Info needed on decking out a Cartopper for River, Creek and Dam Fishing

[Parrot_King]

Hi All,

I have just recently picked up my Quintrex 340 Cartopper and am in the process of decking it out.

I have attached 2 photos of the boat.

Just wondering if anyone can supply any info on decking out such a small boat? If will mostly be used for creeks, rivers and dam fishing due to its size and will only ever have 2 people on board.

I have already picked up 2 seats, hang on organiser and a depth sounder, 5HP 4stroke Outboard, 44lb Watersnake trolling motor and a 80aH Deep cycle battery.

Do you think the 80aH battery will be enough?

Any info or photos you can provide to point me in the right direction would be great.

cheers Mike

[Noelm]

seeing as its going to be a cartopper, you are going to get pretty sick of unpacking and packing batteries and electric motors and stuff pretty quick, cartopping is fun and makes you very mobile, but it has it's drawbacks, everything has to be loaded into the car everytime you come home, and the boat upended onto the roof racks, usually still dripping salt water, so my tip, keep everything as simple and as light as you can, and only take the very minimum of gear.

[Parrot_King]

Thanks Noelm,

I have thought about what you said about the unloading/loading of everything and it is going to be a pain. So I was thinking if I only have to load/unload a battery, electric motor, bucket with all tackle boxes and lures and rods I should be ok but ill have to trial this out first and hopefully I can make some improvements. I also thought of a casting deck and keeping all the rods, tackle boxes under there permanently. Still unsure so hoping other people can shed some light on this.

[Parrot_King]

Hi All,I have decided to buy another electric trolling motor for the cartopper so I can have 1 on the transom and 1 on the bow. Can anyone advise what size would suit my boat? max weight fully loaded is 402kg. Should I use my 44lb on the transom or bow? I have also looked at getting another deep cycle battery at 100aH will this be sufficient or should I go bigger? Look forward to your feedback. Cheers Mike

[brock13]

Hi parrot king

I too am interested in purchasing a car topper and decking it out. Bunning last catalogue had marine and mdf boards quite cheap (cant remember exact price but def worth a look.

I recently done a front canting deck extension and a rear casting deck for my 4.2 only using the board. No welding. Does the trick but if you can get a hold of a an ally welder id advise towards that. Makes fitting the sheets a dream not to mention the added strength.

I also just fitted a bow mount leccy to the 4.2. Got a 55 pound 54 inch shaft. From my experience the 55 pound would suit a boat of your size but probly try the 48inch shaft.

I got a 100AH battery for the leccy and used it for 2 outtings (6 hrs total) and still had 75% battery.

Hope this helps.

Brock

[Parrot_King]

Thanks Brock,

I to have thought about front and rear casting decks but because my boat is a car topper I am still not sure as it will add extra weight and make it hard to load/unload. I was also thinking a 100aH battery with a 55lb electric trolling motor to use on the front and the 44lb on the back. what battery charger do you have to charge your battery? did you run the 55lb motor at top speed? how fast did it go?

cheers mike

[myusernam]

why would u put mdf through a car topper. make it heavy as fark. keep it as light and as simple as possible. 80ah enuf

[Parrot_King]

Thanks myusernam,

If 80aH battery will be enough that's great as they are cheaper again. Do you run this setup in your boat?

[scuttlebutt]

Throw away those chairs and simply glue some one inch soft blue foam over the existing seats. Chairs will just get in the way on a boat that size.

[Parrot_King]

Thanks Scuttlebutt.

Will take this into consideration.

[Parrot_King]

Can anyone advise me what the best way is to attach a transom mount trolling motor to the bow of my car topper? I would need this to be flush or removable so I can still put it on top of the ute. Any help would be great. The motor head will be turned 180 degrees.

[Parrot_King]

I have decided I want to put in a front casting deck. Can anyone suggest the best materials and way to go about doing this? The floor will be removable so all I want to do is put some support beams in.

Any info would be great

[scuttlebutt]

This is what I do. Screw or bolt a piece of 3mm ally onto the nose of your boat. Cut some one inch ply to use as a casting deck. screw a couple of smaller pieces of ply underneath the casting deck and wedge it between the nose and the front seat. If you cut 2 pieces a little smaller than the area available you can slide them across and access the storage underneath.

Dunno if my description makes sense but if you check out the pics it may help.

(The wooden plank with blue roller on my front seat slots into my bullbar so I can use my winch to pull the boat onto my troopy roofrack).

PS: Looking at your pics, you dont have a a storage shelf in the nose yet. wouldnt take much to make one, or at least get a bar welded across at the same level as the front seat then place your casting deck parts between that and the front seat.

http://i918.photobucket.com/albums/ad27/cairnshack/001_zps834c3ae7.jpg (http://s918.photobucket.com/user/cairnshack/media/001_zps834c3ae7.jpg.html)

http://i918.photobucket.com/albums/ad27/cairnshack/002_zps538b0585.jpg (http://s918.photobucket.com/user/cairnshack/media/002_zps538b0585.jpg.html)

http://i918.photobucket.com/albums/ad27/cairnshack/003_zps49d8129f.jpg (http://s918.photobucket.com/user/cairnshack/media/003_zps49d8129f.jpg.html)

http://i918.photobucket.com/albums/ad27/cairnshack/004_zpsc5b5e520.jpg (http://s918.photobucket.com/user/cairnshack/media/004_zpsc5b5e520.jpg.html)

[Parrot_King]

Thanks scuttlebutt your setup looks great. Can you stand on your deck? How heavy is it? How could I make a front storage shelf without welding?

[scuttlebutt]

Yeah I spend most of the day on the casting deck when I'm lure or flycasting. Its a stable little rig. The ply maybe weighs 5kg. Not sure how you'd do it without welding

[Parrot_King]

Thanks Scuttlebutt, what boat have you got? i have thought about using aluminium angle across the front. rivet it to the ribs each side and rivet to the centre beam then working back towards the seat. would angle be strong enough for me to stand on?

[Parrot_King]

if I was to use my electric trolling motors on my cartopper in the dams what would be the best size deep cycle battery to use? I have a 54lb variable speed bow mount and a 44lb fixed speed transom mount. I was thinking either a 130-200ah battery but the weight would be between 40-70kg. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

[davo]

104539Here is my old Aquamaster 3.6 metre that I once owned. I mounted the Minnkota on the front and had a ply desk in front of the seat. A solid piece of angle alloy held the deck in place. Everything was flush including the road holders. Also make sure you have a retractable transducer bracket. That way you can drag the boat anywhere without damaging the transducer

[davo]

104540I even had rod racks and brackets for the oars. It was a great little hull.

[Parrot_King]

Thanks davo what size battery do you use on your trolling motor? Do you have any pics of your front deck?

[scuttlebutt]

My boat is a 3.15 stacer. How long are you planning on fishing each day? I use a 65 amp batt and will often spend several hours working along sections of river with the electric. I've never run it flat in one day.

My use is intermittent though as I do a lot of snag casting. Size of battery will depend on use, but keep in mind a 100 amp battery will run a 44lb electric at full speed for approx 2hrs. That's a long time.

[krusey]

If you fit marine carpet to your seats it stops getting hot and stops it from getting slippery so you can stand on them without the fear of falling over, and remember the more you permanently fit to the boat the more weight you have on top of your car

[Parrot_King]

Thanks for the reply. Would I be better with 2 x 75ah batteries or 1. X deep cycle of 135ah? I will be using both trolling motors all the time

[chris69]

You will save weight with a bigger single battery.

[Parrot_King]

Thanks Chris, I would like to know if a single 135ah deep cycle battery will be enough to run out in the dam using my 44lb trolling motor then troll lures using my 54lb trolling motor and be able to get back to the ramp without running the battery too low and destroying it? My 44lb has set speeds and the 54lb is variable speed. Any input would be great. This battery will be going in a Quintrex 340 cartopper so keep this in mind.

[Parrot_King]

Hi All, I am wanting to go in a few bass/bream tournaments and in order to do this I will need a livewell of 60Litres minimum. At the moment I am in the process of carpeting my 2 thwart seats and building a front and rear casting platform. once completed can anyone advise the best place to put my livewell and what is the best thing to use as a livewell? I was thinking of an esky with plumbing and the works. any suggestions would be great. Below are the 2 pictures of my 3.4m cartopper I am wanting to do this work to. Hope to see some photos and advice coming through.

[davo]

Sorry for the slow reply but a single 100 - 120 A/H battery is fine. The Minnkota was an old 42 lb but it had the Maximiser control which used less power.

[Parrot_King]

Thanks Davo, don't suppose you had a livewell in your boat?