Well i picked up this boat bout 2 weeks ago now, figured i could make a thread about it and what i'm all doing to it.

not in any real certain order here. i've used it a bunch already for fishing/tubing/wakeboarding. works great. just some things need to be improved.

heres some pics before i bought it.





I already went and cleaned up the wires by the switches. they are tucked up and out of view now, also modded the bracket for my light switch so it sits closer and out of the way.


just a shot of it behind the truck, i get bout 13-14 mpg on the highway going 65 with it. pretty good since i get bout the same mixed driving without the boat.


next i went and bought just a cover for it, i still need to get some better cords for it since i'm just using random ones i could find in the garage.


i picked up new straps for the back to hold it down, instead of having one large strap that goes over the whole boat, this makes it easier for the cover and everything, put new eyebolts on the rear of the trailer for them as well.


I went and re did all the connections on the trailer, the previous owner had this at his cabin, so he never used the trailer, it had household twist connections on it, now its butt connections with heat shrink on it.



Speaking of never using the trailer, its not made for the boat, but it sits on it pretty good already. plans are to cut the one side and move it in so the roller doesn't sit on that lip as in the picture. just a few minutes to cut and weld it and it will be pretty good, also will be replacing a few rollers too.



i noticed when wakeboarding or just slowing down when the waves would hit the back of the boat it seemed like a lot of water was getting into the boat, which would be removed by the newly installed bilge pump that was part of the deal when i bought it.

so at night i took my work lights and sure enough there was light coming in the backside a little, at a joint but nothing major so i filled it with some expanding foam, still have to clean it up a little bit


biggest problem was the wiring underneath, all the connectors were nasty and needed to be replaced, it was all a large tangled mess so i straightned it out and put new ring terminals on the wires, still some work to be done, but this picture makes it look really clean.




thats about it for now, will be updates soon since i have free time and will be working on it.

plans right now:

New rims and tires
New rear seats
Maybe new front bow seats
ladder to get in/out
Tow bar so the rope is higher than the motor.

 

A bimini top would look awesome on that.
i would coat all your connections in some No-Ox, or some kind of dialectic grease. you'd be surprised where water spray gets.
i made a simple tow bar for mine out of some 1/2" conduit. pretty much a large T. the rope goes thru the top pipe and secures to a point inside the boat. and i put a large coupler on the back so it can be inserted and removed by just screwing it in and out.

 

So the biggest problem was the wiring/battery.

it came with a tested good battery, had nothing but problems, so i put my catapiller battery into it and same damn problems.

i took them in to get charged up fully and tested, but both were made in 06 so thats probably why.

so i picked up a marine starter battery tonight and it worked flawlessly. i'm get the call tomorrow and see if both of those were bad or not.


also with the expanding foam, i turned my bilge pump on a few times today when tubing/fishing and nothing ever came out, so i think i fixed the little bit of water that was getting into it.

 

Very nice