Hello From near Cincinnati
Posted: Thu May 11, 2017 7:26 am
Hello everyone.
Just bought my first pontoon boat. A 1988 FloteBote 24 foot. With a Force 75 ELPT
It is in pretty decent condition for the age IMO. The guy I bought it from kept it under a shed roof. So the floor is solid except for the front deck that is starting to get a bit of flex in it. The motor lower was shot. but the seats were in usable condition.
I grew up fishing of my Grandfather's SeaStar bass boat. But I have a bunch of kids now and need more space than a bass boat or even my older open bow gives us. We rented a pontoon at KY Lake a while back and loved it. So I started looking randomly on Craigslist and FB Marketplace etc.
I have a trip planned for the end of the month to KY Lake so I really was hoping to find something that was usable and didn't need a total rebuild.
This one came up and was 2500 with trailer and motor. I'd been looking enough to know at this time of year that was probably the best deal (in my price range) I could find so I went to look at it and even took the wife. She liked it so I made her hand the guy the money (that way she bought it not me HAHAHA)
Anyway I got it back and pulled into the shop and started in on it. The wiring was a rats nest with almost nothing hooked up. The motor cranked fine and all the controls etc seemed fine. So that was a plus. But every other electrical wire was rigged and a mess. So I tore most of it out under the console and re did that better. I do have to revisit it all after the trip and plan to run mostly all the wire new as someone decided indoor home wire would work for some things. But it will work temporarily. I did add fuses at the battery so if any of that shorts I don't end up with a charred boat.
Found a lower on Ebay after looking at the parts I needed to fix mine and realizing that was the cheaper route. It came in and I installed it and other than a clogged Tell tale pipe it was an easy install. I started the motor on muffs and everything there seems great.
I found and older Minn Kota 74 lbs thrust Trolling motor on Craigslist too for cheap. Put that up front and just wired in the batteries.
All that is left I believe is to get it wet. I hope anyway. Oh I did power wash and took the drain plugs out of the toons. Got a little out them then resealed the drain plugs. Not sure if that was from sitting in the water at some point but it wasn't much. They seem to be in pretty good shape. other than the dried on stuff I power washed off them. No major dents etc.
A link to the album since my picture links aren't working
http://smg.photobucket.com/user/JasonLe ... oon%20Boat
Here are some pics he had on his ad.
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v357/ ... pxocof.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v357/ ... bjstqm.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v357/ ... lt8xod.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v357/ ... 2y4qnu.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v357/ ... l36bi6.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v357/ ... ngwpsv.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v357/ ... idu2dk.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v357/ ... 9m3kjn.jpg[/IMG]
And some now with some progress on it.
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v357/ ... jbenk9.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v357/ ... 7jazxr.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v357/ ... dvfgpa.jpg[/IMG]
Just bought my first pontoon boat. A 1988 FloteBote 24 foot. With a Force 75 ELPT
It is in pretty decent condition for the age IMO. The guy I bought it from kept it under a shed roof. So the floor is solid except for the front deck that is starting to get a bit of flex in it. The motor lower was shot. but the seats were in usable condition.
I grew up fishing of my Grandfather's SeaStar bass boat. But I have a bunch of kids now and need more space than a bass boat or even my older open bow gives us. We rented a pontoon at KY Lake a while back and loved it. So I started looking randomly on Craigslist and FB Marketplace etc.
I have a trip planned for the end of the month to KY Lake so I really was hoping to find something that was usable and didn't need a total rebuild.
This one came up and was 2500 with trailer and motor. I'd been looking enough to know at this time of year that was probably the best deal (in my price range) I could find so I went to look at it and even took the wife. She liked it so I made her hand the guy the money (that way she bought it not me HAHAHA)
Anyway I got it back and pulled into the shop and started in on it. The wiring was a rats nest with almost nothing hooked up. The motor cranked fine and all the controls etc seemed fine. So that was a plus. But every other electrical wire was rigged and a mess. So I tore most of it out under the console and re did that better. I do have to revisit it all after the trip and plan to run mostly all the wire new as someone decided indoor home wire would work for some things. But it will work temporarily. I did add fuses at the battery so if any of that shorts I don't end up with a charred boat.
Found a lower on Ebay after looking at the parts I needed to fix mine and realizing that was the cheaper route. It came in and I installed it and other than a clogged Tell tale pipe it was an easy install. I started the motor on muffs and everything there seems great.
I found and older Minn Kota 74 lbs thrust Trolling motor on Craigslist too for cheap. Put that up front and just wired in the batteries.
All that is left I believe is to get it wet. I hope anyway. Oh I did power wash and took the drain plugs out of the toons. Got a little out them then resealed the drain plugs. Not sure if that was from sitting in the water at some point but it wasn't much. They seem to be in pretty good shape. other than the dried on stuff I power washed off them. No major dents etc.
A link to the album since my picture links aren't working
http://smg.photobucket.com/user/JasonLe ... oon%20Boat
Here are some pics he had on his ad.
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v357/ ... pxocof.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v357/ ... bjstqm.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v357/ ... lt8xod.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v357/ ... 2y4qnu.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v357/ ... l36bi6.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v357/ ... ngwpsv.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v357/ ... idu2dk.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v357/ ... 9m3kjn.jpg[/IMG]
And some now with some progress on it.
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v357/ ... jbenk9.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v357/ ... 7jazxr.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v357/ ... dvfgpa.jpg[/IMG]