Pontoon boat tear down and rebuild
 

Anyhow, as some of you already know. The Central Illinois Rough Fish Unit (CIRFCU) is slated to become a Fan-toon.

A new Kawasaki 28 hp motor is in the garage. Three composite fan blades also reside in the garage. Not much going on with them yet... other than they are now out of the box.

First part of the project is for a new deck (the old one was actually pretty sound but K figured it wouldn't hurt to go ahead and replace it).

Another goal is to put a raised deck on the front of the pontoon. This will help sight fish in the daytime and it should provide some storage area too.

Hopefully, that stuff will be done quickly and we can get to the fan set up.

Anyhow.. here are some pictures. I'll update them as the work progresses.

First old pictures of the the CIRFCU.





Current pics.
All the railings and whatnot off.




Taking off the deck.


That is all for now. Don't shoot all the fish before we can get the boat back together. :)

Looking good, but as an Illinois angler I can't guarantee the safety of any fish. ;)

You got a good start! Hurry up warmer weather is coming.

I've been out in the garage putting on lights, troller and rubber matting on the deck most of the day myself. I'm done for the day.

im doing some work to my boat as well buts its just getting it ready for the season no major changes. The death dealer will be ready to go next week!!!

Looks good though. How fast have you estimated the fan will push that big ole led sled?

I think I need some Zoloft or Zanex...or something...My emotions are all over the place. Just looking at the CIRFCU decomissioned just kills me.....Gonna have to give me a ride on the new fan toon when it's done Kendall....Yea, I think that will make me feel a little better....LOL

Wow total rebuild . If you need an extra hand let me know

Thanks Tracy. I appreciate it.

I could really use a hand that has a wallet in it. :s4:

I have a troller if you need one K....LOL

Ok we need an update hows that fish killer coming ?:sheep:

Well we are at a bit of a stand still right now due to temperature. I picked up the decking Friday and started priming it to put on the boat. But it's too cold to continue priming. :(

The stand base is underway and may be done by Tuesday. I hope. Once I get it done I can start to attach the decking.
Also the Fan shroud should be done soon as well. I have to make another plate to offset the shroud from the plate I made to attach it to the motor.

Once that's done I have to start on the post that allows the motor to swivel. That should be interesting. Oh if I just had about three days to run amok in the shop at work. :bash:

Couple more pictures.

Base of stand:


Working on fan shroud:

Machining the fan swiveling doodad thingamabob.

You use way too technical of terms for me!! :confused0024: But I do recognise a lathe and a roller bearing in those pics.

Yeah, I'm not much good with the machiney partsy stuff.

I sort of recognize that as a lathe. I definitely recognize those larval-stage Slinkies laying around at the bottom of the lathe.

K brings those home on his clothes every now and then. I'm good at finding them with my bare feet. :D

I still can't see why you are going to all this trouble and $, since everyone knows, it won't help you get on more fish :confused0024:

Well, so far, it's not only not helped us.... but it's down right hurting our fish count. ;)

:poke:

Well for me, it's about the time...
when I took a friend out and hit a branch with the troller prop, broke one blade off, no spare, and ended up push poling a pontoon boat with 4 people all night... :bash:
Or the time we were taking a newbie out and put the troller down just to find out it wouldn't run... :bash:
Or the time we were taking someone out for a trip we'd donated to a charity auction and the troller burnt up 15 minutes into the trip and I got to change out the troller at the ramp... :bash:
Or one of the many times where the troller quit when the fishing was getting good... :bash:

...that's why I'm going to this trouble...

That and the fact that the troller is the current limiting factor of how shallow my boat can go. So that some of the flats that we fish now won't be one pass and done because the troller prop has murked it up.

On the downside, many of the spots we like to fish are now unreachable because of the fan. But that's the trade off. :s4:

Well last night I got the post finished that swivels the fan. The main part of the base is done with the exception of drilling the mounting holes. The shroud is finished.
This morning I put it all together as a trial fit and everything looked how I wanted...soooo after a bit of grinding on the welds I didn't make, I waited for it to warm up a bit and I started to paint. It seems that it's too much to ask for a few days of warm dry weather with winds below 20mph??? :nonono2:
If the rain will hold off for a bit I can start to put the deck on and paint it.

And no I didn't take any pictures. :busted:

Just use your imagination of me holding either a spray can or a roller! :s12:

Kendall: Posting at 03:35?! Insomnia?

Great work on the fan.

Looking good K....Let me know if you need any help, now that I am back from paradise that is...LOL....BTW it looks like the rest of the week is gonna be the weather you are looking for.

That is SO HOT!

I worry about you Bulz. ;)

Okay. Fan stand as it will sit on the boat.


Trying to figure out the steering and throttle stuff now. Since these lines will run under the decking, there's not much room for error. (har har)

It's starting to come together now. I'll get more pics up soon.

That makes all of us. It's been a long winter with no fishing. snif snif

Hey, do you have to design/machine your own fan system and parts for a fan boat like this, or are you just doing it yourself cuz you can ?

Well I started to type out a smart alek answer...

But it's shorter to just say that boats are different and even production boats are set-up different. So how you mount the motor to the boat usually requires it's own unique engineering job.

Or you can just go to the drive up window and order the fan value meal. :biggrin:

Latest update, I really thought I'd have the motor on the stand tonight. But the storm coming in stopped my progress. Dang it got dark quick. :s6:

Oh well... there's always tomorrow.

Good you didn't do the smart alek thing. :lmao:
Can I get fries with that ?

And YOU CALLED Ken a SISSY

Pulleys mostly in place.


Da Motor


Motor on stand


Shroud on motor on stand. ;)


Prop going on/in shroud on motor on stand.


:D

I sure did! :D

I can find a spot outta the wind to fish. ;)

It was time for me to take a break anyway. After climbing on and off and under the CIRFCU all day, I was toast. The Ibuprofen are barely cuttin' it today. Must be gettin' old or something. :happy0157:

As you can see by the pictures, we're making a lot of progress today. I'm hoping to finish up the outboard controls and the decking today.
Then all I'll have left is the throttle cable, wiring and fuel line to the fan. :woot: We might be ready by the State shoot after all.

So we spent the rest of the day trying to put the deck together. The idea is not just to get up above the water but also to have a spot to store stuff. Something that the flat deck of a pontoon boat does not offer. So... the deck is quite enormous.
Having storage area and better fish spotting ability means added weight and wind catching area. We'll see how the trade-off goes.

Looking good! Nice work!

Looking good. How much longer ? I got the rest of the lights on and my new genny today:woot: and I was getting ready to hook up the trailer to my truck and realized my new little truck has no trailer light plug:cry: the fish at clinton are safe one more day

Lookin SWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEETTTTT!!!!!!

That looks great Kendall. I like how you used the pulleys and that bracket they're on. And I take it you've got a couple more under the deck? I can't wait to see it in person. Wait till you see the idea we came up with for Mark's fan-steering-system.

Where are your lights gonna mount? And are you gonna have a railing?

We're waiting on 26 foot of throttle cable now. (add this to 'things you can't just pick up at the local store' list)

Here's one lonely light on:



:)

Hey C...With that lil "P" shooter up there I may , just may be able to hit one of dem silvers....LOL

Ken, if you're on board, we'll get out the mini-gun. You're bound to get one then. ;)

(Kendall said you need depth charges... oooh ouch!)

Hey I'm not picky....I will do whatever it takes :sheep:

Getting close now. We may take her for a test run tomorrow. :)

Looks great! Except for a couple of small details, I finished up mine today. That little prop really moves some air! I'll try to get some pictures up asap.