Oh man. This over the top. So cool. That flake is awesome too. Hard to believe the lengths you're willing to go to build this. Not sure how durable the PVC tower will be over time. How you plan to transport it to and from the lake? Do you have a cart or something? Thanks for such a great thread. You've got mad skills.

Thanks! Honestly all the posts in the forum keep pushing me on the project haha. I'm learning as I go mostly. I could probably build a second one in half the time now.

For transporting getting it to the lake from home I'm just going to put it inside my truck bed. Once it's here it only need to move from the shed to the water when it gets used which is only like 30 feet so either carry it or put it on my seadoo trailer and walk it in by hand.

Sorry guys, not working on the boat today because my other boat has been asking to spend time with me :)

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...6379ca60e0.jpg

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...f19a2a467e.jpg

^^ Love this!

I'm so jealous of wherever it is you live....I want this set up for me and my G!!

Is this at, or near Paradise Lakes??

Insanely awesome.!

Kicker right out front is the best thing yet! So much awesome going on at this paradise pad.

It's in that vicinity but still probably 30 or 45 mins away from paradise.

From the looks of it I'd say that IS paradise!!! Freaking awesome!

Wow. That's one awesome deck!

Boat building is on hold while I shake this flu. Not sure I'll have time to finish the tower before my nephews get here since I've lost 9 days to sick. Crossing my fingers I get better soon to leave me some days to work on it.

Fine with me, get well soon! Only reason I say fine with me is that I'm enjoying this thread WAY too much for it to end!

Ha!!! So true.

How's the boat coming missing this thread

please dont let this die!

LOVE LOVE LOVE the blue metal flake.

I think you should throw on an LED drain Plug light, and might as well add another switch on the dash and add some LED strip lighting to the cockpit area. Maybe even add a cheap LED light bar to the tower.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/720-Lumens-B...25.m3641.l6368

For a stereo "deck" it would be pretty easy to get an older cell phone (with Bluetooth) that has a waterproof case and Velcro it to the dash (or put in a phone holder). There might be other options too, but you don't want to have to be standing there with your phone all the time for the tunes to be rockin'.

Definitely thinking that some inexpensive Nav lights on the front would be a nice touch. here's $15 for a deck mounted LED nav light.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Marine-Boat-...xVdWnb&vxp=mtr

I am back, but with no new photos. I was sick for almost 3 weeks and spent 12 days at the hospital with "Valley Fever" which is some rare kind of pneumonia. That sucked. I'm at home and on the mend now and excited to work on it again in a couple of days.

Damn. I was getting worried about you man. Valley fever is some gnarlychit. Glad you're on the mend.

Wow man, what a month you've had! Good to see your name pop up on the thread again! Good luck on the recovery

Glad your feeling better. here is a time filler... https://youtu.be/CHSDIkFAc5Q

Damn dude sorry to hear that !!! Glad your on the mend . I was like what the hell happened to this guy ?

Damn, thats rough. Hope you get back to 100% soon!

Finally felt well enough to do some work on the boat.

Made this super advanced boat stand to keep the boat on so its not resting on the prop. :)

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...eb2b8e0171.jpg

Also, my wife used her Cricut machine to make me some boat decals for the side. The windshield isn't screwed down yet but I set it on there for the picture.

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...e2c437805a.jpg

Looks great! Looking forward to seeing it on the water.

This is a great build! If you you don't mind me asking what is the overall length and width of this boat?

Awesome !

Thanks Jeff! I am not home to measure it but it is approximately 5.5' long and 3' wide.

I've been so dang busy with work that I've not made much more progress lately. I'll probably have something this weekend to show.

I was showing this to my 11 year old daughter. She said you need to build a trailer to be pulled behind a powerwheel truck. lol My response, "I would be willing to bet that is the next project."

Haha now that would be really taking it to the next level!

I think the next step should be training a monkey or squirrel to wakeboard behind it.

Every boat needs some upholstery...

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...27f1b95788.jpg

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...c959000466.jpg

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...e4c73bbbb3.jpg

Did a water test at my friends community pool to make sure the prop through hull fitting didn't leak, test the steering, and also see where it sits in the water so I know where to install the swim platform.

After taking it for a lap around the pool all the kids at the pool wanted a turn. Let's just say it was a big hit with both the kids and the parents.

After all the kids were gone my wife finally got her turn.

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...12dd0ca2df.jpg

Then this morning I installed the swim platform. It will hold a kids weight to stand on it. Uses shelf braces and some silicone to keep the water from passing through the bolt holes.

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...a365df9655.jpg

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...77e4e42f17.jpg

As for the tower, I had one mostly built but I think I've talked myself out of using it. The problem is that the tower cross bar would be overhead, unlike a full size boat where the tower is behind the driver. I found that having the tower on this boat would create a driver height restriction. The tower would have to be tall enough that a tall kid (or me) would not hit their head on the tower, and that height just looks silly. I'm going to keep thinking about it but I think I like the accessibility of not having it, even though I'm a die hard wakeboard fan.

I installed the tower speakers into the boat for now. They are just held in place with velcro so easily moved to a tower later if I end up making one.

You can also see the foot pedal that turns on the motor. It worked really well with the kids and after watching the kids drive around the pool I'm really happy that I chose to use a pedal instead of a throttle.

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...6c53025f22.jpg

Put this bow eye on. Helps to carry the boat and also looks cool.

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...607beb2d48.jpg

Overall shot

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...957d7cab99.jpg

WOW AWESOME JOB !!!!! All we need now is a link to a video we wanna see it with a kid in it .

I'll have it up at our lake in the next weekend or two and get video for sure! I didn't want to video the random kids at the pool that I don't know. Plus it was getting dark.

CONGRATS you win best thread of the year!!!!!!!

Totally awesome. You could go old school and put a 10 foot pole instead of a tower!

Not sure if you've thought about it, but what about a bilge pump? I mean, I'm sure you'll never have it happen where it gets swamped, but wouldn't it be better if you had a bilge pump in there JUST IN CASE? I mean, the battery and speakers and ???? probably would appreciate a little extra security. Plus, it'd be easier to pump out a little water rather than try to get a swamped boat out of the lake/pool.

WOW awesome...

AS far as a tower why not use a 45* attachment mid height and angle the tower behind the driver? Then you could make a little bimini top attach to the tower also.

Love this!

What about making the tower fold down or pin on/off for easy removal for when its actually being used.? Then you could still have it for the looks aspect when it is sitting around or showing it off on the docks.

Awesome! Congrats man on the cool project. I'm completely jealous of your skills.

Applause!

Coolest WW thread ever.

This is what WW used to be about before we got to all the boat bashing.

RAD! ya, I said it.

Does that sucker float? May want to put some floatation foam in it if not. Would be a shame to lose it on the bottom of the lake

I floated before I put in the battery and all the heavy stuff haha. Now I'm not sure if it would float. It has foam under the seat but I have a lot more foam left over so I could probably stuff it anywhere it would fit to make sure. Our lake is only 6 feet deep so if it went to the bottom only thing lost would be some pride and electronics. Good point though, I'll stuff some foam in the bow just in case.

Fantastic. Very well done sir, and in quick order.

How heavy is it?

Foam only makes a difference if the hull is breached. It's the displacement that keeps it above the water.

Yeah, I think Bakes was referring to if it capsized, would it float, or sink to the bottom of the lake. The foam will keep it floating if it's turned over or full of water.

Yep. Exactly what I was thinking. Had about 650 pounds of jet skiers fall off their ski the other day after cutting the cove to pieces. They kept capsizing their ski as they tried to get on. For some reason, there were a few extra rollers and waves sent their direction before they finally managed to get on and leave.

Anyways, small craft tip.

You should reverse that drive so they can surf!

Heads up on those shelf brackets. I just used the same ones on a DIY Sucgate and I snapped those tack welds with very little effort. You should really pull them off and completely weld them together.

The boat looks fantastic though. Just an awesome job. Rock on!

My friends daughter loves the boat. She's only 1 but knows how to press the pedal to make it go. My wife is riding with her and her parents are following on the SUP.

https://vimeo.com/180152366

Motor is strong enough to tow people around the lake. That's me in the rash guard and funny hat. Still recovering from valley fever and have to avoid the sun for a while.

https://vimeo.com/180152171

I also started making a cover to keep bugs and dust out while its stored at the lake. Will have it done by the weekend when I take it back to the lake.

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...31136a873b.jpg

I think there will be some kids at the lake this weekend so hopefully I can do a better video and show the whole boat and a kid driving it around the lake.

Great job Chad. Love the boat and joy it is bringing.
Don't play with Valley Fever. It took my dad to the mat. Almost a year in and out of hospital. He never did fully recover, was never right again and it left him weak the rest of his life. Cancer took him 6 years ago. He got it while working on the furnace under the house in So Cal. Spores in the dirt and dust.

What a legend! More videos please!!

That thing moves pretty good. Got the hull perfect as well as it barely puts up any wake while moving.

So it's a Tige? :D

rekt

got 'em

Had some fun with the boat this holiday weekend. Hope everyone got a chance to be on the water and had a good time, I know we did.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/jERCPOvau9Q" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

And a photo of the mini and the super

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...cad4021289.jpg

so awesome! well done man!

Holy crap that's awesome!!

So cool. It would be kind of fun to somehow get that thing on plane.

So awesome to see this thing on the water, great execution and that's one happy little guy driving it around!

So rad! You're a good uncle. Kudos to you man.

I do think it's time to up the power though. :D

I'd love to build another one slightly larger and much faster but I'm not sure about motors. I've seen others use 5hp gas motors on their john boats and they only go 5-7mph like this one does. I'd like to find a small motor/prop combo that can do maybe 30mph or more but not sure it's possible.

^^^^ http://www.minijetboatbuilder.com/

Probably be easier to gut an old jetski for the engine/jet vs trying to find a small engine/prop/vdrive/trans. If you wanted to stay electric it can be done, but it is typically pretty pricey and they are usually higher voltage (48V min)

Very awesome project boat!

Weird, it almost sounds like there's an exhaust note coming out the back of it while the kid is driving away going over the wake of the G.

Nice Work...

Just when I thought I was done... I was cleaning out the garage and getting rid of some old things and came across a box of old RC stuff. Large scale steering servo and a 50amp motor controller. It's like it's a sign that I'm supposed to use these.

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...0f519cb500.jpg

Updates?
 

Any more progress? Love this thread!

but did you mod your flysky ? Im still an RC dork lol

ah man, so excited to see the next video of it being RC'd

Haven't hooked up the RC yet because it's "winter" in SoCal and has been rainy and cold. I'll hook it up when we start going to the lake again around April or May.