Incredible Soda Bottle Pontoon Boat

Step 7 Launched and doing fine

We launched it at night as to not draw too much attention at the boat landing. Evening rides are nice and serene. No noise besides the gentle rippling of the water that is pushed aside by the boat as it glides along. And, it's great for fishing too.

Comments

[SIRJAMES09]

Since I'm older & not interested in sewing my oats like I was at 19, I have always wanted a pontoon boat....I think that I will try & build one but I'll use plastic barrels(6 or 8 of them) for the pontoons.

A 20 footer should be enough to pahty on & catch fish with as well. 8=D

And if I get REALLY bored, I just might end up with a home made houseboat.

I loved reading how you did this, gives me lots of ideas!!

[deceiver]

As a kid we had a steel pipe raft, a big one floated with 6 steel drums. It bobbed like a cork. I'll bet you could get by with 4 of them if they are about the size of the steel ones.

[robertg]

Perhaps a little water inside the barrels will reduce the stability problem.

[SIRJAMES09]

this is prolly true guys....however, I would rather have too much floatation than not enough.

as far as water in the barrels, that might work....kind of like a counter balance thingy...there's a 64 million dollar name for it, but I have no idea what that name is. :)

TY both for the input. Much apreciated. 8)

[deceiver]

It's called ballast.

[SIRJAMES09]

TY. ballast is not the word I was looking for, but it works too. :)

[teamcoltra]

I think you mean "keel"?

[love4pds]

AMAZING!!!!!

[fjpalacios1]

I'M GOING TO TRY THIS WITH MY SON...I'LL UPLOAD THE PICS AS SOON AS IT'S TESTED. THANKS, FRANK

[nachobobs]

I'm not sure how buoyant small boys are, but my guess might be to try using 6 teenage kids each side to start with. They might kick for a while but will eventually fall quiet and provide ample buoyancy for your boat.

[love4pds]

Just give them an area for food, drink and air then you have your motor too....LOL

[pdub77]

very good, sir!

[deceiver]

Thank you.

[pdub77]

Your Instructable is good as well, but I was referring to nachobobs's comment. It was really funny. Sorry, deveiver. That carved dragon's head is freakin' sweet, though! What's that made of? Having spent most of my youth around boats I love how you made the port and starboard lights the eyes. Very cool.

[deceiver]

Ha, didn't catch that. The head is just a bunch of pine boards glued together. I carved it with a 4" grinder and some chisels. It took about 2-3 hrs to carve once I started it.

[pdub77]

Wow. I am duly impressed. You are a true artist. I've got skills in other areas, but not sure I could do that.

[AtIas]

Dark, but funny non the less.

[UC FATHER TIME]

You are a twisted individual . But i like the idea ,if it works you can get some supplies from my neiborhood we have an over abundance of noisy kids! LOL.

[deceiver]

That's great. When I do this again. And it may be soon. I'm going to eliminate the bottles and use sealed 6" pvc pipe. I think it will float well and be easier to manage.

[robertg]

What thickness pipe - schedule 40 PVC pipe is a lot heavier than the PET plastic in soda bottles? [Sc. 40 PVC = 3.53 # / ft.] I am also concerned about the brittleness of PCV. I wonder if there is a better substitute? Have you considered foam wrapped in fiberglass or carbon fiber? I saw this done to make a sailboat pontoon in an old PopSci Magazine article. Or, could the soda bottles be connected together in a large monotube, wrapped in something like shrink wrap or fiberglass?

[deceiver]

I had considered cutting disks of foam out of 2" thick pink foam you see as building materials at big box stores. then stacking them into cardboard sauna tubes and fiberglassing the whole thing. But, the cost and work involved would be quite a bit.

As for the PVC pipe:
The PVC pipe (one 6"x10ft) would buoy about 100 lbs of wt. would be insterted underneath a pipe skeleton framework so they wouldn't really be support structures. Also, if you bundled about 5-6 of them with straps they'd be pretty strong.

[bustedit]

fill the pipe w capped bottles, not much added weight, but xtra security if the PVC cracks

[alfa2red]

That's was an amazing thinks.
Well done.

[pagalidis]

I'm thinking of making one raft like yours and im wondering whether it would work well with 15hp motor?

[deceiver]

Yes it will. 15 hp should move it nicely along a lake. No waterskiing mind you but it will get you where you want to just fine. My electrics are no where near that hp in comparison.

[boatbuilder2013]

That boat is AWESOME VEERY INSPIRAING(sp?) lol but great boat love the tile but wont it get slick when wet personally i would have gone with carpet

[hollyyama]

Is it possible to replace the soda bottles with styrofoam to gain more weight capacity? It seems like styrofoam might float just as well, and I have a ton of it from leftover electronics packaging. Thanks for your design, it was the most helpful on the whole wide webiverse.

[UC FATHER TIME]

The skeeter bass boats are made of styrofoam with a fibreglass shell.

[deceiver]

I'd imagine you could if it's in chuncks. But the small peanuts would leave. I'd also wonder about the styrofoam breaking up and you leaving a trail of white beads down the lake every time you started out.

[therafter]

I think your boat is brilliant! I spent my spring building a raft using pvc. It is just a deck, an old car seat and some ores. anyway I used 3 10' sealed pvc pipes, two 7 footers and a 10 footer in the center. the deck ways approx. 250 pnds. watever its worth to you i would suggest you use a minnimum of 10'. the raft floats great with just me on it, but 580 is its limits. thanks for the inspiration.