1st time aluminum! No wood this go around....will get my cardboard mock up pic up here in a bit ...karrols welding is over a month out ! ..gave him my boat today ,see if they can work in or if folks cancel .....damm i cant wait ! Lol !

Make sure you have skegs on the bottom of the hull of your boat after adding the aluminum "sail" on the top. If you have a strong cross wind and don't have skegs on the bottom of the hull you can be pushed off course on tight turns if you're planning on running rivers.

There is a lot more to it than that...

Skegs may help but depending on weight, design, and use they may create a lot more problems... ventilation under the hull (often leading to erroneous diagnosis of cavitation), Catching more water than you want from the side when making turns and getting squirrelly from that source. and also, skegs may increase the minimum depths you can run in.

Most ordinary size sleds have good square chines and that should be enough to keep them tracking and still allow considerable "slide" when negotiating really hard turns. I have two stacks of used-up nestled jet liner rings that are waist high. I have wasted a lot of money "investing" in precious metals!

Don't the used liners come from sucking in sand?

And yes on chines vs skegs type of things. See RE airboat hulls. Mine have slick bottoms with UHMV to boot. You just have to learn to drive them.

Leraning to drive jet boats up here the last month, some of my instructors kind of looked at me weird when they would show how to slide into a turn or 180, once. And then I'd say, oh thats easy enough, let me play with were the hull bites a bit and watch this.

Had clients today thinking I was playing and showing off sliding a 180 into a certain hole.. its really the only safe way to get there.. but its fun.

And airboats have sails up top as is with chit up there, I can only imagine with the elevated cabs some have...

And I love to watch good folks weld aluminum. I'm sure I could do it too, just never took the time to learn. Buddy welded a rake for the airboat before I moved up in April. He asked if I wanted to weld part of it, looked easy enough once I watched him a few hours, but no. Just wanted it right and that was not the time or place to practice.

You made a post the other day about how easy you had found it to run these jet sleds.

My first thought was yep, all his air boat hours down south...

30 years ago when I first showed up in AK working the lodges up in the Tikchik's it was very much the same.

Growing up in the south running airboats since I was a young kid made my transition to jet sledin' cake walk. Just a matter of keeping that shoe in a slot with the OB's....


On the topic here, I've seen a few boats wasted due to adding too much weight forward on "remodel jobs". Mostly fiberglass guys in the south.

I'd assume since ATV has already dicked around fabricating with wood on his boat he has a pretty good idea as to where he might be with the added weight and wind effects with switching to aluminum fabrication.

Most of the experienced aluminum welder types that do boats I've worked around in AK wouldn't screw one up for ya even if you asked them to.

Skinny water is much harder on liners than the huge stuff you are running in.

Many times the question is not if you will run out of water, but when.

This is my 3rd and last river boat build... everything that was learned/worth a dam ,is built in to this custom build its been to the weld shop 4 times now....heck... It went from the store to get reverse chines on it before it ever came home> (along with big 3/4" grab bars welded in all 4 corners/boat draging not much fun w-out handels lol) ! 1st boat u ( new hour meters)25hp i sold it at 269 hours ..... 2nd 469 hours 60hp... 3rdboat is same as number 2...new motor/ bigger= 90hp ran that zero to 862 hours, sold it off as i was headed overseas to turn wrenchs for GD.....Came back home to build a bigger better new house ...dam i bit off a bit 2 much !!....sill working on that one ...got 10% of the house to finish...so im treating myself to this hull that ive had for 6 dam years ..and my pile of boat parts i have for her !

I like your CAD program (Cardboard Aided Design), I use the same one.

[align:right][/align] need that walkaround ...when the logs etc from nowhere jump up an block the doorway !

got me duel fuel tank 2/3rds up from rear of boat....see that non spill drink holder (full of ducktape pieces) built in

This one is getting a heater built into that front bench ,with a vent(2) for the driver and the passenger...and u can pull the hose out and jam it in your boot if need b !

Top of the line powerhouse awaits......both prop and jet with 0"-7.5" jackplate...

Ah, expendable parts running. Got it. We have enough silt right now our sediment filters have to be flushed every day, and thats without making a mistake. LOL. I liked it better in late April myself.

That’s funny right there.

use same CAD on the airboat upgrades all the time. Only way to run IMHO.