These videos have come up to be very helpful to me as I am going to buy one soon. Thanks for sharing. Good luck and greetings to your beautiful family.
+Nasim Hasan Buy the motor mount also and itt's available on Amazon for $20.00. Today I bought a new Minn-Kota Endura C2 motor for $99.00 at Walmart. Once I make a new floor, I am good to go fishing next month.
It was nice to see the improvement in the properties of a good inflatable boat, but with one serious drawback for any inflatable boat. You cannot walk without a floor, sit normally, get in and out of a boat. I want to share my experience that I did 10 years ago and use it to this day. Floor. I have 1/2 inch plywood, three pieces. Below them are 4 2x2 inch bars for the entire length of the boat. They are finally bolted together. I soaked plywood 2 times with sunflower oil to protect it from water. If it is absorbed, it does not stain anything. Three pieces of plywood fit well in the trunk behind the rear seats of the Dodge Grand Caravan. The bars are attached to the top of the car or inside the middle to cross the whole car. Motor. I started using a trolling motor (4 straight speed, 1 rear) and marine battery, which I put in the cooler at the back. The cooler is also a seat for the "captain". One seat in the middle is a board. But a beach chair with an awning is better. The battery is enough for 4 people to travel 1 mile round trip without charging. And the battery still shows 60% charge. The main thing is that Intex Excursion 5 with such parts easily fits into a minivan for 2 weeks of vacation: fishing, crab trap, shrimping, fun for children. The last - in the salt water marsh of Edisto river, South Carolina.
My wife just bought me the same boat for Christmas gift. I will definitely at least do the same thing you did (I hope). Thanks for sharing this video, it gives me some ideas.
Hi Jason, Nice job! I like the way your floor looks. I have watched many how to videos on the floor and debated stapling vs. gluing the carpet. I think the staples are good enough. Like you said I think if you need to replace and remove the carpet for cleaning you will have an easier time of it instead of fighting with adhesion. Also, I was viewing a video that talked about making the floor blow up valve accessible in case the floor itself loses air because of temperature or whatever. Bring aboard your pump in case, but they made a hole in the right bottom of the floor right over the blow up valve in case you have to inflate the boat while on the water. Just a thought. You did a great job, and your little girl is adorable. Have fun on the water.
Look everyone, I appreciate all the views, but please stop asking me for the dimensions of the floor, I DON'T KNOW. If you watch the video I used a 4'x8' piece of plywood, I turned the raft upside down and laid the carpet on it then traced around. I then put that cut out piece of carpet onto the plywood and traced that. The floor is somewhat oval, can you measure the dimensions of an oval?
Thanks Jason. This video helped us alot. We used this exact process and it works great ! The outdoor paint was about 35 bucks as well. Thanks again for the video !!
Looks great and a dandy idea...especially the pipe insulation around the edges. I took (stole) your idea and made a floor for my intex mariner 4 ...it came with a plastic floor that was pretty crappy .What I did differently was I used 3/8 floor underlayment plywood because it is lighter and instead of covering it with carpeting I painted it with rustoleum deck restore with a heavy texture. Used the pipe insulation around the edges and it is bad ass.....thanks for the great idea
I'm gonna do this to mine very soon. Thanks for the video and david foder advice too. But it looks good buy all the stuff seems like it won't take long.
Dood, MAJORPROPS!!! You did an excellent job on the floor. I might have went with a construction adhesive as opposed to steel staples like Like LiquidNail, but other than that I am duly impressed!
Thanks for the video Jason, it looks awesome. There is this glue that we use in construction to glue mirrors or glass to the walls its called Gunther ultra/bond mirror mastic. That should do the work for the foam attatching. Thanks so much man!!!
The easiest way to make a template for the floor is to flip the boat over and then tape a piece of clear 4 mil polyethelene sheeting to the bottom. Then using a permanent marker, trace the floor seam directly on to the sheeting. Finally, cut out the template, lay it over your plywood and then trace the outline of the template on to the plywood to guide you in cutting out the floor.
Thank you for your kind words. Remember to cut the floor an inch or two SHORTER than the template. While it may fit by cutting it out the same size as the template, I have found that it will place excessive pressure on the seams and in addition (over time) will abrade the walls of the boat (especially when sand etc. gets trapped between the floor and the sidewalls). I learned that lesson the hard way and I had to purchase a new boat. Further, sand the floor so that it is smooth. I sealed the floor in mine with marine spar varnish which I applied several applications and works well.
I no longer have the boat as I upgraded to an Intex Mariner IV which comes complete with a rigid floor. To answer your question, once all of the floor's surfaces were sanded and sealed with three coats of marine grade spar varnish, it was indeed waterproof and should remain so as long as the finish is not damaged or degraded.
I would recommend marine-grade plywood to prevent rot and reduce the need for sealing. Also, the carpet could probably be glued down instead (unless those staples are stainless, they'll rust). The other comment about adding a hinge in the middle is a great idea, too, because I can't haul mine inflated and wouldn't be able to comfortably haul the whole floor piece with it. Nice video!
Maybe a heavy duty piano hinge all the way across or just 2 heavy dudty hinges on on each side. i was thinking put them on the bottom an fold the floor up with 1 handle on each end for carrying
Hey man, thank you so much for this video. We used all of these methods and just built a floor for our own Excursion 5. Also, a hot glue gun works well for the pipe insulators! Very much appreciated.
Nice 👍 looks good. Planning on getting the same boat with a trolling motor because I am sick and tired of all the registration and mechanical problems. You start spending too much money and it takes the fun out of it. This will be perfect for fishing 🎣.
Thanks. I bought the same size wood, two carpets the same size and the pipe tubing, marine adhesive, and trowel. Inflated the boat, drew the outline on the carpet, cut it. Then drew the outline into the wood and cut and sanded, put three coats of Olympia waterproofer on (it's what I had ). Then glued the carpet to both sides. Your video was excellent. I've been out on the water three times. Works great
Hi happy new year sir !! I'm back again. I hope to get a boat in a month or so. And I'll deck out my boat lol yah a pun hehehe thanks for the step by step instructions !!! And blessings to you and yours !!
There's an online floor spec that works. It's 38"x8ft.. at 12" from the bow, it needs to be tapered to 35", going back 24" from the bow to get that taper. Worked great for me.
I'm afraid of using STAPLE GUN STAPLES because it might loosen and pock the boat. Would GOOP GLUE be just as effective? Maybe? Oh, and also, this video stuck in my mind for 5 whole years, and NOW I'm finally doing this. Excellent work, my friend. You helped me convinced the wife now that we have LAKE NORMAN and LAKE WILEY near by.
I'm seriously thinking about buying this boat or something like it. The floor is a good idea but I'm worried about puncturing the boat. The plywood could potentially crack or split. I wonder what else you could use instead of plywood. But this floor you made looks great. Very professional looking.
Just a tip, next time get some free cardboard from the hardware store (the kind they use to ship appliances in) and use that as a template for your floor. The should have pieces big enough for the interior flooring and if not, just tape it together ;) Also to attach the foam, just drill holes along the edge of the board and zip tie it down. Since foam deteriorates after time, it'll be cheap and easy to replace! P.S. It's better to make an over sized floor first and cut it down because it's almost impossible to add wood back to a piece that is cut too small.
good job I loved the heavy metal in between talking nice touch... also I have the same raft do you have the measurements on that im going to make the same floor for mine. you could also just use lawnn chairs to sit on if a person wanted to I think.
hell yeah! dude, i bet it will also help reduce drag on the bottom from where ur ass would be pushing down the inflatable bottom.... it looks professional also. good job
Pattern scribe it. Use construction paper. Take the paper place it on the floor of the boat tape to the floor and use a pair of dividers with ink and the other side of the dividers with tape on it so you do not Puncture the boat. Then run the dividers along the side and make the marks on the paper. Make sure you put marks on the side and on the paper so you can put the paper back in if the paper moves or a mistake is made. Once the scribe marks complete take and lay it on your plywood and tape it down on the plywood and make your key marks on the plywood in case the pattern moves. Transfer the marks you put on the paper with the dividers and your patter is transferred to the plywood ready to be cut. Make sure when you make your marks on the papers the dividers are straight up and down don’t twist the dividers, very important. Cut the pattern paper about 3/4 of and inch from the side walls of the boat. I patterned scribe floor coverings when I was a working man. If all I done right it will look like it grew there. When you draw the marks on the plywood, set the dividers a little bigger so the plywood will be cut short and the edeging you using will fit much better
Dude! You Rock! This was awesome...thank you so much! Planning to follow your model with a few mods: Cut in 1/2 to allow a piano hinge under the carpet so that I can haul 5.5 feet vice 11 as I plan to inflate on site (I have a 12v pump). Do you think Gorilla glue would be good adhesive for the foam? I'm thinking insert floor, THEN inflate to standard....seems to me it would conform well and give a snug fit. Anyway, thanks again for your efforts and 'real world' ideas :-)
Really nice and neet job man. I am triying to get something like this but cant find it fo any les than $ 300. I am guessing the price doubled over time.
I like the design but not sure 1/2” plywood was needed. I’ve seen others use 1/4”, I used 3/8” plywood. What’s your experience? Also, I liked your idea with the pipe insulation to make the edge protected and clean looking. I used spray glue for the carpeting and spray glue then silicone clear caulking to secure the pipe insulation to the carpet and bottom of the plywood. Thanks for sharing your design.
How long does the excursion 5 last? Is it durable enough to last a couple year's of beach fishing? Great video btw im looking at doing the same thing but cant decide between the excursion 5 and the mariner 4
Hey! Great video. The best I've seen because your floor is 1 piece! I just ordered my Excursion 5 and want to build this exact floor. Will you please tell me the size of your floor? Don't worry about the rounded corners. What size length and width did you cut the wood to? Very clean look!
I been wondering the same thing. I seen somewhere that a guy used pool noodles as a surrounding and it just stayed in place when put in the boat. The bigger pool noodle might work out a lil better not sure tho.
Cool boat with very nice inflatable floor on which you can easily stand. Why do so many people need wooden floor ? To make boat heavier , harder to transport ? To have less space in the boot of your car ?
"My daughter's supervising me"...Hands on hips "Im sweeping" lolll MashaALLAH she a♥️. Wow very very informative!!! This would be my 1st boat. So aksing why we need a floor? Secondly cant we glue the carpet all around the plank then we wont need insulators? Thirdly, whats the puprose of insulators and the insulators were separate right...how did you joined them so when its done it looks one piece?
That was done really good,think i will give it a go. Makes the bottom of the boat much better and looks more comfortable. We will be using it for rivers.Do you think it's tough enough?? SCOTLAND
Love this, looks great. We're looking to get the Excursion 5 as well. I know you weren't fond of the inflatable seats. But can you still fit the seats in their clips with the floor in?
