Skinny River Running in Alaska

After we installed the gable windows in our Remote Log Cabin the boys and I decided to see how far we can run up a very shallow river near my cabin. We put the boat on 4 gravel bars by the end of the night. The boat is a cheap riveted hull that I modified for a 125 hp motor and I also welded a tunnel in it and reinforced the bottom of the boat with aluminum and UHMW

[@jamestaylor8860]

Excellent just excellent!

[@joshlower1]

Your boating skills are superb

[@craigsimms8940]

Now thats some great fun for this young fellas .... better than any video game you can sit and watch !

[@achap6376]

Awesome video, thanks for sharing.

[@MIDNIGHTSUNALASKA]

Nice build.! Well Done.

[@briancharles4859]

Great video. I learned a lot Gotta get electrical tilt!

[@bombardier3qtrlbpsi]

No Carnival will have a ride as good as that one.

[@jacklowe3788]

Great video! Really enjoyed the ride-

[@mikedowney8984]

I turn my boat sideways a little bit when I'm going into that shallow spot like that and you'll float right over it whip it back and forth just go sideways right up over

[@russellweber4334]

This river running is quite similar the Ozark streams. The 1st welded johnboat I bought is a alumaweld 16' with 25 hp Evinrude with a jet pump.

[@sethjorgensen1245]

Nice captaining scotty

[@cyrusssarren1485]

My favorite kind of river running to do. I’m up in Unalakleet just haven’t recorded any of my runs yet

[@ruthgrimes2147]

This is pure fun and terror at the same time but all in all good ole boys fun

[@kenaidog6974]

I still wonder why I spent the last 20 years on Kodiak. I love river running especially moose hunting. You have a great place there.

[@aksalaman4689]

Some of those spots looked like airboat territory. Nice job.

[@diyalaskanlifestyle]

Yep, it’s prob my favorite thing to do in the summer

[@breezyridgeranch]

You've got some boat skills buddy. That's way faster than I would be comfortable running around.

[@diyalaskanlifestyle]

I think the video makes it look a little faster for the most part I keep it as slow as I can in the bad spots but when I’m going down river it definitely is faster then I want to be going

[@diyalaskanlifestyle]

Also I don’t usually run that river when it shallow like this with that many people in the boat. I have a smaller flat btm with a 20hp jet that goes really shallow.

[@jacklowe3788]

​@@diyalaskanlifestyle What size boat is your 20hp jet on? Is that a 2 stroke 20 jet?

[@diyalaskanlifestyle]

@@jacklowe3788 yes it’s a old 20hp I think it’s a 14’ might be a 12’. With 1 or 2 people it does really good and will go way shallow

[@chslts]

Man I miss my jet Johnny! Need to get another one, moving to delta junction from the kenai peninsula.

[@sharonbraselton4302]

chief jet y9u n9w jet boat

[@walterdanielswalter.r.dani7628]

Had almost the same set-up for the Talkeetna River

[@burtonbird5518]

Like the scenery. Cool to see the whole story of running yr boat through the shallow. Drone footage at the same time cool. Always looking for those 40”++ northerns. You ever get a River with walleye? Love the Moose footage. All Great content. Watching yr new house build. Great stuff.

[@diyalaskanlifestyle]

No walleye up here, glad you like the videos

[@RayFMak]

Your kids having the time of their lives… who needs amusement park rides

[@Yukonhelibilly]

Are you running a stainless impeller on that ? Awesome footage. Thanks for sharing

[@diyalaskanlifestyle]

Honestly I cant remember I had it apart a few yrs ago when the h2o pump quit spinning ( I used and soda can to fix it to get home) and noticed the impeller was also loose fixed it when I got back to town and now can’t remember. I prob should take a look at it this yr.

[@akpolack]

I feel spoiled in my 10footer. You call this skinny water but this is exactly what I look for 🤩

[@diyalaskanlifestyle]

It’s what I look for also, one day I’ll build a mini. It’s tough to beat these flat bottoms though

[@sharonbraselton4302]

that nit tóo shllów piçnicbooa jet yaght

[@DeeplyDrivenOutdoors]

That looks like an amazing time! How do you protect the bottom of the boat from gravel and rocks?

[@diyalaskanlifestyle]

I welded .100 aluminum between the chines and angle over the chines on the last few ft of the boat and then I bolted 1/4” uhmw between the chines. Before I did all of that I put several holes in the boat mainly where the transom and the btm of the boat meet, the rocks would just rip through that thin aluminum.

[@DeeplyDrivenOutdoors]

@@diyalaskanlifestyle Interesting! Where I live, the rivers are all muddy with no rocks. I always thought you had to run those rocky rivers with inflatable boats but the mods you made to your boat are pretty neat

[@vdoza33]

I found this video by looking for the videos of the hallet river near klutina lake. I’m assuming this isn’t it as the topography doesn’t match. What river is this?

[@diyalaskanlifestyle]

Part of the teklanika river in the interior

[@vdoza33]

@@diyalaskanlifestyle oh nice lol I live right next to it 😂

[@davidhenry6818]

You putting in at Nenana and running the tanana?

[@diyalaskanlifestyle]

up the nenana river

[@p.a.d2167]

Eso si es disfrutar de la vida no lo de las grandes y asquerosas ciudades saludos desde la sierra de madrid españa

[@Kitchfox]

Where did you find a 20hp jet motor at?

[@diyalaskanlifestyle]

Craigslist 10 or 15 yrs ago $75 site unseen the jet unit is like new. It is one loud a$$ motor though

[@autorizeduser9876]

Do you have a video of modifications to the boat?

[@diyalaskanlifestyle]

In one of the earlier videos I talked about it and showed some of what I did to it. I reinforced the btm with .100 between the ribs on the last 4’ of the boat, then over the ribs I used 2” angle then I put Uhmw over that. Plus I built up the transom. I put a lot of holes in this boat right here the transom and btm come together so when I put the new btm on I extended it past the transom an inch or 2

[@autorizeduser9876]

Thanks i really like your videos

[@lutomson3496]

To bad you dont have the motors on the flat bottom boats like they do in the south they tip easy lift out of the water with a long prop shaft and go over reeds sand bars etc and dont mess up the prop nice video!

[@diyalaskanlifestyle]

There is some people running those up here i haven’t been around them much

[@joshlower1]

They go through weeds in the south not rock bars you need a jet in alaska any prop would be shortly trashed

[@ComsiCaterpillar]

What kind of motor do you have in the 28' ?

[@diyalaskanlifestyle]

351 with Berkeley jet

[@sharonbraselton4302]

buy oicñick 29 fooit jet yaght

[@Tailwind1]

What river are you on, any Pike?

[@diyalaskanlifestyle]

Teklanika river yes there is some pike on the smaller sloughs

[@lenledwidge5367]

Good trip but where is the salmon? That dead salmon was spoken for by Big Ben

[@diyalaskanlifestyle]

This river has a small run of silvers that come up in the fall, they are pretty much spawned out by the time they make it this far up the river

[@davehaddad3229]

Whats the dimensions on the sled & brand. She runs skinny !

[@diyalaskanlifestyle]

1850 Lowe

[@MIDNIGHTSUNALASKA]

Which river are you running.?

[@diyalaskanlifestyle]

I’m up the teklanika

[@ronaldbertin9455]

Thought process of 500.00 an hr is way below cosf for every hour moving ,

[@bradenherle8774]

What’s the horsepower on that motor?

[@diyalaskanlifestyle]

230

[@bradenherle8774]

@@diyalaskanlifestyle wow that’s impressive for that size of boat. Have any issues with it proposing or weight issues?

[@diyalaskanlifestyle]

@@bradenherle8774 it’s done really good for us it can get a very big load on step. My dad has the exact same boat as mine but 22’ mine is 28’ I can get more weight on step then him

[@diyalaskanlifestyle]

Oops I thought you were asking about my big boat. The flat btm is running a 125hp. It does great but I have ripped the btm of the boat open a few times

[@nathanh.4564]

@@diyalaskanlifestyle what size is the sled boat with the 125 merc? i have a 90/60 and 115/80 for my 16ft boat which is on the heavy side

[@stu3775]

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