Plastic Pontoon Boat

I have about 10 plastic 55 gallon drums at my disposal and was wanting to make a pontoon boat out of them, just wanted to get some ideas

I kinda think you could strap 'em to a frame. If your straps held 'em firmly to the bottom, you could frame around 'em to immobilize 'em.

If you plan to have them floating where half is above the waterline and half below, each will support about 234 pounds *minus* the weight of the drum itself. So with all 10 drums you could use around 2300 lbs of building materials (*minus* the weight of the drums).

Try to get the weight evenly distributed. Unless you can figure out a way to add planing strakes to the drums, you'll have a displacement vessel -- it won't go very fast no matter how much power you hang on it. I'm thinking 40hp max...she'll be a lumbering beast, difficult to control. But she'll be your lumbering beast!

2008-09-21 14:16:11 by stumpjumper84

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I have a pontoon boat that I have on a trailer with carpeted bunks. The boat is used in salt water and has expensive anti-fouling paint applied.The boat is a bitch to launch & recover due to the friction between the pontoons and the carpet. I want to install glides (slides) over the carpet but the glide manufactures don't know if the paint will be worn off. Has anybody had experience with this? Mike

It seems to me that if the boat is hanging up on the carpet to such an extent that it jams, then plastic slides could not possibly remove any more anti-foul than the carpet already is.

I have not had this as a problem myself, as the boats I anti-foul tend to stay in the water most of the time, and the ones I pull out a lot I don't anti-foul.

Good luck!

2009-05-07 13:34:35 by michael m

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Anything as far as bouyancy? Can I have too much bouyancy? I am planning on using 55 gallon plastic drums filled with expanding foam.

Stability, strength, seaworthiness, power, hydrodynamics. How are you going to attach plastic drums together?

2008-02-29 09:37:18 by Brewtus

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any one know of some good guides to put on the trailer i have seen some ABS plastic poles but i need something strong. I want two on the back mounted on the outside of the pontoons and maybe some inside also.

You are doing it wrong. put the trailer only far enough to get the first 3 feet of bunks wet. Then put the pontoons there. Hook up the winch cable.
Wind the winch and throttle up the motor to push the pontoon on the trailer. Watch your water depth as you don't want to ding the prop.

When the motor won't put it further on the trailer, back in a little more. Make a note of how deep you have to be to get it right.

If it tries to wobble in the wind --correct with the engine.

Tie it off (don't depend on the winch alone) and pull to the parking lot for un-loading.

2009-07-09 20:22:58 by mm52ok

So I've done a lot of math and I've concluded that a plastic 55 gallon drum will hold up about 480 lbs before it sinks. With that being said I've decided that 55 and 30 gallon plastic drums with closed tops and sealed bungs would be the best things to make pontoons out of for only having a very small budget.

I want to make a boat around 14-16 feet long. With the height of 55 gallon drums being about 3 feet, I could fit 5 of them in a row, each side of the pontoon boat. A total of 10 drums could hold up about 4800 lbs before sinking. Such a weight I don't think I'd ever reach.

I want to be able to fit 10 people on this boat. Using an extreme average weight of 200 lbs a person, I've got 2000 lbs I need to meet. Plus weight of the boat itself, coolers....the motor....gas tank....ect. ect. ect.

Just to help with readers to picture my design. I'm going to lay all of the barrels down, stacked top to bottom. 5 in each pontoon. Then if you were looking at it from the rear view, I'm going to put 3 long poles down the length of it, 1 at the 2 o clock. 1 at the 6 o clock, and another at the 10 o clock. Then weld them in place.

I do have a few concerns about using these barrels. Should I be concerned about cave ins when the barrels meet cold water? If so would it be smarter to use structurally stronger smaller containers like 30 gallon drums instead of 55s? I'm aware the leaking may occur, but like I said, I dont think I'll ever get near the sink weight. So leaking won't hurt it that much unless when it will only see maybe at best, 12 hours of use before going home. I can't imagine the leaks, if present, would be so severe it would be a problem in a 12 hour window.

With all that being said what are your concerns about using these barrels? Would you advice against them? If so, what else could I use to make pontoons out of?

I don't think cave-ins would be a problem, unless you're going from a hot springs directly to the Artic Ocean. Leaking shouldn't be a problem if you caulk them and don't run them into anything. I would arrange the bungs to be as close the bottom as possible, though, just in case - you could open them to drain water if necessary.

2009-02-14 13:29:44 by Cameron D