I am raising the deck on my Lund fishing boat about 6 inches. In the past I built a front deck extension on another fishing boat with 3/4 in. marine plywood(deck) and treated 2 x 4's for the base. This old extension weighed a ton. Is there any light weight materials I can use for the new deck ? Anything besides treated 2x 4's I can use for the risers base ? Thanks for lookin.
Aluminium tubing
aluminm angle or square tubing would be my route, followed up w/ aluminum extrusion or 1/4" plywood of course braced accordingly w/aluminum.
I aquired a large aluminum street signand placed that on a frame built with just treated 2'x2's...(the type like the vertical slats on a house deck)...attatched the sign to the 2x2's using stainless screws as well put liquid nails on every 2x2 of the entire frame before placing the sign on the frame. It drops right in with no supports at all going to the floor of the boat. The entire flipping deck weighs only 23lbs without carpet and is solid as rock....feels more solid then the front deck! Applying carpet as we speak and hope to have it finished in a day or so....should come in about 25lbs. (that is the wieght of about 3.5 gallons of fuel!) I see some real nice custom decks on here that look awsome, treated wood, some with fiber glass etc....but some of them must weigh at least 100+ lbs!
Jeff Humphries
Ultimate Fishing Club
Chester, Va
1991 Basscat Sabre
2015 Merc 175 PRO XS
Why are you raising the deck if you don't mind my asking?
In my opinion, when you try to save weight, you end up building it heavier. At least for the decking. Going smaller than 3/4 creates a need for extra bracing. With Alum angle and 3/4 you should need tons of bracing.
The other thing to think about is 3/4 ply on end for bracing. Plywood really isn't all that heavy, and plenty strong when on edge.
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