Scott1298's Tracker Topper 1542LW Mod "Complete"

[Scott1298]

Well, I finally got my used minn kota ipilot \/ ! After a lot of head scratching, this is what I came up with...
Carriage bolts through tapered 2x6s, and a 2x8 platform in between. In hindsight if I'd had a 2x12 I could have cut an inch off the board and bolted it all down with the carriage bolts, but I didn't have one anyways. Most of the weight of the motor is actually on the aluminum lip of the bow so the screws aren't under a lot of pressure. If I need to I can drill a couple holes in the aluminum to secure the motor further, but for now I have 4 bolts through the 2x8 hidden by the base cover. The opening actually gives me room to stuff the wires, and maybe protect the tip of a rod or two :mrgreen:

 

[Scott1298]

Since I've now got two reliable motors, I took out the big oars and added a couple Scotty oar lock mounts for rod holders I already owned for passengers... but what about a rod holder at the back for me?! I dug deep into my junk and found an old holder that I could fit to the existing bolt and nut system, thought it turned out pretty good and with a little patience anybody could do this with a piece of pvc pipe.

 

[Scott1298]

Finally got the rig out on the water with the Minn Kota this weekend.
The good: I adjusted the Mercury's trim, and we seemed to travel a lot faster under gas power
The bad: The Minn Kota's ipilot feature didn't work, it appears the compass is buggared :evil: . Based on internet posts, it's a common problem; I'll get on the phone to Minn Kota tomorrow.
I was so busy troubleshooting I didn't get any pictures after the driveway.

 

[slipsinker]

great job so far on the rig. have the same boat as you and was thinking on purchasing a tohatsu 6hp and was wondering if you had gps mph results or any kind of comments on your boats performance and fuel economy. right now i am under electric power only and tops at 3mph. i thought i would be happy with this but now i am fishing a larger reservoir and it takes forever to change spots.

 

[slipsinker]

oh yeah by the way... great idea moving the lid to the aft bench!

 

[Scott1298]

great job so far on the rig. have the same boat as you and was thinking on purchasing a tohatsu 6hp and was wondering if you had gps mph results or any kind of comments on your boats performance and fuel economy. right now i am under electric power only and tops at 3mph. i thought i would be happy with this but now i am fishing a larger reservoir and it takes forever to change spots.

I do plan to take a gps out with me... hopefully before "hard water" season starts this year but it is cooling off already here in the north. I'll let you know when I know, but I guarantee you'll notice a difference; Once I set the trim right I generate quite a wake with the gas motor, but I love the quietness of the electric for trolling! Here's a link to some used motors, the prices look pretty good to me compared to prices locally. We fish a lot of 9.9 hp limit lakes with the 15' and speed is not a big priority, I figure I get the most bang for my buck with the 6 hp being the same weight as the 5 & 4 hp... and in a pinch I can throw it on my 5 hp rated 10'.
https://www.smalloutboards.com/m99.htm

 

[Scott1298]

oh yeah by the way... great idea moving the lid to the aft bench!

You can never have too much storage on these little boats!

 

[Scott1298]

Well it wasn't optimum testing conditions, but if I waited for that I may not have found out if my ipilot worked or how fast the Merc goes until April. Minn Kota replaced my ipilot head under warranty with the "new improved" version... good trade! It started to rain pretty hard so we didn't take a lot of pictures or video. To create a load I brought one 30 lb kid, and two 75 lb dogs (I'm no light weight either at 230 lbs).The ipilot worked great, the gps said about 2.9 mph max, and the 6 hp merc pushed us with the wind about 7.8 mph and 7.3 mph into the chop.
It's likely the next time we go fishing, we'll be walking on water! My kid refused to smile "nice" so this is all I've got...

 

[Scott1298]

I just stumbled accross a blog that might be handy for someone thinking about coming over to the dark side; It's called Tricking Out a Jon Boat - Part 1 and puts the potential of jon boats into context, and ballparks what you'll need. (CDN prices are about 20% more than US... don't get me started!!!)
Just like the movies part 1 is best, I'll leave it up to you if you read on after that.

https://www.worldfishingnetwork.com/users/jesse-martin/blog/tricking-out-a-jon-boat-part-1-225830.aspx

 

[HMS Chilcotin]

Great thread and mod Scott,

Are your benches foam filled or hollow? I am just wondering how noise you experience when waves hit your hull? ( currently something I see with my boat ... And I am using that same style of rubber mat in place of floors right now)

Ben

 

[Scott1298]

Great thread and mod Scott,

Are your benches foam filled or hollow? I am just wondering how noise you experience when waves hit your hull? ( currently something I see with my boat ... And I am using that same style of rubber mat in place of floors right now)

Ben

Thx.
The rear bench was foam right to the top when I opened it up. It looked like two kinds; 3 inches of non-water absorbing foam (wrapped in something like wax paper), then cheap open-pore stuff on top. The middle bench is filled outside the old livewell the same way based on the material flying when I threaded my snake for wiring. I think we'd get rich if we could invent something lighter for the floors :lol:
I find even my friends' aluminum V boats slap in waves some when we troll, and watch any of these things planing- the V area doesn't even touch the water. When I'm trolling jons I think the life jacket filled front deck on the 15' supresses some of the slapping noise compared to the 10'... That or I'm just farther away :LOL2:. The one time I do wish I have a "V" is if there are big waves, that's where the flat boat slap is really noticable, but then I tend to be heading for shore at that point anyways.

Cheers,

 

[Scott1298]

Well, the kid's last hockey game was today, and the weather is improving so I can get busy "playing" with the boat until "ice-off" the lakes (hopefully by the end of April). I finally decided to buy a dedicated ff for the boat and then lucked out in the fencing/gate section of the hardware store... I bought a "barn door guide" for $9 as my ff mount! Couldn't wait so modified the mount and attached the ff today. There were bolt holes in the spot on the boat already, so I came up with a solution that took advantage of them. I can now keep one eye on the ff, rod, & see where we're going, all while I'm talking to the other people in the boat 8). I'll start threading wires & mount the transducer when it's warmer.

 

[Scott1298]

Got a couple projects done this week... I went and bought one of Maestro's Canadian Tire cargo nets for $10 after coupon and Canadian Tire Money (The Canadians will understand), $2 worth of S hooks at the dollar store, and $2 worth of black rope from Surplus Herbie's, and got to work. I was able to cut the net right down the middle to make two, added the rope in place of the missing shock cord, melted the frayed ends, and S hooked in place through the bench cracks... and Voila; great storage for jackets, shirts, garbage, etc! I also added a BPS rod holder.

 

[Scott1298]

Drilled and placed cup holders today.

 

[HMS Chilcotin]

Nice work Scott. I'm gonna have to do that too. Any tips or challenges or or was it pretty straight forward as you outlined?
Ben

 

[Scott1298]

Nice work Scott. I'm gonna have to do that too. Any tips or challenges or or was it pretty straight forward as you outlined?
Ben

Assuming you mean the netting... Hopefully you have seams at the ends of the seats for the S hooks. Next will be the width between your seats, mine is 51" and I didn't have to trim the ends. You'll still be able to do it without the thick fabric edges though. If you haven't already done it, take a look at Maestro's nets @ https://www.tinboats.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=25479, he shrunk his nets right down and used hockey tape for the trim (although he called it something much more exotic). I kept the added bottom rope inside the S hooks and just kept shortening the shock cord until I had satisfactory tension around the edges.
Your front deck is coming along nice!

 

[TheMaestro]

Its true, the tape ended up being the same thing as hockey tape!! Here's a pic, but mine was black.

 

[Scott1298]

Well played Maestro... well played! I always wanted to say that! :wink:

 

[TheMaestro]

:-({|=

:LOL2:

 

[Scott1298]

I'm anxious to get this thing seaworthy, but I'm affraid to permanently mount my transducer, because it's well... permanent. I'm still thinking about painting the outside of the boat and I don't want to glue/screw a transducer mount before paint, and I have no idea where the best place to mount it even is yet. So... magnets like the FFM guys but cheaper. I'm sure they'll rust all to hell, but by then I should know what I'm doing with the rest of it. I just cut off most of the handle of a 150 lb rated magnet, and put in a couple screws to mount the transducer in a 100lb magnet.
I won't be able to set any speed records with this setup, but it should work trolling.