Intex Seahawk II Inflatable Boat Customized DIY Floorboard
- 9 years ago
Intex Seahawk II Inflatable Raft DIY Floorboard
After receiving my Intex Seahawk II Inflatable raft, I unpack and set-up the raft at home (you can find it here http://youtu.be/E3D-feJXlZg) One fine day, I went to Desaru at Malaysia east coast to test out the Intex Intex Seahawk II Inflatable Raft on the sea, found out that that the raft is not rigid enough to be used on the sea or rough water area, it's very difficult to control when the wave came and the flooring of the raft would sank in when weight was laid on it. That made the bottom contour of the raft slightly out of shape, I guessed. Thus, thew wave and the current made the raft drifting to the direction that wan't my desire.
00:26 Tracing the floorboard
02:41 Measurement
03:19 The Rubber Water Hose
04:20 The Cutting & Filing
05:51 The Floorboard
Came back and done some research on the customized flooring. Before I bought the raft, I had watched some guys making it on YouTube here. Initially I thought it's not really necessary to have the hard flooring, but how wrong am I, IT IS A MUST TO HAVE A HARD FLOORING if you gonna use the raft on the rough sea, choppy water or strong current area. It really help the raft to be more rigid, more stable and ease of control, whether you are rowing the raft or powering it with a trolling motor or like me using a small outboard motor.
After a few sleepless night.... : ) I managed to gather enough information, thank to YouTube. I constructed a 3 section plywood floorboard and it was a mistake. I made it into 2 equal length pieces and a smaller piece at the bow, it failed to give me the rigidness I wanted and as the plywood I used was too thick, maybe around 20 mm, it's very heavy. I found 2 large pieces of thinner plywood, 10 mm. I managed to reduce the weight significantly and it was constructed into 2 sections.
The first floorboard was build with the width of 26 inches, when it was inserted onto the raft, there's some gaps between the raft and the floorboard, the inner width of the raft is 28 inches. Some allowances were needed for me to insert 2 pieces of 1/4 " PVC pipe which I cut open and slide it on the both side of the floorboard to join them together and a rubber water hose is used as insulation, running around the edge of the plywood to prevent damages cause by the friction between the raft and the floorboard.
Some careful measurement were done and final verdict was increasing the floorboard by 1 inch to 27 inches. After a sweaty 3 hours session, sawing, filing and smoothing with sandpaper, it was done! I didn't put on carpets as many people did cause I found that it is not necessary.
Tested it and the experience was great, improve a lot in controlling and it is much more rigid.
See my next video about customizing the raft here http://youtu.be/n5VfK0q456A
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Please give me your valuable comments to help me making improvement and click the LIKE and SHARE if you find the video is good. Subscribe to my channel so you will not be missing out on the new videos, thanks.
You can reach me at
Blogspot
http://northernhardcorefisherman.blogspot.sg/
Google+
https://www.google.com/+NorthernhardcorefishermanBlogspotSg
Instagram
https://instagram.com/northernhardcorefisherman/
Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/FishingAdventureofNHF
Twitter
https://twitter.com/FishingAdvNHF
Tumblr
http://fishingadvnhf.tumblr.com/
==================================================================================================
Always Tight Line, Hardcore is the Spirit!
After receiving my Intex Seahawk II Inflatable raft, I unpack and set-up the raft at home (you can find it here http://youtu.be/E3D-feJXlZg) One fine day, I went to Desaru at Malaysia east coast to test out the Intex Intex Seahawk II Inflatable Raft on the sea, found out that that the raft is not rigid enough to be used on the sea or rough water area, it's very difficult to control when the wave came and the flooring of the raft would sank in when weight was laid on it. That made the bottom contour of the raft slightly out of shape, I guessed. Thus, thew wave and the current made the raft drifting to the direction that wan't my desire.
00:26 Tracing the floorboard
02:41 Measurement
03:19 The Rubber Water Hose
04:20 The Cutting & Filing
05:51 The Floorboard
Came back and done some research on the customized flooring. Before I bought the raft, I had watched some guys making it on YouTube here. Initially I thought it's not really necessary to have the hard flooring, but how wrong am I, IT IS A MUST TO HAVE A HARD FLOORING if you gonna use the raft on the rough sea, choppy water or strong current area. It really help the raft to be more rigid, more stable and ease of control, whether you are rowing the raft or powering it with a trolling motor or like me using a small outboard motor.
After a few sleepless night.... : ) I managed to gather enough information, thank to YouTube. I constructed a 3 section plywood floorboard and it was a mistake. I made it into 2 equal length pieces and a smaller piece at the bow, it failed to give me the rigidness I wanted and as the plywood I used was too thick, maybe around 20 mm, it's very heavy. I found 2 large pieces of thinner plywood, 10 mm. I managed to reduce the weight significantly and it was constructed into 2 sections.
The first floorboard was build with the width of 26 inches, when it was inserted onto the raft, there's some gaps between the raft and the floorboard, the inner width of the raft is 28 inches. Some allowances were needed for me to insert 2 pieces of 1/4 " PVC pipe which I cut open and slide it on the both side of the floorboard to join them together and a rubber water hose is used as insulation, running around the edge of the plywood to prevent damages cause by the friction between the raft and the floorboard.
Some careful measurement were done and final verdict was increasing the floorboard by 1 inch to 27 inches. After a sweaty 3 hours session, sawing, filing and smoothing with sandpaper, it was done! I didn't put on carpets as many people did cause I found that it is not necessary.
Tested it and the experience was great, improve a lot in controlling and it is much more rigid.
See my next video about customizing the raft here http://youtu.be/n5VfK0q456A
==================================================================================================
Please give me your valuable comments to help me making improvement and click the LIKE and SHARE if you find the video is good. Subscribe to my channel so you will not be missing out on the new videos, thanks.
You can reach me at
Blogspot
http://northernhardcorefisherman.blogspot.sg/
Google+
https://www.google.com/+NorthernhardcorefishermanBlogspotSg
https://instagram.com/northernhardcorefisherman/
https://www.facebook.com/FishingAdventureofNHF
https://twitter.com/FishingAdvNHF
Tumblr
http://fishingadvnhf.tumblr.com/
==================================================================================================
Always Tight Line, Hardcore is the Spirit!