ice boat build starts

[Ice King]

It's going to be a slow proses but I picked up a used 084 today.
It looks to have a lot of oil leeks but fills like it has good compression.

[Ice King]

I know how we all like seeing pics of each others builds so I tried to put some up today without success.
will try again tomorrow on my home computer.

[Ice King]

In the meantime I have a question.

I have read in several places that you don't want your prop to be longer then the width of your transom.
Not having the slightest clue about these things I was wondering why that is?

Thanks in advance for any help.

Mike

[Papee]

There are a couple reasons. Number one is that the cage will stick out past the sides of the boat and may catch on something with bad results all around. Another is if your prop is wider than your transom it also means you are raising the motor to clear the prop vertically. This means your center of gravity is getting too high for the width of the boat.

[Ice King]

Thanks Papee
That makes perfect sense.


The old boat that I'm thinking of trying to use has a flat bottom for the back half and a pointed bow.
It is widest just in front of the middle seat being 57" @ the gunwales and the transom is 48" in the middle and 48" at the gunwales and 36" at the bottom before the chine. It also has 3 keels and is 13' 8" long.
So the question is am I limited to a 48" prop or can I get away with something bigger?
I ask because I figure I will eventually be building my own hull @ 5'-6' wide by 12'-14' long and would like to use the same prop to save $$$$

I still can't add pics.
Sorry about the bear pic. I was messing around to see if I could get any pics to work.

oops apparently I can add pics.

[Ice King]

This is what I'm talking about.

[Ice King]

Oh ya, here is a couple of the old engine.

It was never going to rust.

[Papee]

Ok here's a way to see what you're going to end up with. Put that boat in the water then stand on the back seat. Rock the boat from side to side. The result is the stability you have with a motor and prop on it. That boat is too rounded on the bottom to make an airboat. There's just not enough planing surface and with the rounded bottom I doubt it would make it past your first turn with any speed without tipping over.

Im all for trying to getting into this hobby cheap but some hulls just don't make a good airboat hull even just to get by. I had a transom mount fan motor on a boat like that when I was a kid and it was a little sqiirrely.

[Ice King]

Thank you for the tip Papee

I'm kind of glad to hear that the hull I have will not work.
Now when I ask the wife if I can buy some aluminum to make a custom mini air boat, I can tell her the boat we have isn't safe to use.
How can she argue with that?