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Let me run this one by you..........

Spoiledrotten

Spoiledrotten

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I just added under deck lighting to the pontoon, and I'm talking about between the toons. When I showed my wife, she loved the lights, but the first thing out of her mouth was, "how are you going to see them when you add the under decking?"   Good point! Well, this morning I thought about something that I would think should work. What about plexiglass rather than aluminum sheets? That should provide the guard from the waves without covering the lights that I put under there. It should also make it easier to run additional wires in the future since you would be able to see what's going on.


What do you think of this idea. I've searched but not found anything regarding this idea.
 
You would be the first that I've heard of using plexiglass. I don't know if it would hold up to waves and it might be heavier than aluminum.
 
Depending on your thickness and adhesion/attachment method. Sounds like a great potential! 
 
Use lexan. Plexiglass is brittle. Lexan is almost unbreakable. 


Its what they use for dragster Windows. 


My thought is over time though it's bound to get dirty on the top side. How will you clean it?


I'd mount them to the underside of the waveshield and use quick disconnects in case you ever have to remove the shield. 
 
cwag911 said:
You would be the first that I've heard of using plexiglass. I don't know if it would hold up to waves and it might be heavier than aluminum.
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That's another reason I wanted to post the idea here. I had not heard of it being done, either, but it seems like a pretty good concept.


Semper, I was thinking about the same thing regarding cleaning above the P/G, but really, it doesn't need to be any wider than about 3 feet, going up the middle, does it? The waves aren't going to hit directly up beside the toons, so it seems that as long as I covered the middle area where the waves would actually hit, it would leave a space on each side that would make it easy to clean above the P/G. Thought?
 
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Spoiledrotten said:
The waves aren't going to hit directly up beside the toons, so it seems that as long as I covered the middle area where the waves would actually hit, it would leave a space on each side that would make it easy to clean above the P/G. Thought?
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Who knows exactly how all that water flows under there, especially while maneuvering.  If manufacturers felt they could get by with using less material, don't you think they would?  Kudos for original thinking, but I'd be leery about outhinking the engineers who have studied this.
 
I'd do a video like above running your toon and see where you would have to start the cover. As you can see from these videos, your pretty much gonna have to go full width. 
 
Bennington doesn't go all the way to the bow of the boat with the underskin.
 
cwag911 said:
Bennington doesn't go all the way to the bow of the boat with the underskin.
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 Had my dealer add it to the front. $300 later not sure why I did, but sounded like something that needed to be done... I think my thought process was aero-dynamics. In the end... I couldn't tell you if it helped or not. But I did have it. LOL
 
Rockie69 said:
 Had my dealer add it to the front. $300 later not sure why I did, but sounded like something that needed to be done... I think my thought process was aero-dynamics. In the end... I couldn't tell you if it helped or not. But I did have it. LOL
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I had them do the same thing. Something in my head about the front of that underskinning, being open, scooping up water from a wave or roller, and running it down the entire length.
 
JTaylor said:
Who knows exactly how all that water flows under there, especially while maneuvering.  If manufacturers felt they could get by with using less material, don't you think they would?  Kudos for original thinking, but I'd be leery about outhinking the engineers who have studied this.
Click to expand...

This isn't about using less or cheaper material. It's about the illumination that I already have in place. The aluminum sheets that I've priced out are around $65 a sheet, comparable to the $65 a sheet for the plexiglas. I'm thinking about covering the area where the waves are actually hitting while still having the ability to clean above the PG.


I have watched those videos before, and they do help to a degree.


Semperfi, I believe you putting out the good advice on the video under my own boat. Since those in the vids above seem to be tritoons, there appears to be more turbulence due to the close proximity of the toons, where as on a two log boat, the slash would, seemingly, be more uniform. My wife, like most women, is wanting me to hurry up and get it done, but I've told her that patience on this one will have to dominate while I get all of the advice and ideas I can, then figure out the best plan.   
 
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I installed a wave shield on the old 2 toon boat.  I covered everything that I could get to.  If you look over the side of the boat at speed you will see water coming over the toons from under the boat.  The spray goes everywhere.  It absolutely got rid of the surging from water hitting the cross-members. 
 
I remember surging with our old one. it was amazing how much water sprays up under there. With 4 adults we would get water coming up at our table mount in the floor. Not a problem with the new one!


Spoiled, I'm confused on where you're lights are located. Why not move them to the outside like all the others? Am I missing something?
 
LL, I have the lights along the outside of the toons, under the deck, but I also have some between the toons, mounted to the underside of the wood decking to give off a glow between the toons. Just another idea I had, and since I had extra LED pods, I thought I'd mount them under there. That's why I got the brain storm to put a clear sheeting of some kind under there for the splash plate. 


As you can see, they are definitely mounted outside the toons. :D


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I haven't taken a pic of the ones between the toon, but will soon. I wanted to be able to leave them under the middle and still be able to see them illuminate through the splash plate.
 
Got it!!! I'd pull the center string then. It would be a bummer using the lexan/plexi glass and not having it hold up.
 
Or you could use aluminum for almost all of it, but cut out a 2" or 3" section from tip to tail (so essentially you would be mounting 2 separate sections, or actually, I think you said it was a two toon, so 3 sections. So have a 10" section, then a 3" gap, then a center section, we'll say roughly 2.5', then another 3" gap, then another 10" section of aluminum. Then cut the lexan into 5" strips, glue / mount your led lights to it, then screw it over the 3" gap you left in the under skinning. This way it completes the skinning, and you have a see through section for your lights.
 
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