PVC raft?

My buddies and I are wanting to build an 8x12 raft that will hold about between 1000-1200 lbs of man and beer and float relatively shallow in the water. I'm thinking of running 12' lengths of capped PVC pipe on the bottom, a few 2x4's across the top of that, and finally some plywood decking on top. Now, my questions...

*Will it work? (Kind of a dumb question, but is 1200 lbs expecting too much?
*Will a simple rudder and/or a small outboard motor work for propulsion/steering?
*Is there anything that would work better than PVC and still be fairly cheap to construct?

Any advice/wisdom/tips/etc. would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much!
Hoss White

 

It will work! My buddies and I just did this. We had four of us, a table, an umbrella, cooler full of beer, four chairs, sirius satellite radio playing through a Bose Acoustic Wave radio powered by a "booster box". My estimate put us at about 1000 pounds total, including the raft. We used approx. 84' of 6" sch. 40 pvc, construction foam caulked to the plywood and secured with some 2x4's, which run lenghtwise against the outside of the PVC pipe. The foam was attached in a tounge and groove configuration to each sheet of plywood for added stability. The decking is then tied front and back to the center section of PVC. It all comes apart for transport and three of us can assemble it in approximately 1 beer. Check out the pics...

 

I am as strait as they come and I want to giv eyou guys a big ol kiss
that looks like soooo much fun

 

It was a lot of fun, and a thumbs-up would suffice. We are going to register it as a homemade boat so we can mount the engine on it and go, without being towed by the "Drunken Treasure".

 

true about the thumbs up
I spend 80+ hours at work, I get excited a little easy some times
so retraction
thumbs up

how will you mount the motor
what size/kind are you planning on using
and can you tell me a little more about the foam you are using

 

We're not sure how to mount the motor yet, but I don't think it will be to complicated. We're going to use our existing Minn Kota 50 lb. trolling motor with our two batteries in parallel. There's also talk about adding some railing around the corners and lighting, but that's low priority right now.
My buddy got the foam, and I'm not exactly sure what type it is. He just refered to it as "consruction foam". Check Home Depot for the blue stuff. I'll find out what type it is and post it.

 

Thanks
the same kind of deck mount for a trolling motor on a bass boat should work. Seems like it would mov eyou around smartly.

Fast easy no need to clutter it up with railings and lights
if you really need lights you can get chem light sticks in white red and green once broken they last for almost 6 hours and they are 2 $ a piece more or less

 

We'll most likely just fab a mount like this one....


And the talk about lights and railings was mostly drunken banter. There was also talk of a "bathroom"!

 

GREAT BOAT... raft but I see no life jackets.

A drunk does not revive when drowned please be safe wear a PFD and make your friends do the same it would be a bad ending to the fun we had.

 

Thank you for your compliment and concern.

 

Very very ingenious.

That's really thinking outside the box. Looking at the design I was wondering if two more sets of pvc pipes were constructed and interlaced in the manner the first three as shown on the trailer, whether the construction foam is necessary, as the original three seem to float high in the water.

Congratulations. I'm off down to Wickes.

Pericles

 

The piping layout is as shown in this pic....


The pic of trailer shows how we had to load the pipe for it to fit best.

We did a "dry" run in my friends pool without the foam. With four of us on the raft water was coming up and over the wood. That is when we decided we needed to add the foam.

On a side note, we used 6 inch schedule 40 pipe only because it was free. Although we paid an arm and leg for all the connectors and caps! I would suggest cheaper 6 inch pipe. Cheers and good luck!

 

TRR,

Agreed. I was just wondering whether you had considered two more sets of pipes to link between the three you already have. However you also mentioned the pipes were free but the fitting and closures were expensive.

I'll let you know how I get on. I need a small raft to maintain the edges of my Koi pond.

Pericles

 

You might consider pressurizing the pipes with air a wee bit.

 

In this same vein National Fisherman had an article 10 years back or so about a guy who had successfully built a PVC/ RIB style boat. Using 10 or 12 inch pvc tubes (fairly spendy but cheaper than store bought) for the "inflatable tubes" and a plywood/epoxy hull. It was 25 ft or so and looked pretty good.

I always wanted to build one, LOL like that will happen.