I've been fishing from a Crawdad since 1985 or so and I know a lot about them. The foam is meant to keep the boat's top edge, the gunnel, floating even with the top of the water, if it gets filled with water. It can only do that with 420 pounds of weight in it to start with, as it comes from the factory. That means you and your cooler with ice and your battery and your lunch and your anchor and your fuel and your added decking and your seat and your favorite rods and your baits and anything else that you added to the boat that wasn't original to it. 420 lbs. is two 205 lb. guys and a set of oars. I'd hate to guess how much weight you've just added to that boat with just your build and then you removed the flotation. The boat has very low gunnels and even less freeboard when loaded like that and it will swamp very easily if it's used in choppy water or if you are on a waterway that allows large motor boats. The ads for the boat, back in the day, showed it loaded with 1200 lbs of concrete blocks, but that just demonstrates what it takes to PUSH the hull underwater, also called its displacement. These are light tough boats, but they are also small and narrow and easy to swamp. Many lakes enforce the rated weight limit on boats and you could be fined and have your boat impounded. I'm saying all this to warn you not to use this anywhere but small farm ponds and electric motor only lakes. It isn't safe around motor boats and skiers and the like. And never carry anything in it that you value because, if it swamps, it all will sink right to the bottom. Tipping over is also a risk, but swamping is the big one, trust me, I know. You could also be held liable for anyone that ends up drowned or injured because of your mods.
I don’t think the foam is intended to help with buoyancy except for when/if it were to flip over. In which case it’s there to keep it from sinking.
How is the boats buoyancy without the front and rear foam?
I've been fishing from a Crawdad since 1985 or so and I know a lot about them. The foam is meant to keep the boat's top edge, the gunnel, floating even with the top of the water, if it gets filled with water. It can only do that with 420 pounds of weight in it to start with, as it comes from the factory. That means you and your cooler with ice and your battery and your lunch and your anchor and your fuel and your added decking and your seat and your favorite rods and your baits and anything else that you added to the boat that wasn't original to it. 420 lbs. is two 205 lb. guys and a set of oars. I'd hate to guess how much weight you've just added to that boat with just your build and then you removed the flotation. The boat has very low gunnels and even less freeboard when loaded like that and it will swamp very easily if it's used in choppy water or if you are on a waterway that allows large motor boats. The ads for the boat, back in the day, showed it loaded with 1200 lbs of concrete blocks, but that just demonstrates what it takes to PUSH the hull underwater, also called its displacement. These are light tough boats, but they are also small and narrow and easy to swamp. Many lakes enforce the rated weight limit on boats and you could be fined and have your boat impounded. I'm saying all this to warn you not to use this anywhere but small farm ponds and electric motor only lakes. It isn't safe around motor boats and skiers and the like. And never carry anything in it that you value because, if it swamps, it all will sink right to the bottom. Tipping over is also a risk, but swamping is the big one, trust me, I know. You could also be held liable for anyone that ends up drowned or injured because of your mods.
@@mrhalfstep boat works just fine bud
@@1BITE1DREAM Cool! Just hope that doesn't end up the epitaph on your gravestone. Boat safely.
Do you think you could mount a trolling motor on the front? I have a crawled and wantin to do somethin like this
Yea we could make a transom like the one we have on the other v-hull boat we built