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Posted

I have a 14ft tracker jon boat and currently have a plywood platform that needs to be rebuilt. Id like to lose some weight from the rebuild to gain some speed. I was wondering what would be better, plywood or aluminum?

  • Super User
Posted

If possible I would personally go aluminum, can be done lighter and it will last forever.

Posted

I plan on going sandwiched aluminum, sheets if I can find them locally, if not I'll just go plywood

Posted

Thanks for your response. Definitely going with aluminum for the deck. What is sandwich aluminum?

Posted

Check out Starboard, its a polyethylene that can be cut, sanded, drilled, glued...you can do everything with Starboard that you can do with plywood. It comes in different thickness, and is very light. I found it while looking for a backing plate for my Kicker bracket. Its a bit expensive, but when you consider the fact that it literally lasts forever, its worth the extra $$.

  • Super User
Posted

Aluminum is noisy. You'll probably want to foam underneath it to quiet it down. 

  • Like 1
Posted

Check out Starboard, its a polyethylene that can be cut, sanded, drilled, glued...you can do everything with Starboard that you can do with plywood. It comes in different thickness, and is very light. I found it while looking for a backing plate for my Kicker bracket. Its a bit expensive, but when you consider the fact that it literally lasts forever, its worth the extra $$.

Its a little too pricey for the amount I would need. It looks amazing though.

Posted

Not sure you would save any weight with the starboard stuff. Did mine last year with aluminum, like slo said, it is a little noisier but I like how mine turned out just fine. Top speed 27mph! That's pretty fast for the res!!

  • Like 1
Posted

Thats crazy quan. After i got passed by a fully loaded bass tracker I decided to cut some wieght and its easier to cut weight from the boat then from me hahaha

  • Like 1
Posted

Few guys can get 25mph two people, all their gear and full livewell! My speed is just me, gear and empty livewell.

  • Super User
Posted

Aluminum is noisy.

Only if installed wrong. ;)

Posted

I went through this w/ my boat.  I was surprised at the difference in weight of 1/2" un-treated plywood versus the same volume of 1/8" aluminum sheet. I stuck the plywood deck on a scale and did the math for the aluminum using a density value for the alloy. I don't remember the exact numbers, but the difference was not as much as you would think and was not worth the price and aggravation (finding aluminum sheet locally) to me.  YMMV.  

Posted

The biggest thing is the longevity. You'll eventually have to change out the plywood....but it is much easier to work with and less expensive. We used aluminum in our jon boat and it's strong as could be. It was worth the cost on our side because we also trailer the boat down miles of dirt roads.

I wouldn't think too much about it. Sounds like you have your plan...so go fishin' :)

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