Sorry for the long response...
No, did not talk with BPS. I discussed with my dealer. The goal for any company is to keep people from making repairs and such as 1) they make lots of money from service and 2) the user can break things and try to get warranty service frivolously. Thing is, the manufacture and dealers all know and somewhat encourage us to customize our boats. They give us parts and such. Take the prewiring for the bow fish finder... We have a wire, but it will need to be drilled in somewhere right?
From all that I read, adding things like rod holders, fish finders, battery chargers and such was ok. What I was avoiding is things that would alter the structure, like cutting in the hole for recessed pedal or cutting hatches into the deck. This is why I did not drill into the hull for the fish finder. We can drill onto the deck to mount the foot pedal and what not.
Where I put the rod holders was drilled into the sheet aluminum. For the bow, there is foam behind it. the ones at the back of the boat drilled into the storage compartment. That's why I mounted my batter charger on the rear wall so that it was just into the storage compartment. In my first video, I stated that I originally wanted to make the rod storage larger... But when I pulled the plastic off and saw that it was aluminum with circles cut for the rod tube, I knew from that point it was only going to be 4 rods there, lol. A screw is waaaaay different that drilling holes or cutting hatches.
Things that can go wrong where we can be liable is if we do anything that changes the integrity of what they set structurally. In the places where they have foam, we do not want water to get in there. If we put a hole in that allows water to get to the foam, we will be liable for the waterlogged damage. If we cut/strip the wood deck and allow for the wood to rot, we will be liable. We will be liable if we introduce any electronics that cause some type of galvanic corrosion. We introduce anything to the boat that can cause some type of corruptive corrosion, we will be liable.
What is most important to me from tracker is the "hull" of the boat or the boat itself. I am more concerned with traveling with the boat and driving the boat well enough that weld does not break... The wood deck is as protected as they left it. Its wood on water... I am not sure how long it will last, but I don't expect it to fail either. The foam will degrade... But if should not abnormally and should never be an issue.
So, My goal is to keep drilling into the boat at its minimum. This is why I mounted my fish finders on a plate or my transducers on the mounting board. If might just use straps to keep the food pedal in place rather than drill it down. Instead of cutting hatches... I plan to make a removable deck extension. I want that deck extension to be light and minimum.
Finally, for all of my ripping apart, I used other material to give me clues to what was what.
https://www.trackerboats.com/quality/
So what's the take away? MOD AT YOUR OWN RISK. I truly believe there is minimum risk.
See response above...
