# Jet Sled Rebuild



## scottphillips208 (Aug 2, 2014)

I'm Scott, a long-time lurker and first time poster who has greatly benefited from the wealth of information provided on TinBoats.com. In fact, you've all helped be rebuild a 14' Valco and and 14' Montgomery Ward boat over the past three years by providing good ideas and reliable information.

Recently a 14' welded hull jet sled somehow got attached to my truck and followed me home, so it only seems fitting that I rebuild it, too! I'll do my best to chronicle the build with photos and commentary.

In addition to the trailer, it came with a 6 hp long shaft Evinrude kicker, a 55 hp Johnson Seahorse outfitted with a jet foot, and other trappings like an inexpensive fish finder, decent pole holders, a paddle, etc. The boat and motors date to the mid 1970's, I think, and given its age, the hull isn't titled and the registration documents are silent as to the hull's manufacturer. While the trailer is an amalgam of two other boat trailers, the hull doesn't appear to be a DIY job. I did find a photo of a 1973 16' Smokercraft jet sled that had the same lines as my 14' hull, but the 16' boat was riveted, not welded like mine.

My goals is to set this boat up to perform a variety of functions including: steelhead fishing on the Salmon and Clearwater rivers here in Idaho; bass fishing on Snake river near Boise; trolling for kokanee on a variety of lakes; and duck hunting.

In a nutshell, here's my plan (not necessarily in order):

1. Strip out the worn-out plywood floors and offset center console, remove the motors, patch a few orphaned screw holes, degrease/clean it and prep for paint. Surprisingly, the foam under the floor appears to be sound and dry.

2. Spot prime the bare aluminum places on the transom; at some point someone did a pretty good job repairing and reinforcing it.

3. Take the boat off the trailer so the trailer can be cleaned up, painted, rewired, etc.

4. Shoot a couple of coats of a flat green camo paint on the inside and outside of the hull. I'm thinking about using the Parker brand duck boat paint from Cabelas.

5. Camo the inside and outside of the hull with stencils and rattle-can Rustoleum. I've got a vinyl cutter, so I've made my own stencils...I still need to run a test on a piece of hardboard to make sure I like the pattern and colors.

6. Replace the plywood floor, build a more functional center or side console, add a platform on the stern of the boat to house a livewell and provide storage.

7. Replace with built-in aluminum gas tank with a new removable plastic one, add another battery for auxiliary electronics like the bilge pump, radio, livewell, lights, etc.

I'll do my best to keep you posted on my progress and include periodic photos.

Thanks,

Scott


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## scottphillips208 (Aug 2, 2014)

I think I've got the camo pattern and stencils figured out. The stencils I used are made of card stock and were cut on a Silhouette Portrait vinyl cutter. They were easy to make, and even easier to use. I'll attach the Silhouette cutting files for those who have access to such a vinyl cutter.

The pattern consists of three different stencils over an olive drab base color. For testing purposes, I painted a piece of hardboard with the base color. Next, I used the "blob" stencil with black paint. On top of the "blob" pattern I overlayed a bark pattern in dark brown. Finally, the grass stencil was used with light coats of both grass and tan paint colors. Basically, for the final coat I laid the stencil in place and sprayed both colors lightly before moving the stencil to another location.

Cheers,

Scott


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## scottphillips208 (Aug 10, 2014)

Slowly but surely I'm making progress on the boat. This weekend I removed the motors, seats, console, shoddy wiring and rotten floor. I had a heck of a time with the steering wheel, and couldn't get the wheel removed from the console...I'll tackle this issue later after I pick up a can of penetrating oil.

The PO apparently tried his best to turn the topsides of this boat into swiss cheese with all of the holes that were drilled into it! It took some time, but I filled all of them with JB weld and sanded them smooth. The repairs turned out great.

I also degreased the boat and trailer and cleaned the living daylights out of both. Under the floor boards I found a great omen - thirty or forty years worth of beer caps! Also, as I'd hoped, the foam under the floor was in really good shape. The thick layer of pine needles must have protected it!

Later this week I hope to break out the paint - prime the bare aluminum with an etching rattle can primer, spray the trailer with a primer made for rusty metal, and then spray the trailer and hull with a top coat. Apparently Cabela's doesn't carry the Parker brand boat paint, so I bought a gallon of Duralux Duck Boat Drap paint for $38 instead.

Cheers,

Scott


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## acabtp (Aug 10, 2014)

neat looking boat. got a few more pictures of the hull from the outside?
good luck with the project


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## RiverBottomOutdoors (Aug 11, 2014)

That is an interesting looking hull. Wonder why it has so much rake?


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## scottphillips208 (Aug 11, 2014)

[url=https://www.tinboats.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=362923#p362923 said:


> RiverBottomOutdoors » 11 Aug 2014, 08:35[/url]"]That is an interesting looking hull. Wonder why it has so much rake?



I'd like to find out which firm manufactured the hull, but the only plate on the hull was the coast guard capacity plate. I saw a similar hull online that was manufactured my Smokercraft in the early 1970's, but that boat was riveted and mine is welded.

Does anyone have any guesses as to who built this boat?

Thanks,

Scott


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## scottphillips208 (Aug 13, 2014)

I'm making headway on my jet sled rebuild and finished painting the trailer and hull last night.

My son and I lifted the hull from the trailer, supported it with saw horses and scrap lumber, and pulled the trailer from beneath it. Over the weekend I had degreased the boat and trailer and powerwashed them, but found I'd missed a few spots on the trailer - these cleaned up quickly with some solvent and a rag last night.

Other than stripping the trailer down and masking the tires with trash bags and tape, I didn't do that much prep work on the trailer before painting it. I did, however, spray two coats of Rustoleam's rusty metal primer on it using an inexpensive Harbor Freight spray gun. Both the primer and the Duralux duck boat drap top coat were thinned with about 10% to 15% xylene, and pushed through with sprayer with the compressor set at 45 psi. At this pressure there was a lot of overspray (ie wasted paint), but the job went fast and I was racing the weather to get finished.

Bare aluminum on the boat was primed with a coat of rattle can self etching primer (Rustoleum), then on high wear areas I sprayed a coat of regular primer as well. The existing paint on the hull was intact and solid, so I didn't bother with priming all of the hull. If I had not ran out of primer (only had one quart), I'd probably primed the whole boat, too. 

The Duralux top coat went down without a hitch, and looks great. Although I put a lot of prep into the hull before painting, it was imposible to fix every nick and ding that's graced the hull over its 40 year life. Nevertheless, this paint really hid the flaws, and it's flat sheen makes the imperfections inconsequential to the eye. The entire hull received two coats of the Duralux, and high wear aread got three coats; the side rails received four coats of the duck boat drab. 

The repair work to the hull I did to hide a significant scar earned from going on the rocks is now practically invisible!

I ended up using three rattle cans of self etching primer, a quart of oil-based rusty metal primer, and just over 3/4 of a gallon of the Duralux oil-based boat paint. The console, aluminum seat boxes, stern ladder, both motors, and aluminum gas tank (should I reuse it instead of buying a portable plastic one) still need to be painted, so I'll be ordering another quart of Duralux paint today.

Tonight I'll pick up some plywood and carpet at the HomeDepot, cut new floor boards, and paint the plywood with some leftover grey Rustoleum I found in my shop.


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## scottphillips208 (Aug 13, 2014)

I'm so pleased with how the paint job turned out I've given up on the idea of painting the hull camo.

Scott


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## RiverBottomOutdoors (Aug 13, 2014)

Looking like a tough sumbitch now!


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## RiverBottomOutdoors (Aug 13, 2014)

If ever I saw a boat that needed a shark face on, it's this one! That one pic looks like Jaws going after Richard Dreyfus.


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## scottphillips208 (Aug 13, 2014)

[url=https://www.tinboats.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=363208#p363208 said:


> RiverBottomOutdoors » 13 Aug 2014, 11:11[/url]"]If ever I saw a boat that needed a shark face on, it's this one! That one pic looks like Jaws going after Richard Dreyfus.



My neighbor said the same thing last night!

Scott


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## Y_J (Aug 13, 2014)

[url=https://www.tinboats.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=363208#p363208 said:


> RiverBottomOutdoors » August 13th, 2014, 1:11 pm[/url]"]If ever I saw a boat that needed a shark face on, it's this one! That one pic looks like Jaws going after Richard Dreyfus.


Them bow lights could make great eyes. LOL


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## scottphillips208 (Aug 14, 2014)

After hearing the chorus noting the uncanny resemblance of my jet sled to a shark, from this point forward it will be known as the Shark Sled!

Anyway, made a little more progress tonight...my son and I cut out the floor boards. At its widest point, the Shark Sled floor is 54 inches wide, so we needed three full sheets of material. The old floor was degraded to the point where it was more or less useless as a template. Instead, I took a series of measurements off the centerline of the hull, and lofted the shape to the new flooring material. It's a perfect fit.

Don't cringe, but I opted to use 7/16" OSB (oriented strand board) for the flooring. This will be the third boat I've used it on, and have been pleased with how well it has held up in the past. I went so far to even sink a boat at the ramp that had sealed OSB floors and it dried out just fine. If I was working on a $30k Duckworth, I'd probably opt for marine grade plywood - but this boat is a plus or minus 40 year old river sled, so it doesn't seem prudent to treat it like a hole in the water into which one pours money!

In some respects I like OSB better than the lesser grades of plywood like CDX: it's made with the same water resistant grade of adhesives as exterior plywood, but unlike less expensive grades of plywood, it's totally void free and has no surface patches that are made from a bondo-like substance. And it's inexpensive. The key to making it last is to seal it well, especially on the edges - I've always used oil based paint to seal OSB in boats and had good results.

The leftover gray Rustoleum I found in my shop was too old to use, so I need to pick up another can of oil-based paint tomorrow. Hopefully I can get the OSB floor sealed tomorrow, and start on the carpet tomorrow night. I need to order another gallon of Duralux duck boat drab paint, too, for the motors and other odds and ends on the Shark Sled.

Cheers!

Scott


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## Zum (Aug 14, 2014)

My father built a dog shed(8x12),30 odd years ago using that osb plywood...still stands today...to the weather and only painted once.
Really like the shape of that boat,different


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## scottphillips208 (Aug 15, 2014)

Last night I sealed the new OSB floor boards with flat black Rustoleum oil based paint; I'd bought a gallon and will also use it to give both motors a fresh paint job this weekend. I decided not to buy another gallon of Duralux duck boat drap because I didn't have the patience to wait for it to be delivered, and I think there's enough of the first gallon of left over Duralux to cover the console and probably the aluminum-box seat bases (dry storage), too.

The carpet I used came from the HomeDepot and next to green astrogtruf is the least expensive indoor/outdoor they sold. The clerk told me he's been selling tons of this carpeting recently to folks who are also recarpeting their boats.

As soon as the paint on the floor boards had (mostly) dried, I commenced to laying the carpet. After applying the carpet adhesive with a 1/8" notched trowel and laying the carpet out good-side down, the glue covered floor panel was placed on the carpet and the edges were tacked in place with 5/16" staples. I shot about 1200 staples last night from a hand powered Arrow stapler!

As you can see in the following picture, I completely covered the flooring panels with carpet adhesive. In addition to the coat of paint, I've got to think this adhesive will help further seal and protect the OSB flooring from water damage.

The carpeting turned out good, but in one small quarter-sized spot I left too much adhesive on the OSB and it bled through to the front of the carpet. It's disappointing, but not so much as to make me redo the panel. It's nothing some fish guts and blood won't hide!

The floor panels fit perfectly, but given the 16" on-center spacing of the aluminum floor framing members, there is a bit of flex in the flooring. To solve this and provide even better points for attaching the flooring to the hull I'll add some wooden stringers perpendictular to the aluminum framing - the following sketch shows what I have in mind, with the red lines representing 3/4" x 3" boards that will also be sealed with paint. As a bonus, the stringers will provide extra "meat" for the screws I'll use to attach the console and seats, provide room for running a some of the wiring I need to install, and distance the flooring a little more from any water that may end up in the bilge.

I'll post a photo of the completed and installed floors tomorrow after I get them screwed into place.

Finally, thanks for the kind comments and words of encouragement as I continue to retrofit the Shark Sled.

Cheers,

Scott


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## scottphillips208 (Aug 16, 2014)

Had an exceptionally productive day:

- installed the floor stringers
- installed the floor panels I carpeted on Thursday
- degreased, prepped and painted both motors
- reinstalled both motors

Ran into a couple of snags along the way. A previous owner had cracked the fiberglass hood on the 6 hp trolling motor and "fixed" it by slapping some epoxy and fiberglass on the inside of the hood (without cleaning off the oil and grease from the inside walls) then covering the crack on the outside with an aftermarket sticker. I fixed correctly - inside and out - and it looks decent enough.

Additionally, I had a hard time fighting gravity to remount the 55 hp Johnson with a jet foot. Fortunately my neighbor and another friend were available to help out!

Tomorrow I'll paint the console and aluminum dry boxes the seats are mounted to with the last of the Duralux duck boat drap and start dealing with the electrical system. I still need to figure out what to do about the gas tank: it came with a welded aluminum tank, but some yahoo did some funky stuff with pvc pipe and JB weld to rig a fill spout on it. If I can undo these sins, I may be able to use it. Otherwise I'll buy a new plastic tank; I like the convenience of a portable tank.

I also picked up some white vinyl from Hobby Lobby for my vinyl cutter. I'm going to cut some new Johnson Sea-Horse stickers for the motors so they both match. They look pretty good with the new coat of flat black paint I applied today.

Cheers,

Scott

P.S. My wife suggested I name this boat the RiverShark. Hopefully I'll be on the water by Thursday!


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## Ail (Aug 17, 2014)

Lookin' great man. I really like that little engine, it is slick. Also I had a good laugh at the phrase "some yahoo." I should call the PO of my boat that every time I find a new boner he did on my boat/trailer.


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## scottphillips208 (Aug 17, 2014)

Before tackling the center console, gas tank and wiring I decided to finish up the motors by cutting and installing new vinyl lettering.

With a Silhouette Portrait vinyl cutter this was an easy task. The software that comes with the vinyl cutter made it incredibly easy to grab some clipart off the internet and "trace" it as a cutable file. The vinyl and transfer tape (a product that makes it easy to adhere the artwork just where you want it) set me back about $15 at Hobby Lobby, and there's still enough left over for the hull registration numbers and the boat's new name - RiverShark.

I'm very pleased with the flat black paint and new while vinyl graphics on the motors; they're now a matched pair!

Cheers,

Scott


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## FLIFSH (Aug 17, 2014)

Scott,
Love the boat and the name... Great job on the motors.
Excuse my crappy photo edit skills, but I have to agree with the boat begging for a shark face...


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## Y_J (Aug 17, 2014)

I'd love to see how them teeth look in the late evening and the bow lights on.  One glowing green eye and one glowing red eye, both simi illuminating them teeth..


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## scottphillips208 (Aug 18, 2014)

Unfortunately, I didn't accomplish as much on Sunday as I'd hoped. Beyond cutting and installing new vinyl decals for both motors, I tackled the bottom portion of the new console. Ended up spending most of the day hanging out and shopping with the Mrs.

The old aluminum console is only about 12" by 12" square, and since I'm adding a second battery to the boat I wanted to get the weight of both batteries off the stern. So, I built and carpeted a box that'll go beneath the existing console (which I'll cut down tonight) to house both batteries. I'd never thought of this before, but I took some good advice from the forum to heart and rounded over the edges of the bottom half of the console before carpeting it.

As an added bonus by reusing the existing console I won't have to fart around with removing the steering wheel and mechanism. I'd tried to take it apart earlier, but stopped short of applying enough force to break it.

I'm getting closer to finishing this project, but still need to:

1. Cut down, paint and install the steering console
2. Paint and reinstall the aluminum seat boxes and seats
3. Figure out what I'm doing for a fuel tank
4. Rewire everthing and install misc. things like a bilge pump, switches, fuses, etc.
5. Paint the registration numbers on the hull
6. Dig out my fishing equipment and boat safety gear

Cheers,

Scott


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## scottphillips208 (Aug 20, 2014)

Yesterday I took the night off from boat building, and didn't accomplish much tonight either!

I did manage to get the old aluminum console cut down in preparation for mounting it to the carpeted "console base" that's been installed as far forward in the boat as possible. In total, the console and base will be about 46" from the floor to the top of the steering wheel - this should be at a comfortable height for me standing, and will ensure I have great visibility over the bow.

After cutting the console down with a decent blade (made for leaving clean cuts in plywood) in a jigsaw, I fabricated a wooden inner-base from some leftover 3/4" plywood that's screwed to the upper aluminum console and will be screwed and bolted to the lower console base. This inner-base should make the whole console very sturdy.

A little bit of JB Weld was applied to the swiss-cheese holes that perforated the old console. The previous owners must have really liked to put holes in this boat!

Finally, I mucked around with the aluminum gas tank that came with the boat, and think it is salvageable. As previously mentioned some Einstein had JB welded some pvc fittings to the tank to form a cap and fill spout; beneath this extraneous pvc pipe was a 1" nub of an aluminum fill spout. Someone should be beaten for cutting the original spout down and gluing on plastic. I managed to undo the pvc sins, and found that it shouldn't be too hard (or expensive) to have a proper aluminum spout welded back on the tank...the guys at Blake Trailer, a trailer repair shop and manufacturer here in our hometown of Star, Idaho, can fix anything! 

The new gas cap/filling port which will be fitted into the gunnel of the boat arrived today from Amazon along with a bilge pump and bilge pump plumbing kit.

Most likely I won't be working on the boat for a few days as the Supreme Leader has instructed me to finish the master bathroom remodel I started a LONG time ago, or else she'll scuttle the RiverShark!

Cheers,

Scott


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## scottphillips208 (Aug 24, 2014)

Although much of the day was spent with our children and neighbors having an End of Summer/Back to School Party, I managed to make some pretty good progress on the RiverShark. 

The repairs were completed on the various holes in the center console; the console was painted and installed; and the aluminum seat boxes were cleaned up, painted and installed.

If time allows tomorrow I'd like to get started on rewiring the boat, install the seats on the aluminum seat bases, carpet the access panel that goes on the front of the console, and maybe, just maybe, install sealed LED lights on the trailer. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, and hope to be on the water soon!

The fuel tank situation still needs to be resolved...I keep vacillating between the options of having the fill spout on the 12 gallon aluminum tank extended and buying a portable plastic tank. The 55 Johnson probably isn't a motor to sip fuel, so the scales are tipping in favor of the the larger aluminum tank over a 6 gallon plastic tank from Walmart.

Cheers,

Scott


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## scottphillips208 (Sep 1, 2014)

Eureka, progress!

After getting caught up a bit on my "honey do" list I was able to devote a some time to the boat project. My last update was about successfully rejuvenating a faded steering wheel with Kyrlon Fusion spray paint. Over the weekend I managed to:

- Build an install a four-pole rod holder. It's made from some scrap 2" pvc pipe, wood, and a few squirts of black spray paint.
- Install the seats and swivels on the aluminum seat boxes
- Paint and install the motor's controls on the steering console. Previously, the controls were hung from a bracket on the rail above the gunnel. The bracket looked like heck, and their placement on the rail would be too low to use comfortably while standing at the new helm. So, I mounted them to the side of the console and used a few nuts as spacers to allow the controls to be mounted to the right side of the console.
- Extend the battery leads off the big motor. The wire I used came from an old set of jumper cables, but I had a really hard time soldering the connection between the old and new wires - my iron wouldn't get hot enough, and I was concerned about frying off too much insulation with a torch. My solution was to use some aluminum blocks with set screws that I picked up in the electrical section of Home Depot to join the wires. The set screws received a healthy dose of Lock Tight, and the connections were protected with a really heavy duty shrink tubing.
-Installed the new bilge pump with a thru-hull filling (well above the waterline) and got it wired up.
- Ran a ton of wiring and kept it neat and tidy with many zip ties.
- And, last, but not least, covered the trailer guides with some foam, and zip tied it in place.

This week I hope to finish the switch panel, pick up the aluminum fuel cell from the welder (he's going to weld a new and longer aluminum fill neck to the tank) and install it, and do a little more work on the electrical system.

Maybe, just maybe, I'll get this boat wrapped up before the warm weather slips away!

Cheers,

Scott


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## acabtp (Sep 2, 2014)

lookin' good man, keep up the good work


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## scottphillips208 (Sep 4, 2014)

Has anyone every heard of a boat manufacturer named Custom Aluminum Boat Specialist, Inc. of Vancouver, WA? I was able to clean up the mangled Coast Guard capacity plackard from my boat, and deciphered this name stamped on the plate.

It looks like they were incorporated in 1997, and the business dissolved in 1999.

Thanks,

Scott


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## Y_J (Sep 5, 2014)

[url=https://www.tinboats.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=365411#p365411 said:


> scottphillips208 » September 4th, 2014, 5:07 pm[/url]"]
> It looks like they were incorporated in 1997, and the business dissolved in 1999.
> 
> Thanks,
> ...


Now that's a short life for a company. Never heard of them myself though.


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## fool4fish1226 (Sep 5, 2014)

Very nice build =D>


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## scottphillips208 (Sep 5, 2014)

Made a little more progress last night by installing a 12 volt power plugin in the switch panel I fabricated from some scrap aluminum, and turned a $5 cutting board into a transom-saver.

If time permits, I'd like to wrap up the electrical work over the weekend. I'll also call the welder this afternoon to see if my fuel tank has been repaired.

Thanks for the comments and for following my build log!

Scott


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## acabtp (Sep 7, 2014)

i know it's probably what you were trying to avoid, but you need to put some screws from the inside of the hull into that transom saver. 3m 5200 is not suitable for bonding polyethylene (HDPE's what that cutting board is made of). if you look at the specifications, they actually list the shear strength of a 5200 bond to polyethylene as *ZERO*.

see page 2 of https://multimedia.3m.com/mws/mediawebserver?mwsId=SSSSSuH8gc7nZxtU48_e5xmSevUqe17zHvTSevTSeSSSSSS--&fn=Fast%20Cure%205200_R1.pdf

sorry man, don't mean to be negative, but i am sure you'd rather not find out the hard way on the water by losing the transducer. i love 5200, this just isn't one of the things it's good at though. using the 5200 to seal between the transom saver and the board is a fine idea to keep water out from between the two and prevent corrosion, but you need some other mechanical fastener to secure the saver to the hull.


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## scottphillips208 (Sep 9, 2014)

Thanks for the advice, acabtp. I'll sing a couple of screws into the HDPE from inside the hull as you recommended.

Scott


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