Does your boat lean to the Starboard Side while your running slow?

I finally managed to level my boat off by adding some lead to the Port side.

I was watching a U Tube video of how Kevin Vann Dam Sets up his Bass Pro Shop's NITRO bass boat for tournaments. He was talking about moving all the heavy stuff to the back of his boat. The man even carries a spare trolling motor for his boat. He's got a bait shop in his boat too. Well some could call it that.

So I got to thinking about how I have my little boat setup. I have some tools in the front compartment that weight a lot so I moved them to the Port side of the boat. Since I sit on the Starboard Side and weight in a over 230 lbs I need all the extra weight on the other side to balance out my boat. Does your boat lean to one side or the other?

Not sure about everyone else's boat but my boat tends to lean and rock a bit and I don't like sitting in the bass seat and feeling like I am going to fall off into the water due to the boat leaning too far to one side or the other. Now if you have a huge fiberglass boat you can stop reading now if you like. I am writting this for all those that have the smaller tipsy aluminum bass boats. Which I would think includes a lot of the bass tracker boats out there.

I use to carry two metal gas tanks (one or each side of the boat in the back. Now I only carry one plastic 6 gallon tank and I put that on the Port Side (left as your looking forward in the boat). Gasoline weights in under 8lb/gal as it's lighter than water and water weights approx 8.X lbs /gallon. So when full the gas helps to balance out my weight. But as I get low on gas my boat tends to lean to the Starboard Side. Now I've tried to loose weight but can't seem to shed enough pounds.

So I got some "Lead Shot" (Used to reload shot gun shells) and put Three 25 lb bags of lead shot in the boat's Port Side near the gas tank in the back. Lead shot is not cheap but I like my boat level and want to keep everything tidy. I picked up three bags ( Caldwell - Lead Sled Weight Bags ) to hold the lead shot bags. These bags have handles on both ends of the bag which makes it easier to pick them up or move them around.

Now I can level out my boat and also used these lead bags in the future if I get the Caldwell Lead Sled for shoot my high powered rifle or reload some shotgun shells for hunting.

I tried it out the last few days and was happy with the results. My boat sits level in the water now with 75 lb of lead on the port side and me on the starboard side.

[QUOTE=Moveon;469616]I finally managed to level my boat off by adding some lead to the Port side.

I was watching a U Tube video of how Kevin Vann Dam Sets up his Bass Pro Shop's NITRO bass boat for tournaments. He was talking about moving all the heavy stuff to the back of his boat. The man even carries a spare trolling motor for his boat. He's got a bait shop in his boat too. Well some could call it that.

So I got to thinking about how I have my little boat setup. I have some tools in the front compartment that weight a lot so I moved them to the Port side of the boat. Since I sit on the Starboard Side and weight in a over 230 lbs I need all the extra weight on the other side to balance out my boat. Does your boat lean to one side or the other?

Not sure about everyone else's boat but my boat tends to lean and rock a bit and I don't like sitting in the bass seat and feeling like I am going to fall off into the water due to the boat leaning too far to one side or the other. Now if you have a huge fiberglass boat you can stop reading now if you like. I am writting this for all those that have the smaller tipsy aluminum bass boats. Which I would think includes a lot of the bass tracker boats out there.

I use to carry two metal gas tanks (one or each side of the boat in the back. Now I only carry one plastic 6 gallon tank and I put that on the Port Side (left as your looking forward in the boat). Gasoline weights in under 8lb/gal as it's lighter than water and water weights approx 8.X lbs /gallon. So when full the gas helps to balance out my weight. But as I get low on gas my boat tends to lean to the Starboard Side. Now I've tried to loose weight but can't seem to shed enough pounds.

So I got some "Lead Shot" (Used to reload shot gun shells) and put Three 25 lb bags of lead shot in the boat's Port Side near the gas tank in the back. Lead shot is not cheap but I like my boat level and want to keep everything tidy. I picked up three bags ( Caldwell - Lead Sled Weight Bags ) to hold the lead shot bags. These bags have handles on both ends of the bag which makes it easier to pick them up or move them around.

Now I can level out my boat and also used these lead bags in the future if I get the Caldwell Lead Sled for shoot my high powered rifle or reload some shotgun shells for hunting.

I tried it out the last few days and was happy with the results. My boat sits level in the water now with 75 lb of lead on the port side and me on the starboard side.[/QUOTE]

Forgive me, but I just couldn't resist......"Couldn't you just get the LEAD OUT OF YOUR .......". :D:D I know, me bad.....:p:p

It comes out of the boat easily. But thanks for the response.

I am trying to get more people to post in here but it's not easy.

I need more reading material for my morning coffee.

[QUOTE=FlyLie;469633]Forgive me, but I just couldn't resist......"Couldn't you just get the LEAD OUT OF YOUR .......". :D:D I know, me bad.....:p:p[/QUOTE]

I wish my tracker was setup a little better.......hard to get the weight dist just right. I have 3 batteries on the left and my big ole but and 15gallons of gas on the right. 15 gallons of gas is 110-120 lbs and my butt 200 lbs, so 320 on one side and max 150 on the other with batteries. I REALLY wish the gas tank ran then entire width of the boat and then 2 batteries on left and cranking on the right, that would balance out better, but still would be about 100 lbs different on the right...........

*****.....but I rarely fish by myself, so the weight dist doesn't matter too much.

Later,

Geo

Look at your live wells too. Some have no wave board, and when full, if they run across the beam, they can slosh and shift weight around a lot.

Adding a wave board can also slow down some of the rocking. Reduces or slows weight shift.

[QUOTE=HURRICANEBOB;472531]Look at your live wells too. Some have no wave board, and when full, if they run across the beam, they can slosh and shift weight around a lot.

Adding a wave board can also slow down some of the rocking. Reduces or slows weight shift.[/QUOTE]

My live well is on the Starboard side of my boat where I also sit. So add my 200+ lbs with the Weight of 5 gallons of live well water to the Starboard Side of my boat.

I added 75 lbs of lead shot plus a couple of weights (the type you use on weight lifting barbells for bench presses etc) and now my boat sit's level in the water.

I use to put an old lead acid battery on the top back portion of my boat near the transom to level my boat. But that only works if the live well is empty. Add 5 gallons of water to the live well and the weight of a few fish and I'm listing to starboard again.

Now this is not so bad if you attach the SI transducer so that it's level with the water surface when the boat is listing. But if you straighten out the level of the boat then the transducer will be off and shooting higher on one side than the other. I'm only referring to the Side Scanning Transducer in this situation. It won't matter so much with a regular 2 d type transducer.

I like using the lead weights in the heavy cloth type bags with handles. Lead Sled Weight bags made out of a heavy canvas type bag. These are easy to put in the boat and take out and they don't move around like the round weights do.

Now that I have my SI transducer mounted and the boat level I am getting a trail of interference (straight line) on the left side of my SI Screen in the area where the water column is shown. This does not show up on the display when I use the contour mode and can't see the water column. I'm wondering if this is my motor blocking or reflecting some of the SI sonar waves.

If you have ever played the game "Dangerous Waters" and played with the Sonar Screens it looks like a broad band signal line on the screen just to the left of center where the boat is located on the SI display screen.