[JDawgBailz]

Ok so this week I will be starting my 1448 Pontoon Style Build. However instead of using regular pontoons I am going to make them out of 55 gallon plastic barrels. It is going to be a boat for the lake that is about half hour away from my house. I will be building the frame and floor out of pressure treated wood. The barrels will be ratchet straped to the underneath of the platform and it will basically be a floating barge. The lake is electric motors only so I will be running a trolling motor on it. I might put my 9.6 seaking on it and take it to the river sometimes but it will mostly be for the lake. I priced it out and the barrels should run me about $125. And the floor and frame should run me about $100 or so. I was in a pretty bad accident about 2 weeks ago so I want something that will be more stable than my little 1432 flatbottom. I might run halogen lights with my honda eu2000 on it or run the LED's off of my other boat. Not sure yet but this is going to be a quick build because there is a tournament I want to shoot in the middle of May. Has anyone else tried this or though about it? any suggestions or ideas?

 

[NuffDaddy]

Sounds interesting. Never really gave anything like that a thought. Will be cool to see how it comes out.

Sorry to hear about your accident. Hope your doing good.

 

[JDawgBailz]

Thanks Nuff! It sucks but life goes on. I think is what sucks the most is the $17,000 UTV I was driving is now totaled. So now hunting and fishing have went back to being a pain in the butt. Haha but anyway yes I am hoping it turns out good. I did some research, it has been done before and people enjoy using theirs so hopefully in the next 15 - 20 days I will have something nice.
P.S. you have me addicted to tapatalk. Lol

 

[NuffDaddy]

P.S. you have me addicted to tapatalk. Lol

It's a disease isn't it. :lol:

 

[JDawgBailz]

Yes it is. Haha

 

[jasonsamko]

Sorry to hear about your accident.

Thought I would give a tip that might make it much cheaper for you.

Local car washes will sell you thier plastic 55 gallon drums for 10 bucks each. They get thier shampoo and soap in them.

Another cool option we did 2 years ago was take our 2 canoes (cheap plastic red ones from dunhams for 300 bucks each). 2 4x8 sheets of 1/2 inch plywood and 8 c-clamps. it all fit in the back of my pcikup truck. 2 plywood sheets in first flat on bottom, then one canon on those and the other canoe ontop of the 1st canoe. when got to the back waters we put the 2 canoes side by side with a foot or so between them, layed the plywood across and used the c clamps to hold the sheets to the rails of the canoes. worked awesome and was like shooting from a dock it was so stable. would of been really easy to attach a trolling motor to that.

 

[JDawgBailz]

Thanks for the info! I am pretty sure I can get them new for $10 but if I can't I have a couple local car washes that might sell them to me. The problem I have is I need receipts for anything that has to do with building the boat at all for registration and title for the boat.
This weeks plan...
Tuesday... Build frame and pick up barrels
Wednesday... Put plywood and carpet on and attach barrels
Thursday... Get registration and title
Friday night... Test run on the lake with generator and halos
Wish me luck and ill be sure to post pics along the way!!!

 

[JDawgBailz]

Frames all done except for spacers on the front barrel. Tomorrow gonna finish that and put on plywood. We are gonna put the clips for the barrels on. I spent $40 at Walmart for screws and hooks for the barrels and the rope to put them on with. $150 for all the lumber. I bought more than we needed. About $50 for the rest of the barrels so we will have about $250 in just the boat. Not bad for how nice it is coming along.

 

[NightKnight]

I am looking forward to seeing the progress!

 

[JDawgBailz]

I am gonna post pictures of what I got done so far. Tomorrow I am going for emergency microscopic surgery on my finger from the accident, they are going to attempt to reconnect the nerves and tendons in my finger so not much else will be getting done anytime soon. I got a call this morning about it and they said its already waited too long so they wanted me to get the surgery ASAP and they said about tomorrow so I didnt really have a choice or I would be testing out my new build tomorrow. oh well there's still time.

 

[moe3637]

******* yacht club...... Awesome

 

[JDawgBailz]

Haha thanks! Just wanted to let y'all know surgery went well and I'm hoping to be able to drive my boat for the may tournament!

 

[NuffDaddy]

Haha thanks! Just wanted to let y'all know surgery went well and I'm hoping to be able to drive my boat for the may tournament!

Good to hear. :thumbsu:

 

[JDawgBailz]

 

[JDawgBailz]

 

[JDawgBailz]

 

[JDawgBailz]

This is what we got done so far. I need to buy4 more barrels because I got all them for free and 4 leaked so I have to buy 4 replacement barrels then finish screwing down the plywood and she will be ready for title and registration. It's coming along nice for only having $275 in it.

 

[JDawgBailz]

I named it... "The ******* Bowfisher"

 

[NuffDaddy]

Looking good. That thing should float like a cork.

 

[JDawgBailz]

Thanks Nuff! Yea it should be pretty stable. I put the front barrel sideways so it breaks the water better. The only downfall is the. Weight of this beast. Right now we are right around 300 lbs.