74 Ranger bass boat

[Sparky69]

I have a question. Can the top section of a 74 Ranger bass boat be removed?
If it can do anybody know how about doing it?

Thanks

 

[Bob_VT]

Re: 74 Ranger bass boat

Just about any boat can be taken apart. Post a few pictures. What is the "suspected" problem on the inside of the hull? Was the 74 Ranger center console?

 

[Truefire]

Re: 74 Ranger bass boat

I'm sure it can be removed my man, most of the time the rubber bumper strip that follows the outside perimeter of the boat is your ticket to splitting the two halves.

Simply remove the end cap off of the tracking typically located near the transom and slide the rubber out of the tracking all the way around to the exit point whereby you removed the end cap. This may take a little bit of time to remove this rubber strip. Be patient...

2. drill out the pop rivets holding the tracking down to the boat after you have removed this rubber strip or rope type material

3. remove the tracking from the boat, but please keep it and don't bend it or destroy it unless you have about $400.00 + to get new replacements. Expensive stuff for what it is.

4. Then you will have to drill out the pop rivets holding the top portion to the hull, leaving you two pieces.

5. You may need to rig up some manner to remove this top portion from your boat without damaging it, like some sort of overhead truss system in a barn, under a strong shelter, underneath a canopy or two of some old developed trees, or several of your buddies to assist you in lifting the top off.

Take care, have fun Chris

 

[redfury]

Re: 74 Ranger bass boat

Keep in mind also, that the top half of that boat is going to weigh approx half as much or even more than the bottom half of that hull. Find out the dry weight of the boat and do your load calculations from there ( you can find the approx dry weight by looking up your boat on NADA's boat section ).

You can build a 4x4 frame to go over the boat and then lift it using pulleys and rope. Just make sure you mount the pulleys as close to the outside edge of the supports as you can as that will be the strongest section to hold the weight of the boat. The more pulleys you use, the easier the boat comes up.

I split my boat and can lift the top and set it down by myself. I used 10 pulleys total...you can see what I did in my links.