Jon boat question

[carbonduke]

Guys, I have a question regarding a Polar Kraft J1448 LW jon boat. Looks like this will be a new boat I am going to purchase. Unfortunately, we dont have the choices you folks have on the other side of the pond. You guys have a plethora of choices, here in europe it is minmal. Anyways, since many of the manufacturers use this same platform, what is your opinion on them? How comfortable for two? It is stable enough? It will be used strictly in rivers. It will be powered by a 15 HP Suzuki. TIA for your input.

[FrankW]

Hi carbonduke,

That looks like a reasonably good Jon boat. There must be another manufacture where you can compare boats. Gauge of the bottom is important. The trailer I saw for this boat only had 12" wheels. That is small and you should try to get a trailer with larger tires. At least 14". Just make sure you don't go smaller than 12" tires. You don't need bigger tires for the load but the trailer will pull better with larger tires and go over pot holes better.

This boat is rated for 25HP and you will find that the 15HP is not enough if you carry a big load. With big wide Jon boats like this we tend to load them up and then can't get on step. Another problem with a short wide Jon is they are hard to paddle if you lose power. If you go into remote areas this can be important. You will be pretty much at the mercy of the river if you lose power and have a load. These boats work great with a jet with some modifications.

Frank

[carbonduke]

Thanks Frank for the reply/advice. To my knowledge the boat is made out of 1.7 mm aliminum. Of course thicker would be better, but this is what it is. I dont planning to put big loads into the boat. Max 2 person, with 2 roads each and the tackle boxes. Thats it. I saw a video on Youtube where the guy with a 9,9 HP motor reached 22 mph. The motor I will be using has 50% more power. If I could go 25 mph, safely, that means 15 minutes til I reach my favorite fishing spot. The trailer will be a custom made one, with 14 inch tires.

[FrankW]

Hi carbonduke,

Sounds like you have it figured out. I forgot to mention that these wide bottom Jon boats are very stable. Your wife will feel safe in the boat.

My experience with Jon boats was in Alaska under extreme conditions fishing remote areas with no other people on the river. If you have a lot of sand bars in your river then you might consider carrying a water-a-long in the boat with at least 50' of 1/8" galvanized or stainless cable. With a Jon boat you are going all out to stay on step and if you run up on a sand bar or gravel bar, it can be a lot of effort to get it off. My wife was not much help in man handling a Jon boat. We always had a big load.

Frank

[Toadslayer72]

Hey what's up. I don't have any experience with that boat but I just wanted to let you know about tinboats.net. It's a real good site dedicated to all things aluminum boats. They may have more in depth info about the boat you are looking at. I'd also suggest going into their forums and looking at the modification sub forum, lots of cool things guys do with their boats. May not be your cup of tea (I'm guessing that phrase originated on your side of the pond ) but still cool to see.

[Dexter]

Hey Toadslayer, thanks for the heads up on tinboats.net. I bought a trashed Montgomery Wards 1977 sea king. It was a summer project for my son and myself. We stripped everything, replaced the hardware with new stainless plus replaced the wood. The retro boat looks pretty cool, fits in the bed of the truck and allows us to fish the small, non-motorized lakes. Great site!
Thanks
Dex

[Toadslayer72]

Hey Toadslayer, thanks for the heads up on tinboats.net. I bought a trashed Montgomery Wards 1977 sea king. It was a summer project for my son and myself. We stripped everything, replaced the hardware with new stainless plus replaced the wood. The retro boat looks pretty cool, fits in the bed of the truck and allows us to fish the small, non-motorized lakes. Great site!
Thanks
Dex

Dude, that's awesome! I wish I had the time to work on boats, I think it's great that you did that with your son too. There are quite a few great mods over there that guys have done from simple to complex. It's really cool to see the progression of some of those little rigs. Glad you like it.

[carbonduke]

Thanks guys. Since Google is a good friend of mine I have found tinboats and reading about them. I think that a jon boat is the best solution for me.