ROCK BOAT

[COLD]

I read some posts regarding rock boats and I was just wondering what thickness of material these guys are running! :? 20 gauge at .035" is 1.5 lbs per square foot and 12 gauge at .1046" is 4.3 lbs/sq'. A 16X8 would have about 180 sq' of sheet on it and the guys I have discussed it with just use flat bar for stringers. Have seen some jet boats are running it here in the glacial rivers. The thing is my river will have 3' of water and the boulder will be sitting 2" below the surface. Also it is a material I have a lot of experience with and would not require aquisition of more tools. How much do your finished hulls weigh? Not planning to run any brackish water so a good epoxy finish would suffice. I also think lighter material would work if you used poly. Any ROCK BOAT OWNERS out there? :wink:

 

[Airboatcapt2]

 

[COLD]

Yeah I know aluminum boats with poly can handle rocks, I saw that shot in the brouchure you sent me. Love that shot! It's just material price, durability and my skills would make it a desirable choice if I can keep the weight reasonable. Not a lot of hands on welding aluminum but steel almost daily, like riding a bike, and I would need more power in the garage and a nicer mig, :roll: and so on! 8) I like the idea of a metal boat because if you do hit something, generally the metal just deforms and im sure poly also reduces that deformation greatly. Im going to check into some hull weights later and crunch some numbers to see what I can do!

 

[bigkavr]

Faron says it all!! When I purchsed my American Airboat 4 years ago, I told Faron that it was going to be severly abused. Ice, swiftwater and espcially ROCKS. I bounce off rocks almost every time I'm out and my hull has only a few dings to show for it... Even the R/R switch I hit during the evac in New Orleans did little but ding the hull... Now THATS a well built hull.
Brian.