Lithium Power & Maintenance on the Jonboat!

 Our Jonboat power system had began to fail, after 8 years of use. We run this thing great distances, sometimes several miles, so we needed a dependable battery system. I decided to give the new deep cycle LiFeP01 batteries a shot. The battery we selected is rated at 100 Ah, will hold the output voltage steady for its full capacity, and good for over 5000 charge cycles! The series 27 battery we had weighed almost 80lbs, this new battery weighs 20.8 lbs!!! Wow, what a difference... and the usable battery power is amazing! Here's a few pics...

I recently jack-knifed the trailer and bent the spare tire bracket. I repaired it...

I repaired the transducer mount...

New battery clamps installed...

A bit of maintenance was done to the front boat bracket on the trailer. Added flat and lock washers...

The new lithium trolling battery...

Charging for it's first trip...

Drilled bolt holes in the posts of the old battery...

Sawed the old posts off...

A couple of shots of the rod rack in the truck...

Old posts bolted to the new battery...

Carry handles on the new battery...

The new battery in the boat. Guess I need a smaller battery box, now!

New Jon Boat Seats & Bait Lights...

 While doing some updates to the Jon Boat, I recalled all the back pain I had when we were out on the boat more than a couple of hours. I felt like I needed better seating with more back support. Debbie got on the Cabela's website and found the seats we had been looking at in their store, recently. She got those ordered up, and they arrived in no time flat! I removed the old seats, added additional fasteners through the 2x6 riser I had installed previously to raise the seats, and installed the new seats. WOW, what a difference they made! 

While at it, I replaced the old LED bait lights that were on the front of the lower seat frames. They're only about $5 at Ace hardware, and lasted almost 6 years. Very bright, and help when doing a bit of night fishing. 

 

 

Jon Boat Trailer Adjustments and Updates...

The parts all came in and it was time to get the new-to-us trailer updated and adjusted, and get the Jon Boat on it. I readjusted the front winch location, moved the spare tire bracket, readjusted the carpeted rails for the boat to rest on, installed new wheels/tires, packed the wheel hubs with grease and painted them, installed new LED lighting, installed a new Reese tongue jack and wheel, and repaired a ground wire issues in the wiring harness. It turned out great and I can now move the boat around with one hand. All together, I guess we have about $500 in the whole trailer project, and it'll now alow us to sell that all-aluminum Triton MC trailer and get it out of the yard :-)

 

 

 

Sealing the covers...

 This is why the Jon boat was half full of water when I pull the cover back... I forgot to seal / waterproof the cover last fall! Just like a tent, anywhere the cover touches something, water will run right through if not sealed. I grabbed a few cans of tent waterproofing from Walmart, and treated both the Jon boat and Bass boat covers. Just put the cover on the boat, spray until wet, and let dry. We had some storms the very next day and all was dry inside. Yay!

Coming out of the mothballs...

We've been down with some personal illness, work about the house, and family stuff...so the boat and fishing took a back seat for a while. Now that we have a new-to-us trailer to get it on, it's time to get busy. I pulled the cover off, and mush to my surprise, it has LEAKED. The boat was 1/2 full of water. Boy, was I disappointed! More on that, later.... Time to get her scrubbed up. I used some foaming carpet cleaner, a bucket of dawn / water mix, as soft scrub brush, and got after it. It all came clean and is ready for some updates / repairs... 

 

 

Found a smaller trailer!

We've been looking for a smaller trailer for the Jon boat. Using the converted motorcycle trailer works, but it was kinda big and a bit tough for me to push around in some places by myself.You can see in the photo below, the size of the trailer was a bit much for this boat. However, we needed to work with what we had, so this trailer has worked well for the last 5 years.

Debbie was scouting around on marketplace all the time, and ran across a jet ski trailer that was perfect for our application, and very cheap. We snapped it up and brought it home. We're going to   convert it for the boat, and sell the MC trailer. He's a couple of pic of this diamond in the rough...

We have a bit of work to do, but it should work out nicely!

Jon Boat Fish Finder

We had been needing a depth finder on the jon boat, but didn't want to spend the $$ for one. I had an old Lowrance x22a from about 1996, but the transducer was bad. A replacement transducer cost more than I could buy a complete working used system on the web. I put a message out on the internet, and found a guy who had an old transducer with a bad unit, and I got that. I made a bracket for the rear of the boat, modified an old CB radio bracket to mount the x22a on the inside of the transom, and got it all wired up. This is electronics on the cheap for fishing  :-) Here's a few pics...

Beaver Dam @ Weaver Trail

Debbie and I put in on Beaver Dam today, off Old Weaver Trail. It was nice and calm when we got there...but very muddy. Around 3pm or so, the wind picked up and it was really rockin'. Not much biting, though Debbie caught a fatty Black Crappie. We decided to head back to the launch, about 1-1/2 mile away, and it took us about 30 minutes against the wind and water pushing back. Water was banging in over the front of the boat, but nothing serious. Here's a few pics...

Boat Safety Strap

We learned this, the hard way...by almost loosing the boat in the highway while in route to a fishin' hole! We have a couple of ratchet straps that hold the boat to the trailer...one in the front, and one in the back. I had no idea that the ratchet could pop open and loosen the boat. The rear strap popped open, the boat is tapered in the front, so it started sliding back. Debbie just happened to look in the side mirror and said "Dave, the boat is coming off the trailer!!!". Sure enough, she was right. The boat was almost 50% off the back of the trailer, held only by the front night fishing light being tangled up in the front strap. Wow, that was a close one. Now, we use an additional strap that keeps the boat pulled uptight against the spare tire. 

Jon Boat Battery Containment

Here's a pic of what we did to contain the battery in our Jon Boat. Early on, we found the best place for the battery (for best weight distribution in this small boat) was in the middle of the boat...immediately behind Debbie's seat. We use several different sizes of battery, depending on where we're going. We use a Series-27 Sealed Deep Cycle battery (60 lbs!!) when we know we're gonna be running it hard in big water, all day. We have a series-U1 (sealed lawn tractor battery) for moderate size lakes. Lastly, we use a small jump box for use in ponds and such. After loading in an out of some rough places with STEEP ramps this year, we found the battery needed to be secured. I picked up a plastic battery box from Walmart for $8, drilled a few holes in the lower seat frame, and attached it there. I don't use the top, that way I can just set the battery in and out easily. Problem solved!