Whatup! A couple months ago I had a post on this board about building a deck for my Valco alumninum. Well, it's been a while and I still don't have a deck. But I do have a cool idea. I know a guy who does metal cutting. I can't build my deck out of anything less than 3/4" plywood w/o supports. But the weight on the appropriate size 3/4 ply would be extremely heavy. So I was thinking, could I use 3/8-1/2 alumninum for the deck? The deck would cover the middle seat to the front seat in a 3 seat aluminum V-bow boat. With thicker aluminum like this, it would be lighter and not require supports, or so I would think? If it does, I was going to use bolts and nuts to secure the deck down to the front and middle seats in 6 different places, 3 on each seat. Then I would cover the aluminum with Non- Skid coating and glue the carpet for the deck on that. What do you guys thinks?

Sounds totally good to me. My front deck came built in to the boat and it's aluminum, so why not :) I don't know what kind of supports you would need though.

I got some stuff at costco the other day that I'm going to install on my deck instead of carpet when I get around to it. It might be something for you to check out. Basically it's this floor covering material that they advertise for use in work areas, the garage, etc. It's foam, about 3/8" thick, and has a fake diamond plate type surface. It was very cheap, I think $8 for 4 or 5 3'x3' sections. I want to put that on to stand and sit on because the carpet straight on the aluminum is just such a hard surface. The only downside would be I couldn't wipe my megastrike off on the carpet any more :P

When I get around to installing it, I'll post some pics.

Rob,

The carpet won't go straight to the aluminum. The Non-Skid stuff a mentioned is bascially a rubber/latex roll-on surface for metal. The rubber carpet backing is supposed to be glues to that. The Non-Skid and the carpet are basically sound reduction for the aluminum. That's like the only benefit of wood, it's quiter than metal. As for supports on the deck, there aren't going to be any. That's why I wanted to use 3/8-1/2" aluminum. We use the boat for trout fishing in the Sierras too, so the deck has to be able to come off for certain trips or occasions. But I know that nobody over 200 lbs. is likely to stand on the deck and you can't have 2 people at once on the deck either. That would tilt the boat forward and not to mention it would be really cramped! Thanks for the adivce and interest, was apprecaited.

I would have liked to build mine out of Aluminum but I was under the gun to get the deck built. I live in a comunity that has a rule of no boat in your driveway for more than 24 hours without a pass. The pass entitled me to 5 days for the year and thats it. So I was pressed to work with wood, but it turned out awesome and now I like it.

Aluminum will be lighter and you don't have to treat it like wood. It's also harder to work with in some aspects and it might cost you a little more money.

I did a search on Google for Jon boat projects and found one a guy did out of Aluminum. Some very cool ideas, not my ideal way of laying out the boat but cool none the less. Maybe this will help and if you have any questions about what I did I will help you out as best I can. I also have great knowledge when it comes to electrical work so just ask me if you need help.

D

magmaster isn't joking about the electrical. Check out his pimpin switch panel:

http://www.calfishing.com/gallery/v/members/magmaster/aak.jpg.html

I seriously looked at some of the bigger switch panels in cabelas just because I thought it would be hilarious to have one mounted in my jon boat, but I wussed out and didn't buy one :)

Here's that link I was trying to tell you about

http://secretweaponlures.com/odf/odfsite.html

West Marine had that switch panel and the recirc timer is straight from Bass Pro.

I have several years of Automotive background from Toyotas to building race cars. If it has an engine or wires or maybe a little fabrication I can help usually.

Thanks guys. I won't need any electrical help on the deck.My dad thinks I'm trying to turn the boat in to an all out bassin' machine and I can only addd the deck and a new trolling motor. I'm going to have the guy whos cutting the deck cut a storage door in it so I can put my stuff in a container under a deck. No livewell bcz I'm no fishing this boat in tournament anyway. I do need help on something electrical. We're installing a new(actually,previously used :-) ) 12/24 Motorguide from a friend's Tracker boat. We don't know how to wire it for 12 volt. Some diagrams or detailed instructions would be awesome. Any advice, magmaster?