Notice that as the ribs go up the sides that some are thicker than others. I can cut around this. I want the floor to extend 2" below the rear bench seat so that when I stand face the back of the boat, my toes will still be on the floor. With that in mind, here are the dimensions. Let me know if more pictures or measurements would be useful. And as always, thank you for the input.
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Pros and cons of aluminum decking vs plywood decking
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Country Dave
Well-known member
Notice that as the ribs go up the sides that some are thicker than others. I can cut around this. I want the floor to extend 2" below the rear bench seat so that when I stand face the back of the boat, my toes will still be on the floor. With that in mind, here are the dimensions. Let me know if more pictures or measurements would be useful. And as always, thank you for the input.
Ok Jeffery the pics are a huge help. I see it’s a modified V. A little tapered in the front and then it flattens out as it goes back. I’m not sure exactly what you mean by you want the floor 2” below the rear bench. Do you mean you want to raise the floor all the way up so it’s just 2 inches below the top of the bench like a Bass boat?
Or you want the floor to be 2 inches up from the bottom of the bench?
Ok Jeffery the pics are a huge help. I see it’s a modified V. A little tapered in the front and then it flattens out as it goes back. I’m not sure exactly what you mean by you want the floor 2” below the rear bench. Do you mean you want to raise the floor all the way up so it’s just 2 inches below the top of the bench like a Bass boat?
Or you want the floor to be 2 inches up from the bottom of the bench?
JMichael
Well-known member
Country Dave said:
As you move from front to back, once you arrive at the front edge of the rear bench, the floor continues and goes underneath the bench for 2 more inches.
Although once you put the floor in, I wonder if there will still be room for your toes between the floor and the bottom of the bench. It looks like it's going to be a tight squeeze once that floor is in.
Ok, I measured it. The bottom of the bench is 3.25" above the hull. The ribs are 1.5" high. If I used 1/16" sheet metal, then there would still be about 1.75" gap between the bottom of the bench and the floor. You wouldn't want to stick your entire foot in a gap that small, but you would still want the floor to go under the bench a bit so your toes would still be on something solid. If you dropped a hook or lure you lure you would want a bit of floor before it fell off the edge.
Country Dave
Well-known member
Jeffrey said:
I would advise not having any gap. You would want the floor to come up all the way flush with the bottom of the bench. If there is a gab you could get your foot or anything else for that matter stuck in it. Not good, especially if you were running/underway.
You have two choices, raise the floor up high enough to meet the front of the deck so there is no gap, or extend the front face of the bench down to meet the floor so there is no gap. You’re going to have to find a way to support your floor anyway. The ribs taper in at the center and you won’t have any floor support there.
If you look at my build you can see that I laid horizontal supports to level the floor. What are you plans for making the floor level?
Tell me if this is important or if I am worried about nothing. The aluminum hats that the ribs are made of have a height of 1.5" from the flange to the top of the hat, and the flange is 1/16". So, the total height of each rib is 1 9/16". If I used 1.5" square tubes or 1.5" channels against the bulkheads or between the ribs for additional bracing, it will be short by 1/16". If that 1/16" was far enough away it wouldn't matter, but since it will be right next to the ribs there will be a small gap when I lay the sheet metal floor on top. Do I need to fill this gap with something or will the sheet metal flex enough so that it doesn't matter?
Next question, should I have the welder tack square tubing or channels for the additional bracing? If I use square tubing, there will be a small but imperceptible gap below the channels where a film of water will collect, and if I use channel then the edges of the channel will be pressed into the hull.
Next question, should I have the welder tack square tubing or channels for the additional bracing? If I use square tubing, there will be a small but imperceptible gap below the channels where a film of water will collect, and if I use channel then the edges of the channel will be pressed into the hull.
Country Dave
Well-known member
Jeffrey said:
Brother it’s so hard to try and figure things out from someone else’s description. If I was in front of your boat that would be a little different. I can tell you what I did to level my floor. The height of the ribs on my floor are 1.5 inches tall. The square tube I used is 1.5X1.5 The factory ribs don’t come in to play. I just used Stainless steel threaded rod and drilled through the ribs so I could attach my square tube.
They are only the same height at the very end of the tube. I used garden house as an insulator so the bottom edge of the square tube would not rub into the floor. Hope that helps. Do a search on this site about installing or leveling a floor. I’ve seen some guys build nice wood supports but I’m not a big wood fan.
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Country Dave said:
If I am looking at this correctly. You have spanned the bottom of your boat with square tubing. I think you have a shallow v, similar to mine. What is the white I see? Did you paint or coat the bottom with something? Since you spanned the bottom with square tubing, then your floor will be flat instead of take the shape of the shallow v. I can't tell, but I guess the bolts holding the tube run horizontally?
Edit: I looked at your build out post. You put primer down. Looks good. I am still a bit confused about the whole corrosion issue with aluminum. I am not sure what sets up corrosion and what doesn't. One of the big selling points of aluminum is its corrosion resistance, but some conditions set up corrosion while others don't.
Country Dave
Well-known member
Good morning,
Yes my boat is a modified V hull like yours. The bow has a V and as it goes from bow to stern the hull flattens out. There is about 9°of deadrise or another way to put it is, the floor and transom has a slight tilt up from the center. Again about 9°
I put down primer and paint on the floor before I put on the floor supports. I use my boats mostly in saltwater. If salt form a high salinity environment gets trapped against unprotected aluminum it will start to pit the aluminum. If you’re going to use your boat in only fresh water you should never have a problem.
Once my floor is in I won’t be able access the boats original floor so that’s why I put primer and paint on it now.
Another reason is, it helps keep the boat quiet. Between the steelflex on the bottom of the hull and the primer and paint on top of the floor it really helps with hull slap.
As far as the floor goes, yes I want it flat. If anyone is going to go through the trouble of putting a floor in why would you not make it flat? Putting a floor down and having it taper in seems like a big waste of time, what’s the point?
I would rather just step over the ribs, just saying. Hope this helps. Good luck with your build.
Yes my boat is a modified V hull like yours. The bow has a V and as it goes from bow to stern the hull flattens out. There is about 9°of deadrise or another way to put it is, the floor and transom has a slight tilt up from the center. Again about 9°
I put down primer and paint on the floor before I put on the floor supports. I use my boats mostly in saltwater. If salt form a high salinity environment gets trapped against unprotected aluminum it will start to pit the aluminum. If you’re going to use your boat in only fresh water you should never have a problem.
Once my floor is in I won’t be able access the boats original floor so that’s why I put primer and paint on it now.
Another reason is, it helps keep the boat quiet. Between the steelflex on the bottom of the hull and the primer and paint on top of the floor it really helps with hull slap.
As far as the floor goes, yes I want it flat. If anyone is going to go through the trouble of putting a floor in why would you not make it flat? Putting a floor down and having it taper in seems like a big waste of time, what’s the point?
I would rather just step over the ribs, just saying. Hope this helps. Good luck with your build.
It seems then that you would need to put primer on the channels that support the new floor and the bottom of the new floor, also.
I am going to use my boat in salt water. Maybe I should put primer on the inside and steel flex on the outside.
I am going to use my boat in salt water. Maybe I should put primer on the inside and steel flex on the outside.
Country Dave
Well-known member
Jeffrey said:
The bottom of the aluminum sheet of 0.90 that I will be using for my floor will get some self etching primer which is probably overkill. Water and moister will have a tendency to settle on the floor because of gravity it’s got no place to go from there. It’s really not going to be an issue with the floor supports however it certainly not going to hurt anything to put a little coat of something on them.
Country Dave said:
You have certainly given me a lot to think about! I didn't know before what all people did to set up their boats. Sounds like you really do it right.
What is the reason the steel flex on the outside and primer and paint on the inside make it more quiet?
Country Dave
Well-known member
Jeffrey said:
Yes, in addition to the steelflex being very hard, it insulates the hull and makes it quieter. Think of it like the coating on an M&M but obviously much harder. Sorry that was the only example I could think of right now, I’m tired. :LOL2: The steelflex is a two part epoxy that cures really hard, it really protects the bottom of the hull from debris in the water or if you run up on sand or an oyster bar or whatever.
The primer and paint on the floor is to, as I mentioned before help protect the aluminum from corrosion and it also insulates noise. The hull is protected from both sides. Instead of having just a thin coat of paint from the factory it now has thick layers of primer and paint on the inside and a couple of thick coats of steelflex on the outside.
Good luck with your build.
Country Dave,
My original plan was to put 1/16" aluminum sheet metal directly on the ribs, and put either 1.5" square tubing or channel against the sides to support it out there. I was going to have a welder tack the tubing or channel. You can see that every other rib on my boat is wide, so by the time I notch out for them I would need the extra support against the sides. So, I was going to have a floor that followed the shallow v. I can see that it would be pretty easy to have a totally flat floor. Just span the width of the boat with square tubing like you have done. It would cost more since I would be buying a lot more square tubing.
If it is still exposed, could you take a few close up pictures at different angles of how you bolted your tubing to the ribs? I would like to see a bit more detail of how you did it. It looks like you didn't bolt the tubes directly up to the ribs, but offset them a bit. Did you offset them to keep the tubing off of the rivets that hold the ribs down? I would like to see how you did that and how you have the garden hose. Also what kind of hardware you used and how (or if) you insulated the stainless steel from the aluminum.
Is there a limit that you try to maintain as to how far you are willing to span the sheet metal?
Thank you,
Jeff
My original plan was to put 1/16" aluminum sheet metal directly on the ribs, and put either 1.5" square tubing or channel against the sides to support it out there. I was going to have a welder tack the tubing or channel. You can see that every other rib on my boat is wide, so by the time I notch out for them I would need the extra support against the sides. So, I was going to have a floor that followed the shallow v. I can see that it would be pretty easy to have a totally flat floor. Just span the width of the boat with square tubing like you have done. It would cost more since I would be buying a lot more square tubing.
If it is still exposed, could you take a few close up pictures at different angles of how you bolted your tubing to the ribs? I would like to see a bit more detail of how you did it. It looks like you didn't bolt the tubes directly up to the ribs, but offset them a bit. Did you offset them to keep the tubing off of the rivets that hold the ribs down? I would like to see how you did that and how you have the garden hose. Also what kind of hardware you used and how (or if) you insulated the stainless steel from the aluminum.
Is there a limit that you try to maintain as to how far you are willing to span the sheet metal?
Thank you,
Jeff
Country Dave
Well-known member
Jeffrey said:
16th thick seams a little thin to me, unless you back it with something. If you have to span it any distance at all its going to flex.
Q. Did you offset them to keep the tubing off of the rivets that hold the ribs down?
A. No. This boat is all welded no rivets. I offset them because; the ribs have a taper to them. They are fatter at the bottom and narrow as the go up, not unlike most of my redneck bodies. :LOL2: If I butted the channel up flush with the ribs they would pull in and tilt when I tightened them down.
Q. Also what kind of hardware you used and how (or if) you insulated the stainless steel from the aluminum.
A. I used stainless threaded rod stainless washers and nuts. You don’t have to insulate between them. The only thing that is less reactive with aluminum is plastic and that doesn’t make for very good fasteners. :LOL2: I hope you get my humor. I set the square tube in place and marked were I needed to drill so it would go through the rib.
It was a major pain in the *** because; the angle is too tight to drill all of the way through. The drill didn’t have the clearance from the sides of the hull. I would take the tube out, drill through it lay it back in place and by hand with a small drill bit, go through the tube to mark the spot in the rib were I needed to drill, remove the tube and repeat and repeat and repeat. Like I said pain in the ***.
