Newbie with ?'s

[scbassman28]

I have a 1648 tracker grizzly. I have some ideas of what I want to do to it. But I would like to get some opinions. I will attach a picture of the stock boat. Only thing that I have in it is the aluminum floor. The red rectangles represent compartments that I would like to put in. I would like to make the area under the back bench a livewell. Will removing the foam out of this section cause problems with the boat? And does anyone have some pics of a finished livewell system that they installed?

 

[Waterwings]

Welcome Aboard, and nice rig! 8)

Yes, removing most of the foam from under the rear bench would greatly hinder the floatation properties of the boat considerably. There is more than likely some foam under the fwd deck where you want to put add storage also. The two small "boxed" areas (port & stbd sides) aft of the rear bench look as though they may have some foam in them also, but I'm not familiar with the Grizzly models, and that would probably not be enough to keep the boat afloat (if bench seat foam was removed) if you took-on some considerable water to cause sinking.

 

[Jim]

Welcome aboard man! Thanks for joining. :beer:

I love the concept of your ideas, but I kind of agree with Waterwings. Your boat is big enough where you can still add everything you want and not have to remove any foam. I would try to make/install a flush livewell in front of the seat and a rod locker off to the side and then maybe just deck those and still leave an open floor if you do not want to deck the whole thing. You have an empty canvas right there...decisions, decisions, decisions.

 

[scbassman28]

The only thing stopping me from putting a live well in front of the rear bench is I have a tiller handle motor on my boat and I would not be able to sit too far forward or I would not be able to drive the boat. I have access to aluminum angle for all the frame work. And I might be able to get 1/8" aluminum sheets for all the skin on everything. That way I wouldn't add a bunch of weight with plywood.

 

[Waterwings]

BPS does carry tm extension handles, telescopic one & others, as shown in the link below. Good ideas with the boat mods, but you don't want to jeapordize the rig or the occupants :wink:

https://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/...1_99656_200002004_200000000_200002000_200-2-4

 

[Quackrstackr]

Put foam under your floor and/or skin in / foam the sides. Problem solved.

You might make the rear seat kind of weak by making it a livewell. That would be my only concern.

 

[Pont]

If you plan on extending the front deck for fishing space, put a cooler/livewell in there. They keep the coolest temperaturs anyway. Less ice you have to add in the summer time and it's out of your way. You would probably have to make some sort of special hatch but....

 

[Waterwings]

Put foam under your floor and/or skin in / foam the sides. Problem solved.

You might make the rear seat kind of weak by making it a livewell. That would be my only concern.

Concur

My Lowe came with flooring and there's shot-foam under it. The yellow boxed areas have foam:

 

[Quackrstackr]

Put foam under your floor and/or skin in / foam the sides. Problem solved.

You might make the rear seat kind of weak by making it a livewell. That would be my only concern.

Concur

My Lowe came with flooring and there's shot-foam under it. The yellow boxed areas have foam:

I bet there is some foam in your sides as well if it is "skinned out" like in the photo. I know the sides of mine are full of foam.

 

[Waterwings]

yep, it's skinned on the sides also. Everything is covered by carpet now. I never thought about foam being there until I saw you mention it in one of your replies above. Maybe Lowe (and probably others) should list the foam locations in their brochures.

 

[Popeye]

Also remember it's not just the amount of foam that helps keep the boat afloat it's placement as well. Pull all the foam out of the back and put it up front and if it fills with water the stern sinks and the boat floats with the nose pointing up... Not so good.