Great job, thanks for posting.

AWESOME you have my wheels spinning. great project for me and the kid.

this is great and I can't wait to get this out on the river to try out thank you for this idea.

Wow! Your first swing at a simple boat build and it came out great!

For those interested in messing around with PVC for boats, you can easily find out how best to build your craft by paying attention to the weight you intend to haul with it. A cubic foot of water weighs about 64 pounds, so to float, you need to be lighter than 64 pounds per square foot on your boat. Think of a cubic foot of wood; if it weighs 64 pounds or more, it will sink. If it is lighter than 64 pounds, it will float. Wood usually is significantly lighter per square foot than water, which is why it floats so well. (On the flip side, that's also why a solid cubic foot of iron sinks rather than floats. It weighs hundreds of pounds!). Simply put, to figure out how much weight a PVC pipe will lift, calculate the volume of the pipe in cubic feet, and multiply by 64 (again, this being the weight of one square foot of water). This boat this gentleman has made, if you plug the PVC pipe dimensions he used into a volume calculator, which you can easily find online, you'll see he has approximately 10.9 cubic feet of inside space combined between the two pipes. Rounding up for easy calculating, 64 * 11 equals 704 pounds. Remember, each cubic foot of space in the PVC pipe weighs very little compared to the same amount of water, so that's how the PVC can carry so much. After all, that space only contains air! Now, you have the amount the boat can carry! Maybe take off 125 pounds for the wood frame, the pipes' own weights, and the motor, and then take off another 200 or so for the passenger, and you get about 379 pounds left! You can use that number to estimate how deep in the water your boat will be when loaded to any particular weight. As a percentage, 379 pounds (the amount of pounds left before the boat sinks) is about 54%. So, the boat is 46% loaded up, with 54% more weight left before the boat completely sinks. We should expect the pontoons to be about half way in the water, with a bias towards being out of the water when the boat is loaded in the video. And as you can see in the vid, that's fairly close! Of course, sitting in the back means the boat tilts and the back half sinks deeper than in the front. Plus, he may very well be lighter than the 200 pounds that I estimated. But most importantly, his boat is loaded to a safe margin here, since it would take another 100 pounds or more before the boat started dangerously getting low into the water. Keep in mind, you probably want a margin of 30% or more to keep your boat from getting too low in the water! Using this information, you can see why other PVC boat creators sometimes sink so far down and their boats don't seem to work; because they didn't use enough pipe! Or they put too much weight on one end rather than distributing it evenly. If you are into log rafts, you can actually estimate the amount they can hold too using this formula. Just look up the weights of different species of wood used and try to guess how water saturated the wood is to adjust for error. If you calculate the volume of the logs used, and do the math above, you should have a good idea of how it will fair. If you use simple math, you can analyze other boats on youtube, and you can plan your own boat to float correctly instead of praying it floats :D

Its very well built ! Thank you for sharing...

dude nothing but respect,

Ray, your Martin 60 outboard is a great motor. It was built by National Pressure Cooker and has a poppet valve for the intake - something not seen on other two cycle motors. The Martin's were known for their reliability and could idle down to a 'pop'. Great choice. It is 7.2 h.p., plenty of power for your boat.

That is one clean shot video . Very straight forward . Thanks for sharing your knowlage .

Sweet Build- Cheers,Patrick

Thank you. I've always wanted to make one.

Excellent idea, thank you for sharing. I wish I had made one, really neat.

Wow, amazing job!

Way to go!!! Looks great

This would make it Huckleberry Finn jealous. Great idea Thank you.

Nice Job Ray!

Awesome! Thanks for sharing!!

In the early 90's I used pvc pipe to mount alongside my jon boat for better stabilizing and it worked very nice. I had also included halogen lighting for underwater illumination. Plus, I had two electric trolling motors hooked up independantly with foot controls for steering while I fished. (The two trolling motors were more powerful than if I had bought the just one that was a size up and cost less too !!!

this little boat is becoming very popular!

Great job! Time to be fun dude!😘

Great job bro. Very interesting. Well done.

Nice job Ray....cool little boat ! Thanks for posting ! Liked and subbed !

Great job!!!!!!

I'm thinking of building one using 2x2's to make it lighter. I will use a electric trolling motor and install a battery box and pedestal seat! Great video!

Good little unit.

Nice.. simple yet it could get u to your fishing spot

Awesome idea.

You're a naval architect in the making ! lol Hey , great job . Hope you get lots of time on the water with it !

Nice work 🤙

ya thanks for the idea man

Great job but I would suggest making a cone out of flashing material and secure it to the front so there is less resistance up front.

Very sweet! Now just add some rails or siding and seats

VERY GOOD VIDEO MANY THANKS FOR SHARING FRIEND

Cool video! Gonna do one of my own.

awesome job !!

I think you could add a third pontoon under the platform and increase the flotation. Shorten it so it's totally under the platform so it doesn't interfere with the motor. Another thing would be to fill the tubes with expanding closed cell foam so there's not room in side for water to leak into.

Super video great job

Great Video

ingenious!!!!

Very cool. Glad you changed the fronts. I would spray that expandable foam into the pontoons to make it nearly unsinkable. You never know when something will run into you and put a hole in the pontoon. : )

awesome boat

Cool,im a plumber so I was thinking put 1/4 bends (elbows) on all four corners turning up and you can frame off that.love country boy smarts😉

Thanks for posting...

i made my own off of this video but i made my own pontoons out of aluminum and some spray foam to help the back of the pontoon stay above water when I'm running it thank you!

A couple 2x6s for first and last crosspiece on the deck instead of 2x4s would enable the bottom side to be rounded out and give the PVC tubes a natural form to fit into and greatly lessen the strain on the straps over time. Nice simple design though!

Definitely going to make one.

Nice Good Job Man!

maybe a reducer cap for the tips. Has a taper to it. Pretty cool. Hey, add some pvc railings, Mini pontoon, fishing platform. even guys up north can use a pop up shelter on it and make a temp fishing shack, duck platform for hunting. If on thinned ice you will float. Might try me a smaller version using 6 or 4 " for a flow jump platform in the pool. Have to start someplace. In a few months we may see another video with all the mods you did to it

If you'd like to see the updated version of this videos with answers to many of the most common questions, here is the link kzfaq.info/get/bejne/aJmKZamovNe3g2g.html

Pretty cool.

Martin outboards rule!!!!!

Awesome SIMPLE idea! Thank you...... now.... THIS POOR GIRL can make a mini pontoon! I' ll use waterproof seal coat on mine. 😁✌

This is awesoen

thanx for replying. I'd like to add an idea for the front .I think that you can make a tapering front by heating the pvc tube by a torch and press the hot tube on both sides to make a straight ,sharp, vertical and tapering front .I think it would be less resistant than aconical front. This is ideal for lakes but for sea tubes should be with a bigger diameter and a higher dock .

As, that is super cool you made that

Wow ..super..i like...👍👍

a ok gracias muy buena idea Saludos los cabos bc sur

Cool!!!!

very cool

Mantap Keren Ide kreatif BRAVO

So cool

Thanks ray

Thanks man!!! Appriciate the info!

Wow, great job, i want to do this on a smaller scale to make a rc boat, unmaned, for fishing, trolling, as i sit on shore and control it.

Let’s raise this to a million boys, also hi old friend

good job

nice. this looks better than the barrel boats

This video is not good at all! Its freakin Awesome!

omg so awesome I want to make one so bad

Pretty cool looking although a little too close to snakes and croc's/alligators for me, LOL. You could expand on that now that you have the proto type and make it wider and put some rails and seats on it and perhaps a little canopy to keep your noggin from scorching.

Hey Ray - Try putting cones on the front of your pontoons next time. cut and shape some pvt- then PVC glue it together. maybe even add in some screws or nails (sealed with apoxy generously to the cones) Adding an over-set deck will also possibly help with stability- add additional lift to the front to bring your nose up when at running speed. If you don't know what i'm talking about; it's not DIRECTLY on the front it's more so just past the midsection.

u are fkn brilliant dude!

like the video. I would change the front pontoon caps to a 90 degree then cap it. one is deadhead and 90 degree water moves around it. just a thought. thanks.

like it!!

K thank u so much

AWESOME

I would have put some elbows on the front to turn the pipe upward. Other than that, I loved it.

At the bow, how about putting an elbow, pref a 45 degree, instead of just a cap. The nearly flat caps create enormous bow waves. Another way to get a finer bow would be to carve bows out of foam and cover them with liquid plastic.

allright I'm going to do this.

Holy smoke! The two pipes alone are $460. I think I'll buy a boat ;-). It does look like a good job though.

I'm thinking about doing the same thing for a deck but with diffrent pontons do you think it would be good to fish off of

Hi, can I use part of your video to my compilation homemade inventions and projects ?

+Matteo Rossi please feel free to ask any question regarding this boat right here in the comments.

only thing I would change is making some more hydrodynamic nose cones for the pipes

where'd you get the pvc

Bacana gostei muito vou tentar fazer um barco desse tipo pra mim pescar

Where can i buy that pvc? Home depot said they dont have that thick

Where did you get the tubes? Are they reasonably prices?

Thanks for the video as this is the 2nd one I've just watched. Wondered what does it weigh?

Could you do this same procces but double the size?

good job. seal the wood with paint

good

fico fascinado com essas invensoes um dia vou copiar umas dessas pode ter certezsa

Great boat with a motor. How much can you enjoy floating on it. Like!

Te quedo muy bueno, una pregunta, donde puedo comprar los pipes de 12" con los caps...

COOL

you can do it also with 180 liters drums welded together each side 4 drums

front edges should be tapering for less resistatace and smoothly running. well done lad.

How heavy is the pontoon boat without the motor? I'm think of possibly building one for fishing but it'll have make it light enough so I can strapped pontoon to the roof of my Rav4.

Should have put pvc cones at front so it can cut into the water, flat will make a drag as it's pushing forward. Other wise it's nice and a good idea, thanks.