Knowing What's Behind the Fiberglass
Jared 00:07
There's a common question we get for somebody looking to modify their boat. They're wanting to add something where they have fiberglass in an area, and the first thing they need to do is make sure something's not behind it before they go cutting into it. So what advice would you give somebody that wants to go into a fiberglass area, but needs to make sure that it's safe, and that they have the room and all that before they get started?
Matt 00:29
Yeah, that can be a challenging question, right? My answer kind of depends on every individual scenario. I'd say like, if I'm looking to go into a gunnel, I'm looking, where's my fuel fill in relation to where I want to be installing? Whatever it is, I might be doing. Right? Am I going to be going through any wiring, stringers, vent hoses, or anything like that, right? And now a deck is going to be far more challenging to identify than a gunnel right, you really don't know, when you're going into the deck.
Now, I've seen some pretty, pretty interesting things where people had boat surveys and such, and they'll have them come out and they're actually looking for like water intrusion in the hull. But they're using like a thermal camera, right? It's kind of like the FLIR cameras that they're putting on there. But you look, and you can actually see, you're seeing hot spots and cold spots, but you're seeing the structure of the boat. Right? And that might be a good way. And I don't know, if not everybody has access to those cameras, they are extremely expensive. But if you know somebody, who might be a good way to get an answer without having to drill a hole, what's your next best bet?
Luke 01:39
I think probably your first best bet would be if there is an access plate, or if there's something that has screws in it, that you can pop out and look behind it. That way, you know for sure. And that's on most boats to that you can probably find that close by,
Jared 01:54
You’d imagine. Yeah, they may have needed some rigging done. And so, there's an access plate cut in somewhere. So that's a, that's a really good point and I love the idea of pulling out like a box that's there, or something's got four screws, you'll be able to gain access.
Luke 02:11
With me on my bass boat, I've got a little glove box to the right of the console. But that's where you access all the wiring. So, the guys at Triton thought that one through, you know, you can pull that one out four screws. But unless you're thinking in this way, you might not even consider that, right? But you take that out and you look, and you can see all the wiring harnesses, everything runs right through there. And it's an easy access point. So, a lot of times the guys that are building these boats think that through a little bit, or at least that's the best-case scenario.
Jared 02:40
And sometimes they document that in an owner's manual for sure, right? And you're able to go and look at an owner's manual and go up the access plate here. This is where the fuel tank is, etc. So, I think there's a lot of value to that. You know, the only thing that I'd say is to back to where there's nothing on your side, going back to the extreme with Matt, you know, using a FLIR camera or something like that, or a thermal camera to be able to see what's behind it. Alternatively, drilling a hole, right? and you want to start small, you know, the good news is, is that there's nothing behind it, maybe you can use like an inspection mirror or a boring camera to see what's there and then open it up and now you've got a nice size hole with the hole saw that you can access and we can put a deck plate in there that makes it look nice and trimmed out once you get the install done
Luke 03:27
Yeah, the deck plates for sure. And if it's an area where you think you're going to need to get in and out of it, often deck plate might be a good move. If not, we have you know, access plates that you can install and we see those that people add those a lot to their gunnels and stuff so if they need to get in through the wiring or run snake wires through Yeah, good easy upgrade
Jared 03:47
Guys that are adding a new trolling motor to the front of the bow of the boat that doesn't have wiring there. How do I do this rigging right? Speakers if somebody wants to add speakers up towards the front of the boat, there's nothing there and so…
Matt 03:58
I'm going to be drilling into something that I don't know what I'm going to damage on the boat
Jared 04:02
Correct. I think it's inspected fee if you can find something go through the owner's manual. I think the next step for somebody is to reach out to your dealer or your builder and go hey, a lot of times they will actually leave in the boat when they're pulling the rigging. They'll leave a couple of chase lines I've actually seen. So that you're able to access and get down and maybe an anchor locker and you see something and then there's a line there that you can run your chase line back and be able to do what you need to do.
Luke 04:29
For sure. And I think the other fine point with it is use the manual is a rule of thumb you know do not trust that with everything that you have. I would still go through that still drill your little pilot hole, try and get a look because as we've talked about before, every boat is a little bit different and they might make small changes in the last thing you want to do is go in there with a hole saw and cut a hole in your fuel tank, you know, so
Matt 04:54
Well then you might have a manual for the tracker 167 177 197 you know, so it may not encompass just your specific model, but more.
Luke 05:04
Yeah, and I think the other thing too, that Matt brought up that was smart was check where your fuel you know, your fuel intake is they're not going to do that and run extra, you know, piping if they don't have to. You kind of got to go into it with a little bit of common sense to know okay, well if this is really close to this, maybe let's try it a little lighter or maybe go to the other side, or something like that so
Jared 05:25
Oh, all good points.