Jet Jon Boat

Today a shirt tail relative took me out in his jon boat, which powered by a grafted-in 150 hp pwc jet drive.

Sorry, no pictures were taken.

What a rush!

He let me drive it for a while, is pretty responsive as long as you are giving it throttle. There was no steering when you let off the gas though.

The river we live near pretty much ranges from several inches, to several feet deep, unless you are within a mile of a dam.

His boat will fly through 4 inches of water at 50 mph. I admire his skill at reading water depth for sure.

This maybe a project worthy of my time . . .

Hmmm, sounds like something worthy of me checking into. I'd assume its weed tolerance is pretty limited? I'm always in search of shallow draft boats.

I know boston whaler has made something resembling these it seems the carolina skiff hull would be pretty conducive to a jet drive .

Let me start off with this Chris,not happening with out pictures. That said looks like a real Red Green project. Is Iowa different than say Illinois? You register the boat if you decide one day to remove your 10hp Honda and put on a 25 Merc you don't reregister the boat right? So you went a little overboard on the hp when you changed your "fishing" motor

Quick update on my winter project -

I bought a 1648 Alumacraft from a fire dept - 10 years old but only saw water 3 times & never rescued anyone.

I also found a '95 polaris 750 jet ski for $500, seller ditching it because the pump shaft seal was broken (was easy fix). In the paper work that he gave me, were $1500 reciepts for the engine rebuild! It has great compression!

Here is the jet ski hull now, I added flanges (US Composite resin, of course) that will glue into the big hole that I will cut in the jon boat hull. Will use 5200 + screws to attach it. In addition, it will bolt to the aluminum stringers to take the propusion forces.



I will have 2 seats mounted just in front of the bench. The steering will be a joystick (like an airboat). The stick will be on center so you will be able to drive from either seat.

I probably will also put in a bench seat up front.

I came up with a way to mount the gas tank at the rear port corner (under the old bench seat) - that way the filler neck will be at deck level. It took quite a bit of work to get it shoehorned in there.

I have plans for the dog house, but hard to describe in words. I'll put in a floor & side walls too.

I have studied the USCG boat builders guide & will be in compliance. However, they said no inspection is required on a homebuild.

I should have the engine in by end of the month. I'll post more pictures then.

SNobsessed wrote: I still need to fab up seat mounts.

Chris,
I like the present seat mount!

The project is looking great!

Chevy350 wrote: You'd be going 80+mph across the water. Can't wait to see this running.

Justin,
You can be the test driver to do 80 in a flat bottom jon boat! Read up on "hooking a chine".

SNobsessed wrote: No thanks! My 2nd boat was a 15 ft Cheetah (sidewinder clone) on which I had taken the out the hook.    Alone in the boat, it would chine walk at 55 MPH.    Not a comfortable feeling at all. With 2+ people it was fine.

The worst I encountered was a 16' Cruiser Inc with a Merc 6 on it. It too would chine walk and then it would hook a chine. The worst of it's handling was in turns. It would not lean into a turn but would lean away from the turn. Then it would hook the chine and the boat would almost flip. Several passengers with a unsuspecting driver at the helm were thrown out of that boat.

That's freaking awesome haha. I've heard of a few of those running around.

Yes, a guy could overdo it:

i just spent some time googling home built and manufactured jet jon boats. one manufacturer has a pretty basic looking boat 21' starting at 34 grand... the home builds are pretty cool . funny google image search has the yellow fiberglass ski boat with the pressure treated tower ,that boat is everywhere

You must install cup holders.

Otherwise it is this:

Hold my beer and watch this !!!!!!!!!

It normally ends bad.

Looks Well Built !!!!!!

Any pics of it running. That thing will be a great shallow water river runner, cruisin the backwaters of the mighty Miss!!!