Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

OK so here goes,

I'd like to build a hard top enclosure for the toon. I'm thinking about 1 inch square tube aluminum wrapped in sheet aluminum. Prolly go with styrofoam insulation and some nice slider windows. Doors and windows seem to be the most costly part of the project.

What do ya say tooners? I'm waiting for your input...

We have a portable building co near by and they build out of foam board with aluminum skin on both sides.
Something like that would be sturdy and insulated

Are we building a houseboat of sorts? What if any amenities are we proposing to include? Weight and weight distribution will be the biggest factor or concern to overcome, but it can be done if you approach the project factoring such concerns "before you start".

lakerunner wrote:We have a portable building co near by and they build out of foam board with aluminum skin on both sides.
Something like that would be sturdy and insulated

I like that idea. Do they by chance have a website?

Bamby wrote:Are we building a houseboat of sorts? What if any amenities are we proposing to include? Weight and weight distribution will be the biggest factor or concern to overcome, but it can be done if you approach the project factoring such concerns "before you start".

Houseboat? well sorta.

Weight is an issue and amenities will be limited. I pulled out all the furniture. We have a porta-potty, lawn type chairs and a cot bunk also other misc. stuff. Not a whole lot will change on the inside, I just want something more storm worthy than my enclosure that I can also lock up. Also kind of a pain to put up and take down the enclosure when in tow.

jim454 wrote:

lakerunner wrote:We have a portable building co near by and they build out of foam board with aluminum skin on both sides.
Something like that would be sturdy and insulated

I like that idea. Do they by chance have a website?

Will see what I can find

Google FOAM CORE BUILDING PANALS, there are a lot of them


http://www.strongwell.com/products/pult ... ield_start

Thanks for the help!

I saw a pontoon setting in a storage yard this weekend that looked like someone had removed all the furniture and installed a pickup camper.

Yup, I've seen some crazy stuff like that. I think I'm more interested in building something that can quickly go from hauling people to doing an over night on the water. I'd like to be able to access the back of the toon with a door. One of my priorities is to be able to lock it up. Soft top enclosures don't offer much in the way of theft protection.

you could use a screen door for the door those are light and offer some protection remember locks only will keep an honest guy honest if you have anything of valuable anything can be broke into.

I do like the idea of a screen door but $ tempered glass $ is what I'm leaning towards, maybe I can go without but I'd kinda like to do this right.

Am I going overboard?

jim454 wrote:I do like the idea of a screen door but $ tempered glass $ is what I'm leaning towards, maybe I can go without but I'd kinda like to do this right.

Am I going overboard?

Tempered glass can weight a lot unless you use very little of it, Plexiglass would be lighter, what are the size of your pontoons, most small to med pontoon house boats have 26 inch toons, larger heavy ones have 28 inch toons, better think about that weight before you start.

18 feet and I do think the logs are 26's.

thanks for the tip!

jim454 wrote:18 feet and I do think the logs are 26's.

thanks for the tip!

18 foot pontoon with 26 inch logs ??, are you sure, most pontoons 20 foot and under usually have 20-24 inch logs.

Use a tape measure and on the back of the logs measure from top to bottom, I will bet they are 24 inch or less, my 18 footer has 21 inch logs.

If they are 24 inch or less than you will need to go very light with the hard top enclosure, the deeper those logs sit in the water the slower it will go and your mpg will decrease.