Build a better pontoon boat - Gen 6

[@yepyepuhhuh]

Excellent. I am excited tonsee your progress. I built foam pontoons for a "Fish Cat" pontoon frame. They work well, but always interested to see the ideas of others.

[@DIYUSA]

Thanks for watching. As usual I want to be able to fit the boat inside my car. Now I got a slightly longer car and I can fit a longer pontoon. I looked up the 'Fish Cat' frame and it is a bit too large for me. Will have an update in the next few days. Cheers.

[@daniellorca4452]

Hi I always enjoy your engineering and creativity. One suggestion (i am curious about your thoughts): why not use expandable rods to connect the pontoons? For example, expandable curtain rods for the shower. I find them often in garbage. It also possible to use pvc pipes to expand the rods further. My thought are: (1) easy transport, (2) the wider apart the pontoons, the more space and stability.

[@DIYUSA]

Thanks for your support and inputs. I have used the expandable rods in my other projects. They are inexpensive. As for the pontoon boat, those rods are usually very thin and not strong enough for the cross beams. When I built my Gen 2 pontoon boat, I used the PVC pipe to build the whole platform. I did consider using the PVC pipe again for this latest boat. Finally I decided to spend a bit more money to use the 3/4" aluminum pipes for the cross beams/p[atform. It is because I want to haver a boat that can last for a few years. When I built my very first pontoon boat, which is a catamaran. I used 3/4" steel pipes and the platform is 4' wide. It is very stable. The boat is heavy. I want to transport the boat inside my car hence I don't want the boat to be too wide (this means the platform will be too large). With this design, I am keeping the width to 29".

[@Superkuh2]

Cool to see boats that can be made with more readily purchased local materials. The coroplast available in the USA was just too small.

[@DIYUSA]

I agree, it is difficult to find a sheet of coroplast larger than 4'x8'. I am aware of this situation and I have experimented with heat fusion to fuse two 4'x8' sheets to build a longer boat. Home Depot do sell 5 or 6 mm thick 4'x8' coroplast (but you have to buy a few sheets), which is a good candidate for this. Here in Portland, Oregon, you can get a 5' x 10' coroplast from a local plastic shop and the price is very reasonable. Their coroplast are usually cheaper than Home Depot and you can also buy a single sheet. In this latest project, I used the foam I bought 4 years ago, which was $18 on sales. Nowadays, it is so expensive. A foam boat can last for many years. I will have videos giving you more details in building my 6th pontoon boat in the next 4-6 weeks. Hope this will inspire you to build one also :-)

[@jonabub]

Thank you so much for sharing, you're awesome!

[@DIYUSA]

Thanks for watching and your support.

[@tonyyeh3723]

Keep up the good work. I am surprised to see such low view count for your high quality content.😊

[@DIYUSA]

Thanks for watching and your comments. Yesterday, I tried the boat at the pacific coast. The wind was at around 15 knots, the boat performed very well even I don't have skegs on it. There will be more modifications to the boat. Will update you on future videos.

[@tonyyeh3723]

@@DIYUSA Do you visit San Francisco? Contact me the next time that you are here, love to meet up.

[@DIYUSA]

@@tonyyeh3723 I spent 3 days at San Francisco in 2013. I really like the city and the weather. I have been back to the bay area a few times since then. Will be glad to meetup with you. I have just finished a camping trip with a family I met thru KZbin also. Likewise, if you happen to be in Portland Oregon, please let me know! Cheers!