storage, it's a bit unwieldy as a 2 piece frame...
LeftCoastAngler
Well-known member
Hey look!
Floating grass!
Floating grass!
no new mods yet, been too busy using the boat! next will be integrated storage & permanent flooring. i'm going to put one or more hatches in the boat, definitely one in the bow, but possibly a few in the front & rear deck as well. or perhaps a gunbox instead. i want to build one from diamond plate, but i don't know if i wanna add that much weight...
update on the flooring, one morning a square disappeared between my house & the boat ramp. it also was a little slippery since i didn't glue it down. ended up being more of a pain than a help so i took it out.
i think i've decided on dark gray "b stock" hydroturf. it's EVA foam mat with a diamond pattern cut into it, & it's a 6mm thickness. the delay is the cost being $276 shipped for 5 pieces to do the entire inside of the hull including the sidewalls. i might even need 6 pieces... i am leaning towards dark gray because it will match the engine & it's cheaper than camo. I also figure gray will help resale too by not turning off fishermen who aren't hunters or any other camo haters. i'll update once i complete any mods, but here's a few more pictures from duck season in the mean time:
update on the flooring, one morning a square disappeared between my house & the boat ramp. it also was a little slippery since i didn't glue it down. ended up being more of a pain than a help so i took it out.
i think i've decided on dark gray "b stock" hydroturf. it's EVA foam mat with a diamond pattern cut into it, & it's a 6mm thickness. the delay is the cost being $276 shipped for 5 pieces to do the entire inside of the hull including the sidewalls. i might even need 6 pieces... i am leaning towards dark gray because it will match the engine & it's cheaper than camo. I also figure gray will help resale too by not turning off fishermen who aren't hunters or any other camo haters. i'll update once i complete any mods, but here's a few more pictures from duck season in the mean time:
Wow...look forward to seeing you mods...especially the hatch in the bow, not much room up there. Looking for a place to put second battery to power a bow mounted trolling motor. Looking into a grab bar but haven't figured out a way to attach it yet...having no side ribs makes it difficult. Have you installed rod holders?
no rod holders yet so let me know how you tackle that one if you go for it
i'm hoping 3 jackets, my small dry box, and the anchor will fit up front in the nose. i ordered a dark gray tempress 11" x 15" non-locking cam hatch. i measured & it will fit nicely in place of that factory square access hatch with some love from my angle grinder :mrgreen:
also ordered me some knock-off hydroturf. i found this "black tip jetsports" stuff on amazon & it appears to be the same as hydroturf, only cheaper & in a larger size. $120 for two dark gray sheets of 39" x 78" material already with the glue on it. i had priced out hydroturf, it was affordable til i saw they're charging like 20 something dollars for shipping per sheet. screw that! then seadeck is $120 for just 1 sheet the same size as the $60 sheet of the blacktip material & Lord knows what they want for shipping, although it does come in camo...anyways, these 2 sheets i ordered should be plenty for the floor & drop deck. i figure the gray will look good by matching the motor.
pictures to follow once installed, but here's some more from duck season:
i'm hoping 3 jackets, my small dry box, and the anchor will fit up front in the nose. i ordered a dark gray tempress 11" x 15" non-locking cam hatch. i measured & it will fit nicely in place of that factory square access hatch with some love from my angle grinder :mrgreen:
also ordered me some knock-off hydroturf. i found this "black tip jetsports" stuff on amazon & it appears to be the same as hydroturf, only cheaper & in a larger size. $120 for two dark gray sheets of 39" x 78" material already with the glue on it. i had priced out hydroturf, it was affordable til i saw they're charging like 20 something dollars for shipping per sheet. screw that! then seadeck is $120 for just 1 sheet the same size as the $60 sheet of the blacktip material & Lord knows what they want for shipping, although it does come in camo...anyways, these 2 sheets i ordered should be plenty for the floor & drop deck. i figure the gray will look good by matching the motor.
pictures to follow once installed, but here's some more from duck season:
NLaudy
Well-known member
Just an idea... Here is what I did when I redid my boat. Unfortunately I don't really have a good pic of after it was done. Added LEDs for accessing in the dark.
NLaudy
Well-known member
Chevy, they are 8" inspection hatches. They aren't that big but great for throwing clothing or whatever small stuff in. I got them on Amazon.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00I90YF9K
The boat is a small skinny water boat. It has a 25hp motor and is listed on the title as a 1542 Bass Tracker. When I got it, it was totally stripped so I had to do what I could. It has an all aluminum transom and pods. I put all the electrical in the seat and the switch panel is on back of seat.
Sorry for jacking thread. Just like sharing ideas.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00I90YF9K
The boat is a small skinny water boat. It has a 25hp motor and is listed on the title as a 1542 Bass Tracker. When I got it, it was totally stripped so I had to do what I could. It has an all aluminum transom and pods. I put all the electrical in the seat and the switch panel is on back of seat.
Sorry for jacking thread. Just like sharing ideas.
nope, my ghetto blind is designed to hide outline of the boat to hunt from the river bank instead of hunting in the actual boat. it works fine to hunt from the boat though, but it doesn't hide movement from the dog or your buddy as good as a scissor blind or a taller fixed blind. if you hold still, your outline won't typically spook decoying birds until they're close enough to shoot. on the few mornings when we planned to hunt from the boat, we propped the grass up on one side to hide our outline better and/or we brought palm branches to stick in the mud in front of us too. i might create a scissor blind for next season if i can come up with the $ to buy the aluminum tubing & pay someone to tig weld it up for me. not sure i want to add the weight of an EMT electrical conduit blind frame
tempress hatch allegedly arrives this thursday & the flooring shipped out today so should have those all buttoned up by this weekend or next
tempress hatch allegedly arrives this thursday & the flooring shipped out today so should have those all buttoned up by this weekend or next
Built a scissor blind for mine out of 1/2" EMT. Took a chance on the 1/2" being too thin but it worked out OK. Clamp it to the boat with hand clamps. Very simple design and is very light, no welding. Lasted the season but I didn't beat on it.
ten 4 dw, maybe i'll go 1/2 emt after all
turf showed up early, & tempress hatch scheduled for delivery tomorrow. will be saturday before i have time to install it though. the "slate gray" ain't so slate, it's more gray. was hoping for darker, but o well. it's right under a 1/4" thick:
now, do i gap or do i seam the floor?... turf is 39" wide, but the floor is 46" wide, so i can leave un-turf'd floor on the outside edges, or i can spend forever trying to make a seam to cover the whole floor....hmmmm....stuff feels durable & likely too stiff to make any sharp angles easily, so running it up the side walls or over a 90 degree bend would probably be a pain in the neck even with a heat gun. any advice from the turf laying pros around here? paging Kurt Loup!
Here's a tin boater who gapped his floor Handiman270's 1649:
& here's a the sickest hydroturf'd tin boat i've seen Kurt Loup's Duracraft:
turf showed up early, & tempress hatch scheduled for delivery tomorrow. will be saturday before i have time to install it though. the "slate gray" ain't so slate, it's more gray. was hoping for darker, but o well. it's right under a 1/4" thick:
now, do i gap or do i seam the floor?... turf is 39" wide, but the floor is 46" wide, so i can leave un-turf'd floor on the outside edges, or i can spend forever trying to make a seam to cover the whole floor....hmmmm....stuff feels durable & likely too stiff to make any sharp angles easily, so running it up the side walls or over a 90 degree bend would probably be a pain in the neck even with a heat gun. any advice from the turf laying pros around here? paging Kurt Loup!
Here's a tin boater who gapped his floor Handiman270's 1649:
& here's a the sickest hydroturf'd tin boat i've seen Kurt Loup's Duracraft:
Sounds good, thanks for the tips. got my floor and hatch installed:
i decided to seam the floor. was able to cut the seam free hand using a razor knife following the lines of the material. after covering the floor, there was not enough material left to run the front deck the same direction as the floor so I'm considering running the turf on the deck with the lines running left to right versus buying another sheet... definitely going to need more of these tempress cam hatches, they're great
the floor is narrower at the front versus the back so i took my time to measure & cut the edges to match the slant of the hull side:
scuffed the painted aluminum floor with 40 grit on the orbital then cleaned it with acetone prior to installing the turf:
below shows the seam of my 2 piece turf floor in the center of the picture. 1 piece is about 39"x67" and the other piece is about 7"x67", did my best to square up each piece at the seam & match the grooved lines pattern so it hopefully looks like one continuous piece of turf on the floor:
I was able to fit 3 life jackets and my anchor behind the 11"x15" cam hatch in the new bow storage area. the cam latch on this hatch is great, it's nice & tight. tempress recommends screws, but i had pop rivets laying around so i figured i'd try them out & they worked great. one benefit of rivets is they make it harder to steal the hatch. i put a nice bead of black silicone down prior to pop riveting. the hatch door stays up when open, kinda lucked out on that part:
both tempress & blacktip jetsports have the same idea of dark gray, glad they match but would be nice if they were darker gray:
tempress includes a handy template which i traced out with a red sharpie, but the template they sent me was actually too small so be sure to check that first. i added about a 1/16" to the template size & the hatch fit perfectly. planned on using the angle grinder initially, but there was plenty of clearance so i cut the hole with a bi-metal blade on the jig saw after drilling a 1/2" hole at each corner:
once the hole was cut to fit the hatch, i marked the mounting holes & drilled them with a 1/8" bit followed by the 3/16" bit for the medium 3/16" aluminum pop rivets.
i decided to seam the floor. was able to cut the seam free hand using a razor knife following the lines of the material. after covering the floor, there was not enough material left to run the front deck the same direction as the floor so I'm considering running the turf on the deck with the lines running left to right versus buying another sheet... definitely going to need more of these tempress cam hatches, they're great
the floor is narrower at the front versus the back so i took my time to measure & cut the edges to match the slant of the hull side:
scuffed the painted aluminum floor with 40 grit on the orbital then cleaned it with acetone prior to installing the turf:
below shows the seam of my 2 piece turf floor in the center of the picture. 1 piece is about 39"x67" and the other piece is about 7"x67", did my best to square up each piece at the seam & match the grooved lines pattern so it hopefully looks like one continuous piece of turf on the floor:
I was able to fit 3 life jackets and my anchor behind the 11"x15" cam hatch in the new bow storage area. the cam latch on this hatch is great, it's nice & tight. tempress recommends screws, but i had pop rivets laying around so i figured i'd try them out & they worked great. one benefit of rivets is they make it harder to steal the hatch. i put a nice bead of black silicone down prior to pop riveting. the hatch door stays up when open, kinda lucked out on that part:
both tempress & blacktip jetsports have the same idea of dark gray, glad they match but would be nice if they were darker gray:
tempress includes a handy template which i traced out with a red sharpie, but the template they sent me was actually too small so be sure to check that first. i added about a 1/16" to the template size & the hatch fit perfectly. planned on using the angle grinder initially, but there was plenty of clearance so i cut the hole with a bi-metal blade on the jig saw after drilling a 1/2" hole at each corner:
once the hole was cut to fit the hatch, i marked the mounting holes & drilled them with a 1/8" bit followed by the 3/16" bit for the medium 3/16" aluminum pop rivets.
Nice idea with the hatch!
Went on a run with a few mudboaters Sunday on the St Johns...my first outing with guys that know what there doing...see my boat in the background on second pic
Went on a run with a few mudboaters Sunday on the St Johns...my first outing with guys that know what there doing...see my boat in the background on second pic
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The trip was about 25 miles round trip and it got real unconfortable sitting on that bench driving the mudmotor so I think I may try cutting the center out of the bench for more leg room and adding a grab bar so I can stand. Was also thinking that I can raise the drop deck and move the battery and maybe fuel tank forward but not sure if that will work yet. Have layout much like the Alumacraft Waterfowler
