Duck cabin update

Progress hasn't stopped so far as the end goal. Progress here is in full motion. Every spare minute is devoted to the island house. We are committed to having the house dried in by end of duck season. Thats a tall order. So I have been working on equipment and gathering materials. I picked up 100 4 foot by 8 foot 2 inch vapor barrier backed rigid foam insulation for 500 bucks. I have all the windows, double paned gas filled vinyl because we replaced ours after theb loods. I have all the metal roof r panel already. So now I started picking up old fence pickets. I need 1800 of them to finish the entire inside. I bough a plane. Check out the before and after the plane.

Awesome!

Nice!

I reckon I am going to have to evict a Mexican Eagle.

Can you SAY that anymore?? I believe you mean you'll have to carefully relocate a Caracara Bird. And you might consider reparations. $

How about a southern Canadian with wings?

I tell you what has destroyed my planned timeline is equipment. The lower unit on my trp imploded. It was in the shop for a while waiting on parts, before I decided to tell them just put a whole new lower and props. In the meantime I rebuilt the pontoon and rebuilt a 140 hp evinrude. Theblower need a new seal kit, prop needed to be overhauled, new fuel pump.... yall know boat trouble stuff. I couldn't very well keep dipping a carbon steel trailer in salt water. So I broke it down and dipped it and put new everything. Took the fishing boat out for its first trip since the new lower and the water pump zipped. Dont know how or why a brand new pump would fail within the first few hours. It's back in the shop. The trailer for the pontoon boat is in the shop. It ain't up the left rear tire within 1500 miles. I got to checking with a tape measure. The left rear tire is toe out at the spindle by 5/8 inch. These were brand new tires and axles. From the pull point to the front 2 spindles the measurements are spot on. From pull point to the rear 2 spindles are off by 5/8s inch. Reaching into the trailer measure axle to axle they are perfectly parallel to each other within 1/32 of an inch. The only thing I can think of being the problem is the spindle was welded incorrectly when they were made. The spindle had to have warped as they welded it. They are welded in a jig. The problem is if you take it out of the jig too fast, warping could be an issue. We have an issue. We will see what the trailer place decides tomorrow.

Keep the pics coming on the cabin! I like this thread

I will be transporting materials like crazy up to August. Then I have to shut down for the snake avoidance season. I will hire a crew to build the porch all the way around. That way I dont waste time and money for scaffolding. Then on the opener of blue wings we lay the subfloor. Soon after that up goes the walls and roof all the way to dried in.

Keep the pics coming

Awesome!

Keep up the good work

Looking good. Teal season is gonna be a good one this year!

For some reason I think your building this on poc Island? I got word that there is a bad fire in the island. Hoping your place didn't get hit

I heard the fire was between the jetties and the airport. I also heard they got the fire out by back burning in the path the flames were headed. I reckon fire or hurricane is just as bad as the other. Somebody called and asked what I was going to do if it caught on fire. I said I reckon I'd have to choose to either start over or not. I certainly wasn't going to get bent over something I couldn't do anything about. Thank you for inquiring.

Salt is rough on everything

Any updates on this? This has been a cool build to follow.

Yessir thank you for following. This year we have had a beating from all sides. The saga began last year when the lower went out on the explorer. I am not sure if everyone else has this problem, but when I take a boat to the shop it is gone for 6 weeks. So the lower went out, took it in for a new one plus both props, gone 6 weeks. Got it back and had to abandon the first trip to the island for over heat problem. Took the boat back as they should have shaved the water pump housing but didn't, boat was gone 5 weeks. In the meantime I put the motor and center console on the barge. Towing the barge with 4000 lbs of materials is the least efficient process possible. So I Frankensteined the barge. I replaced the deck, bought a console in Pierre Part, La. and a leaning post in Montgomery, Texas. A friend did a motor exchange and was trashing a 1986 Evinrude 140 HP. I rebuilt the lower and started working on any upper problem I could locate.

The first trip out we hit a wake/wave (Remember this wave thingy) and I could feel the motor wanted to die. We got in the bay and hit another wake and it died for good. A bud came and towed us right back in. Found a wirre came loose from the harness and was rubbing the underside of the flywheel. It grounded out and killed the power. it was the power feed for the power pack. Got it taped and secured. Then the tides left for the winter. We were unable to get a payload to the island as the tide was gone for the winter.

Then the winds came. My cut off for a trip in 15 mph winds when I have a payload to take out. I swear it has either rained or the wind has been blowing and killing every opportunity I have had. So 2 weeks ago. I have had 3000 bucks worth of lumber on the boat ready to go out for a month. We got a window so off we went. The exact same scenario although this time my bride was with me. We hit a wake in the intercoastal and motor tried to die. One more wake nd again tried to die. I know how that story plays out. We abandoned that mission and turned around. To say the least I was perplexed.

Backed the boat into the barn and started pondering WTH is happening here. i need to add this tidbit. When the boat was running, it was like pushing a pig through the water. Every now and again the motor would surge and really go like it should then go back in pig mode near immediately. You would think that boat would really haul butt with a 140 on it. I kwhatept thinking it was a fuel issue. So we got it home and I pulled the carbs. Love the carbs on OMC. If I had the kit laying there I could take off, rebuild and replace each carb in 30 minutes. Somebody had already bet me to it. Apparently they had the same issue and rebuilt the carbs, obviously they were fooled by the same symptoms. So it was not the carbs.

Call it luck or whatnot.... I was going through the electrical and decided to put new relays in the tilt trim as one was trying to stick. I went to the store, gave them the old one and off I went. I replaced the relays and hooked up the battery. The wiring on the motor instantly smoked and caught on fire. SMGDH!!!!!!! The guy gave me the wrong relays which sent power straight to ground. @#$%^^&&* I spent the next 5 hours rebuilding the wire harness. I don't crimp my connectors to the wire, I solder everything. In doing so I saw the original problem wire. When opening up the wire harness I found the wire that grounded out the first time. I also saw it was a bad attempt to jump the power wire around the power pack harness plug. The power wire in one side of the harness plug was broken off inside the plug. You can't fix that, you have to replace. So their fix was to run a jumper wire bypassing the harness plug. Well the wire was barely twisted together and black taped. Thats why when we hit the waves it would shake the already bad connection and act like it was to die.

So I still needed to find why this thing was acting like a pig and only getting 1 mpg. I changed my suspicions from fuel to electrical. I tried to keep this short but failed miserably. So there were many curse words over a long period of time. The whole time its been two bad coils. I checked them but every time they were in working mode. I finally caught them when they weren't working. Ordered new and that fixed that problem. I went to replace the the entire ignition system. I am like that. If I have a problem, I I go ape poop and will replace everything. So I pulled the plugs and wires only to discover the old owner used some king of thread fixer on the piton head #4. I tried to tap it to put a sleeve in it but that was a failure. I have a new head on the way. It should be a 30 minute swap out and off to the races.

I am headed out today to the island but I have no payload for this trip. It will happen but obviously not on my time. In my spare time I have collected enough cedar fence pickets to complete the entire interior. The procedure once I obtain the fence panels and get them home is as follows. Remove the crossmember piece and stack for duck blind material. Then remove the nails, cut the ends off of the picket, hit with a wire brush then paint or stain them. I stack these on pallets that I made and then stacked the pallets in the little barn. 1240 pickets is what I need for the interior. 280 more to go for a finish. The idea is when we get dried in, I can have 2 guys with finish nail guns and people handing them the boards. We can probably put complete the entire interior in a long day. All of the finish work has been done here. I have used cedar pickets before. You don't have to cut them to length to land on a 16 inch center. If the end of the picket lands off of the wall stud, just put scrap behind it, marry the ends together by nailing them to the scrap and keep on trucking.

For some reason I can't add pics right now. When i do you will see the boat and trailer with the wood. That trailer was not galvanized. It is carbon steel and the saltwater was going to eat it. I didn't like the axles anyway. So I took the boat off, stripped the trailer with a cutting torch and sent the frame to be blasted, hot dipped galvanized, new axles, tires, hubs and all. I like it now!

The lumber on the boat is part of the front and rear porches. I figured instead of building a scaffold and tearing it down, we would just do the porches and be done with it. More to follow.

Right on

Thanks for the update.

the two happiest times owning a boat, the day you buy it and the day you sell it

Not me. I get frustrated sometimes but that's part of it. I am a boat freak. My wife is also a boat freak, so I don't even ask when I buy boats. The last time I boat the pontoon boat for the pontoon duck blind. She came back from out of town asking "Who's ratty arsed pontoon is that by the barn" I said "Well technically its yours and mine". I tild what the intentions were for the boat. All she said was "Kewl".

Same here, I have 2 boats and love them. But if you do not like working on them, it would probably be the best day when you sell it. During fishing season, my momarsh goes into cold storage. My gatortrax transforms into crappie rig. After each trip, I get it all ready for the next trip.

During duck season, it is nice having 2 boats, so when one breaks down and needs work, I got back up.

Thanks for the update! If everything was easy about it, it wouldn't be such an adventure with good stories. I look forward to reading more in the future.

Nice

the fun of owning a boat, when you buy it and when you sell it

I got my crew together. September we will frame and finish out the front and rear porches. That way we won't scaffolding to get to the walls on the front and rear. In the winter we will be going for dried in.

I reckon I told yall I have had issues with Frankenstein the pontoon barge. I have had 5 aborted missions as a result of this ghost of a problem. Intermittent problems a a beach to diagnose and find. On the day in the video we launched and had problems with the engine missing horribly all the way to the island. We got there, unloaded and spent a few hours there. On the way back across, no problems at all. In fact is ran better than ever, By a guess we were running 25 to 30 mph in the video. The very next weekend I had this load of porch boards. I have to load rear heavy for the boat so as to keep the weight off of the trailer tongue. So the trailer can handle the weight but the rear of the boat gets super low in the water. Thats all fine a good. Once you hit forward on the boat the water has about 6 inches below the deck. I had already gone through and replaced the entire ignition with new. So when we took these porch board, the boat sort of lawn darted into the water during the launch. We had problems immediately and never made it to the island. I went over the facts presented over and over and over. It dawned on me, the only time I have trouble is with a load. I have never had trouble empty. Asking what could be different and water was the answer. Loaded with 3000 lbs of boards put the deck at the water's level. I targeted the only thing under the deck that water could get to, the main harness. Well it was a blazing hot day and I had my shirt off while in the barn. I could see two three wire butt connectors in the 3 wire tilt trim harness. They are not supposed to be there but an open connection on those wires would have zero effect the engine. I cut the butts out and soldered the joint, sealed them with liquid tape and heat shrink tubing. Remember it was hot and I was sweating like a mad man. So as I reached up to push the wires back into place I saw nothing short of Jesus standing in a lake fire. Both my nipples were touching the side of the aluminum and the motor was running at the time. I swear if you look there has to me nipple skin left on the side of the boat. I found a direct short in the main wire harness and it bit me good. I had no idea 12 volts could bite so hard. I clinched my teeth so hard they hurt. I found a direct short. The nick in the harness jacket and cut hot wire were sitting on top of the pontoon. When I have a load, water was able to get to that nicked wire and short out. It makes sense after we made the island and unloaded, we would have no more problems. I got that ghost's rotten arse now. I can't wait to get going again.

https://youtu.be/zMVny5-4Vkw

At least you found the problem.

Glad you found the issue! Now you can move full steam ahead on the project.
Remember, it’s not the voltage but the amperage that’ll get you.

So you would not suggest using your nipples as a ground test?

Apparently it works! LOLOL

It made for a good update, glad you found the problem!

Sorry but while reading that^^^^^ I laughed til I cried....

Glad you finally got it sorted out.

Can't wait to see more pics of the project.

When I was a kid we had an old push mower with a Briggs and Stratton motor with a kill wire coming out from the to cover. Just touch the end of the wire to the block to kill the engine....on more than one occasion i reached down with sweaty hands and got bit.....