Bracing your V Drive locker for 1100 Fat Sacs

[mmandley]

I received a couple emails on how did i brace my V Drive locker for my 1100 fat sacs.

Parts needed are all from Home Depot

4 3/4 x 48inch x 1/8th long aluminum angle bars. http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1...atalogId=10053
6 1 inch Lag Stainless Steel Lag bolts
8 Stainless Steel bolts
8 Stainless Steel Machine screws
8 Stainless Steel washers
8 Stainless Steel lock washers

All the above can be substuted for what ever size you want. I persoanly used 24x10 i think it was.

I used 2 48 inch peaces as the bottom rail and used 3 lag bolts to attach that to the floor of the boat.
I then used the 2 other 48inch peases for my upward bracing. Front is apx 22inch high and the rear is apx 21 inch high.
I then bolts the upper braces to the lower angle bracket and then again to the upper cross member in the boat.
Make sure you watch for the locking tabs on the plastic doors. As you can see in my pic i mis measured by 1/2 inch and need to fix that now lol.
Also you will notice the engine actualy doesnt sit centered in the engine bay so pay attention to this when you place your upward braces.

This all cost me about 35 bucks. and 2 hours or 4 beers of time.

Passenger side bracket. Drivers looks the same.


1100 Empty

1100 Full on goofy side. You can see where my brace is blocking my panel hinge. That will be fixed ASAP.
I also need to repostion the 1100 bags slightly to allow them to sit a bit more upright.



I will post some video of the surf wave after this next weekend as we are still dialing it back in. I can say this with the 1050 nose ballast i run made a huge improvment wave is now even larger and the pocket is insainely long.

[cab13367]

Nice work Mike! Looks great and cheap to boot!

[jester]

Mike Nice work. looks like it would cost more then just 4 beers to make.

[mnpracing]

Awesome! Thanks for posting this. What size lag screws did you use to go into the floor? You list 1", but what diameter?

[mmandley]

Awesome! Thanks for posting this. What size lag screws did you use to go into the floor? You list 1", but what diameter?

I want to say they were 3/8th course thread. I didnt look at diameter as much as length i wanted them to be long enough to bite but not so long they would go into the floor and runners so deep.

[08LSV]

Hey Mike. Thanks for the "How To". I had decided not to do it since my exhaust was so close to the v-drive door and have never had it push past the brace. However since you make it look so easy I think I will be running to Home Depot later.

[zroutt]

Well done. Is this something that all of us should consider with bigger bags in the vdrive lockers? I have a 2x3 aluminum brace at a diagonal from high bow side to low transom side. Is that enough?

[mnpracing]

I want to say they were 3/8th course thread. I didnt look at diameter as much as length i wanted them to be long enough to bite but not so long they would go into the floor and runners so deep.

one more question, did you just use a silicon sealant on the lag bolts when you installed them to keep the water demons out? I'm assuming you have to predrill the holes as well?

Thanks

[hans]

I want to brace my lockers like that. On the picture the vertical brace seems to be more than 3/4 wide. Like home depot is not close to my house I want to be sure that 3/4 angle bars will be stiff enough.

So are the vertical ones 3/4 inch wide too?

[Cigars n scotch]

Great how-to! I just have a question on how this now affects your maintenance? These lockers and engine compartments are small enough to work in, have you changed your impeller or done your winterization on summerization with these brackets in the way?