Building of a I/O pontoon

521turbo · Jul 18, 2014

I want to build one some day. The LS1 will be sweet!

TurboM700 · Jul 21, 2014

Yes yes it will. Shooting for 50mph that should be fast enough. With a little one on the way it may be a few yrs till i can it done but for know I'm enjoying the heck out of it.

Mike

Izzybird · Aug 27, 2014

Did you ever decide to shark hide your toons or something similar? I'm trying to decide what to use on mine. I'm leaning toward opti-coat, seems to be a highly rated product and highly priced.

DHFF · Aug 27, 2014

Damn that's really cool. Quite the project! Looks good man I bet you get attention on the lake!

vcassens · Aug 27, 2014

Love this thing

TurboM700 · Aug 28, 2014

Izzybird said:
Did you ever decide to shark hide your toons or something similar? I'm trying to decide what to use on mine. I'm leaning toward opti-coat, seems to be a highly rated product and highly priced.

I didnt not do anything with them besides polish them. Wish I did now!!!!

My plan this fall is to pull the boat apart. Flip it over do a complete 3rd toon down the middle. Addding lifting strakes to all 3 toons. Then gator grip the bottom of the boat from the lifting strakes on down. Above the lifting strakes I'm going to polish and either do shrak-hide or opti-coat.

It will also be getting the new motor and out-drive at the same time. Will be trying for mid 50mph next summer. The ole 4cyl doesnt like 4800 rpms for 10 mins on end getting across the big lake. She tends to burn a little oil :doh::doh: !!!

My boat doesnt sit in the water when its not being used but the part of the toons that do turned grey half way thru last summer. They need to be treated with something!!!

TurboM700 · May 20, 2015

A little update.

Got a LS1, picked up some PCM manifolds, and made a big score last night. Picked up a Bravo 1 with helmet and a BBC for 2k, going to sell the BBC as it wont fit in the boat. Going to start the tear down of the boat after labor day and be back on the water in spring. Will be running a GM computer with EFI, now that my drive will support more HP I'm looking for a small supercharger for it.

bluedge8 · May 20, 2015

Nice! How long before you get it running?

TurboM700 · May 21, 2015

Will start taking it apart after labor day, and will be back on the water the following spring. Was really hoping todo it this spring but with a 6 month old and a busy job it just wasnt in the cards.

For the first time in a long time I'm not having a single project this summer. Going to hang out with the little one and throw back a few cold ones on the boat.

Izzybird · May 21, 2015

That's going to be nice. I picked up a tri-toon a couple months ago with lifting strakes, fully skinned underneath, and aluminum deck. It got flipped on its top on dry land in a hurricane, so I got it cheap. I had a two cylinder diesel set up for my other pontoon project but the two boats are so different I will have to do some surgery on the tri-toon to make it work. It may just get a outboard for now. You gonna stick with the polished look? I got one log polished on the pontoon and realized the maintenance was probably more than I cared to deal with. I'll probably polish the other log and sell it, let someone else try to keep it pretty. I will NOT be polishing the tri-toon. I'm okay with ugly, we've known each other a long time. Keep us posted on your progress!

TurboM700 · May 21, 2015

I'm going to be stripping this boat back down to just the deck, and making the "3rd" toon go all the way to the front along with adding more lifting strakes. The issue I have now is the boat actually planes in the back only driving the front(bow) down. I add a hydrofoil to the front which helps but if I have a few people up front it doesnt do anything.

I gave up on polishing the toons also. Looked good for about 2 months(and my boat doesnt sit in the water unless I'm using it) and after that they slowly started dulling.

I'm actually thinking about using this stuff on toons. I think all black toons could look good and the stuff is really slippery. I used it on my duck boat and was amazed at the difference.

http://www.gatorglide.com/

You said you have a 2 cylinder diesel. have anymore information about it?

kmanxj · May 21, 2015

THIS IS AWESOME!!! Sweet build.

Izzybird · May 21, 2015

It's a 576cc inline 2 cyl I got out of a reefer unit. The valve cover looks Kubota but i haven't verified that 100%. I just morphed it to a lower unit I had laying around with the right angle drive and drive shafts off a zero turn mower, worked like a champ. Pushed the pontoon at a blistering 7 mph according to gps. Thinking of putting it in a golf cart or something now, who knows. It's a neat little motor, needs a fuel tweak and a itty bitty turbo.