I currently own a Alumacraft 1653 tunnel hull with a side console and the Yamaha 50hp 2stroke on the back. I would like to convert it to a center console and move the console closer to the front of the boat for better balance. Do any of you know if this is possible and what would be the cost of doing this? I'm pretty sure I would need new extended cables and I'd want it done right, ie.. professionally.
When I bought this boat a year ago I actually wanted a center console, but the price on this guy was too good to pass up. Any suggestions?

That would be a whole lot of money to do. I don't know how much, but I imagine all of your wiring would have to be re-run and you would need all of your steering either re-rigged or replaced. Probably not worth the money. This is just my opinion, someone else may have better idea.

Thanks DawsonRH,

This is a boat I plan on hanging onto for a long time. I figured it wouldn't be cheap, but considering how much I paid for it originally. And how much I was willing to spend on a "new" center console, I still might come out ahead.

can you post a pic of your boat?

another option would be front seat stick steering, it may be a little easier to rig and may be less out of pocket, extending wiring is fairly easy, i think the center console steering would be the greatest challenge, i saw a bare center console for sale on CL just the other day for 150 i think, but a stick steer with a bow gauge console may be easier to rig and give you added floor space, just a thought

This is the best picture I have at the moment Dawson. Added one more pic
Thanks for the comments Spanky. I don't think the stick steer would work 'cause don't they mount on the side gunnel? I'm trying to center every thing on the boat for better balance.

that's exactly what it does, center weight balance, side mounted controls, stick steer on your left, throttle on your right, seat right in the middle, gauges in front of you or in an auto pillar cluster gauge bezel on the side in front of the throttle, looks like the main thing for this set up on that rig would being dropping the front floor, so with that, a center console may be the way to go, i would look in CL to find that bare console, it looks like there may be a chance to turn the console in your boat itself into the center console

or is that a low floor up front?

I wouldn't mess with it.

I wouldn't either. You might try shifting some of the weight in your boat to the other side or to the middle if it runs slightly tilted. You could probably put a small trim tab on the starboard side of your boat to compensate for an unbalanced load.

It looks like your boat is fairly narrow and a center console might only allow a foot or so access to the front of the boat.

Thanks for the inputs guys. The model I have actually comes in a center console version that priced out new with all of the options I wanted on it for about 16,000. I was all set to buy the CC when I found this guy for 6K with only 30hrs on the motor, the only issue was it was a side console. But for the 10K difference, I thought I could live with it. After 1+ years, I've decided I don't want to live with it. Pretty sure it won't take 10K to add a CC. It has the float boxes in the rear so adding a trim tab on top of that may not be an option. I don't really need the console to be all the way forward, just slightly more so than it is now. I also want the console to be no taller than the top of the engine cowling so I can still squeeze it under some of the low water briges down here. May have to go to a collapsable/fold-down wind screen, but that's okay. I've got a few places down here in Houston that say they can do what I want so I'll be checking out their work and getting some estimates/bids.

Get a fat chick to sit in the other seat. Balance problem solved.

Maybe I'll borrow that gal from the waterslide video