So last Thursday I take the boat out with the wife. Figured it be fairly smooth being evening. Nope. Tide was coming in, lots of rollers, add big boat wakes out here on the bay/river mouth and you have a recipe for 2-3’ slop. Boat handled it fairly well, until I hit a monster and caught some air. Came down, looked over and my wife is laying on the floor still in the seat. Bummer.
So, being the carpenter I am, I had to see what the issue was, floor rot? Etc. came to the conclusion that whoever put the seats in made a flaw. They put the seats over the carpet. To me, that’s a no no. Carpet gets wet, wicks under seat bracket, wicks into screw holes and bam, soften up the screw holes.
Now the fix, I grabbed some 1/2” 6160 Aluminum, cut down to 10x12, routed the edges, drilled and tapped holes to mount seat pedestal to, drilled and countersunk holes for new stainless hardware to mount to floor. Prepped the floor by epoxying the old holes, then glasses over the whole area with a sheet of 1 1/2 oz mat. Let dry, sanded flat, brought new bracket over for test fit, no rocking, siliconed the base to the floor, screwed bracket to floor using gorilla glue clear on screws for extra bite to floor. And walla, secure as it can be. Not sure how else it could fail. But I will say, never mount pedestals over carpet. Take the time to make sure there is no way for those screws to get wet.
Now I just need to order some new carpet, do the drivers side to match and back on the water. Hope this helps anyone who is experiencing same sort of issue.
Let me know how to post pics and I’d be happy to show the bracket. Thanks
So, being the carpenter I am, I had to see what the issue was, floor rot? Etc. came to the conclusion that whoever put the seats in made a flaw. They put the seats over the carpet. To me, that’s a no no. Carpet gets wet, wicks under seat bracket, wicks into screw holes and bam, soften up the screw holes.
Now the fix, I grabbed some 1/2” 6160 Aluminum, cut down to 10x12, routed the edges, drilled and tapped holes to mount seat pedestal to, drilled and countersunk holes for new stainless hardware to mount to floor. Prepped the floor by epoxying the old holes, then glasses over the whole area with a sheet of 1 1/2 oz mat. Let dry, sanded flat, brought new bracket over for test fit, no rocking, siliconed the base to the floor, screwed bracket to floor using gorilla glue clear on screws for extra bite to floor. And walla, secure as it can be. Not sure how else it could fail. But I will say, never mount pedestals over carpet. Take the time to make sure there is no way for those screws to get wet.
Now I just need to order some new carpet, do the drivers side to match and back on the water. Hope this helps anyone who is experiencing same sort of issue.
Let me know how to post pics and I’d be happy to show the bracket. Thanks