What is the right Gauge (thickness) for Tin Boat Hulls? B1V2

I believe a .100 hull is fine for tin boats up to 19' and a 115 hp engine. But larger 20-21 ft boats with 150 hp and up probably need a .125 hull.

Totally agree....👍

19ft and shorter .125 , 20ft and larger .190

It depends if the boat is welded or riveted, I’d want it thicker if it’s welded. The lund is a .125 bottom, .205 front area.

My 2003 Fisher Pro Hawk 180 is .100 and has been run in rough water it's whole life. I had it stripped to the hull during my renovation.....not a single bad weld.....solid as a rock. The primary reason, IMOP, is that it was running a 75hp when I bought it (very well built too, good welds). I'm now running a 115hp strapped to a 6" JP and am watching it very, very carefully....so far, so good.

I think tin boat manufacturers were overly optimistic when they decided to run 150hp/200hp + engines on .100 - .125 tin hulls. ESPECIALLY the shallower V hulls which aren't all that far removed from a flatbottom hull. Then add HJP, poles, etc and you're dumping on awful lot of weight on the transom. Load up the bow with an 90#+ TM, multiple graphs, 360, LS, etc etc etc and that's a lot of weight to carry through rough water..... stresses on the hull.

One other thing, again IMOP, just because you can weld doesn't make you a "welder."

One other thing, when I was trying to figure out which boat to buy for my lil project I studied a bunch of em. I narrowed it down to the Tracker Tournament V18/Fisher Pro Hawk 180 which are essentially the same boat. One of the primary reasons for this decision was, unlike most others, I couldn't find a bunch of complaining about broken welds.

Grand, again I'm just at the onset of this project, but do you think any of the group of these boats that I am going to look at are still riveted hulls?

Great point on the "welder" comment, friend of mine has said you know what they call the person that finished dead last in their medical school class.....Doctor. So curious have you fished your boat around a lot of timber and if so have you dinged it there?

I thought I saw a pic of a 1875 pro v bass on your video, I think that’s the only one. I am considering going back an aluminum boat myself just because you can get the extra row of seats in the xs models on the Lund. I look forward to all your results, just like the glass boat videos you did, I would’ve judged stuff differently- but you put a lot of thought and effort into that I think everyone can appreciate.

Thanks, I try to be as objective as I can but we are all colored a bit by our experiences and the experiences of our friends!

I’d say whatever specs Tracker uses should be the standard

I looked at rigs at the top of this category and I believe most if not all where .125 inch.

.190 for sure for the bottom, I have a Gatortrax with .125 gauge and it looks like a waffle it’s bent up so bad but I run a lot of timber. If your going to be in any timber .190 gauge is a must.

Nellie which model do you have?

One other factor that I'm learning in this is if the boat has "bends", meaning it doesn't have really long wide flat pieces of aluminum in the hull or sides they tend to be stronger and not flex/bend as much. Those bends, ridges and corners actually add some strength...maybe not the exact correct way to say that but the big flat pieces of metal are apparently where you see the most dings and dents

I ran a X19 Xpress with a 150 on the back for about 10 years ( I think it was a 2001 model) that I had bought from Sartin Marine (they were great to deal with). I really enjoyed the boat as it handled great, took rough water OK, and fished really good. However, I eventually learned a few things about tin boats. If I am correct the Xpress X series were .100 gauge back then. The keels are welded together in a butt weld with the rib running inside the keel that they are also welded to. I moved from East Texas to the Houston area and began fishing Lake Conroe a lot. Lake Conroe is very rough with waves coming from all directions. This rough water eventually took its toll on the aluminum and the butt weld on the keel. The keel ended up with about a 10 foot split where the butt weld broke. Maybe the thicker aluminum they now use has helped to fix this problem. However, if I were to buy another tin rig I would only consider the ones that have a cap welded over the keel to keep them from cracking. Another thing that happened to that boat is that I took off one day with the transom saver still on the motor. It somehow was hit by the prop and slammed into the pad of the hull very hard. It did not put a hole in the hull but put about a 4 inch wide dent about a foot long. I am sure that if that would have been a glass boat It would have been in the fiberglass shop for some serious repair work. I was able to just continue running the boat without any repairs but it did not perform the same. The only ways I knew to be able to fix the dent so that it would be able to perform as new again were to disassemble the boat to get to it from the inside or have it filled in a manner of doing body work on a car and then smoothed off. Another issue you can have with the performance aluminum boats is that if it breaks a weld on the inside from a rib to a hull the boat has to be largely disassembled to be able to fix it.

So if buying another aluminum bass boat I would have a few requirements:
1. At least .125 thickness ( they will all fatigue over time with a V6 on them)
2. No butt welds on the keel (must be capped)
3. I would research the manufacturer a lot to see it their is a history of broken welds on their boats
4. If I plan to run a rough lake a lot I either would not go aluminum or I would plan to sell and buy another every 5 years.

Ken, I have a 1750 slick hull made for duck hunting, it’s a one piece welded hull with 1x2 inch stringer running front to back made for a mud motor. A bass boat would have supports running side to side.
Point is, it’s made for stumps and abuse but it still bent to hell, it still performs somewhat but you lose a lot of performance when it dents.

With a bass boat and an outboard the dents would be a much bigger loss of performAnce which is why I would think a .190 gauge would be a must if using around stump9once that hull is dented up you will lose a lot of performance.