About to pick this up - Yall ever hear about Cherokee boats?

[bassboy1]

I found this on Craigslist today, and we are gonna head out to pick them up tomorrow morning, as long as everything is as listed in the ad. It is gonna take the place of the 12 footer we currently have, as I have been wanting a casting deck, and the Grumman we have is not quite stable enough. So we have been looking out for a good deal on a 14er.
If all checks out, we are gonna bring it home, and give the trailer a good cleaning and painting, and then work on a nice casting deck that is easy to clean, and has lots of orderly storage. The feller said it has a deck, but from the sounds of it, there is just plywood over the seats, therefore using up storage space.

We aren't sure what we are gonna do with the grumman just yet. We are either gonna sell it next spring/summer, since we know we can get more for it than we have in it, as it is in perfect condition, aside from the fishfinder transducer holes. If we get 250 for it and the trailer together, we would be ahead of what we got it for, as there ain't no way we are selling the 4 deluxe. On the flip side, we hate to get rid of such a nice boat. I mean, it is 10 years old, and in almost factory condition. A pity to get rid of it, so we may keep it, and use for the rowboat lakes. (not that we have any locally)

It does have the 17 foot grumman canoe with it for an extra hundred bucks, so we will get that, and use it for a while mainly for younger siblings, and then try to sell it soon, as we have seen them on ebay for upwards of 250 bucks.

For the time being the little four will push it, and we are on the lookout for a good deal on a 15 to 20 horse, (when budget allows - gonna be a while unless we sell the 12 footer)

 

[beerfilter]

Re: About to pick this up - Yall ever hear about Cherokee boats?

Cherokee boats are decent quality , from what little I've seen of them .
Seen maybe a dozen over the last few years , and ,no complaints from the owners I talked to .

Like you , I'm looking for a 16 - 18' boat for bigger water and long weekends .

I got a 12' Appleby v bottom that I'm trying to work on , just too darn hot , lately . Trying to get an electrical system rigged , so I can do some night fishing .
Got it on a trailer I bought for cheap (rusty hulk ) and completely refurbished it with new everything + paint .

Keep us posted on your new project !
You might find some good ides on this BB ;
http://tinboats.net/forum/
They have an entire forum for boat / jon boat mods .
Good luck .

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: About to pick this up - Yall ever hear about Cherokee boats?

they make a good boat. see you after the 20th. leaving in a few for the Keys.

 

[bassboy1]

Re: About to pick this up - Yall ever hear about Cherokee boats?

Went and picked em up this morning. Boat and canoe check out just fine. Gonna have pictures soon. It is made by Mckensy (spelled wrong I believe) boat manufactures of Tennessee. It has some sort of a casting deck and carpet, which are probably gonna be removed in favor of a more better casting deck. Trailer needs quite a bit of work. Very rusty, and has a whole bunch of extra bunks and rollers, that ain't near it. The trailer on the other hand, was a factory trailer at one point (made by moody trailer of maden Mississippi), so it has dropped crossbars, and many holes for adjusting everything from the bunks to the axle with a single socket (and in this case some penetrating oil as well) A bit of cleaning, and a good painting, and this trailer will be better than the comparable 1997 shorelander that we had in the spring. Now, we are just on the lookout for a 15 to 25 horse engine.

The canoe is a 17 foot grumman. I am not sure of the year, but aside from a couple dents, it is in great condition. Many of the pieces on it are aircraft grade parts, so I think it is a little bit older, since grumman made planes in WWII. We are gonna make a little rig so that we can put the 4 horse on it from time to time, just to play around, and it can be used to entertain younger siblings while we are out fishing. The possibilities are endless.

Since the seller no longer does much with boats, and is more interested in bikes right now, he gave us his old motor test tank for free. It is a SS tub, that is used as like some sort of jacuzzi or something for ones feet like at a workout club or something. I missed what he was saying. But, it has a nice drain at the bottom, and the handle for it is at the top, so you don't even have to bend over to drain the water. Temperature gauge and everything. This thing is NICE.

All this for 400 bucks. I say we came out like a bandit on this one.
Pictures to come soon.

 

[bassboy1]

Re: About to pick this up - Yall ever hear about Cherokee boats?

Here are the model #s of both. Anyone have a clue of the date?
The 14er has a tag on the inside of the transom, that says Mckensie (again probably spelled wrong) bot mfg
mckensie tn.
AC-72-22093-U
There is no HIN on the outside of the hull.

The grumman says GP517
G-17
11482

Anyone familiar with either?
Thanks, bassboy1

 

[beerfilter]

Re: About to pick this up - Yall ever hear about Cherokee boats?

Can't help with the Cherokee , but , my Grumman is a g17s .
I'm guessing the "s" stands for sail , as it origanally came with 2 outriggers and has a mounting hole for a mast and sail on the floor .
It has a 1" keel that runs the length of the hull , and , very little rocker .
Also , it has a square stern for an outboard .

We never used the outriggers or any sail with it though .
Use it mostly for long trips on skinny water creeks .
The keel can be a bit of a liability when it snags that rock or log just below the surface , while negotiating a bend .
I have taken a couple of impromptu swims due to this !

Post some pics , if you can .
I love those old Grummans , tough as nails , built like a brick .
The canoe is a deal in and of itself .
The Cherokee and Moody trailer are just gravy .

 

[bassboy1]

Re: About to pick this up - Yall ever hear about Cherokee boats?

I promise, the pictures are coming soon. Can anybody distinguish the year, from the model #s?
Beerfilter, my canoe doesn't have the sail mast, or square stern. We are probably gonna sell it at some point. We really don't have much use for an aluminum canoe, and this has really stopped our budget. But, we are still thinking about keeping it, for maybe the younger siblings to use from time to time, and to even put the 4 horse deluxe on for a spin.

Pics will be here soon.

 

[bassboy1]

Re: About to pick this up - Yall ever hear about Cherokee boats?

Here is a couple of pics of the canoe.

Anyone tell me what the brackets do in the last two pics? The second pic is in the bow, and the third is almost dead center.

As for the 12 footer, I was planning on doing a shareaproject link, and put it in my sig like I used to have my Lund (need to add that too).
But, without thinking, I went ahead and made a nice long post in another forum about it. I will c&p that onto this thread, until I get the shareaproject going.
See next post.

 

[bassboy1]

Re: About to pick this up - Yall ever hear about Cherokee boats?

Picked this up yesterday. Though the inside looks nice, it ain't. We are gonna do a pretty good conversion of it. Here is a picture of the start.

Here is one of the Moody trailer before we started.

As you can see, it is a tilt trailer, and we have no use for that, so we are gonna remove that feature, and weld on a bit longer tongue instead.

 

[bassboy1]

Re: About to pick this up - Yall ever hear about Cherokee boats?

Here are a couple of pictures of the trailer after I spent an hour unbolting everything that isn't welded.

As you can see in the second picture, the spring shackles are welded to a piece of angle iron. This has holes drilled in regular intervals, and the trailer frame has identical holes all the way along the frame. The axle is infinitely adjusted with just 4 bolts. And the bunks have the same pattern, so the adjustment is limitless.
In the third and 4th picture, you can see the tongue and tilt mechanism. We are just gonna weld in the straight tongue and one crosspiece where all this heavy useless crap is.
For getting rid of the heavy rust, we are using some stuff the seller told us about (he is mechanically inclined, and didn't do any of the shoddy work on the boat - he recieved it in payment for a debt a couple hours before we bought it. He told us about this stuff that is made to prep a bit of dry concrete if you want to lay a new pad on top. It has a bonding agent that sticks both together. It supposedly will eat the rust, and turn it into a special coating that will hopefully prevent rust in the future, better than paint would.

 

[studlymandingo]

Re: About to pick this up - Yall ever hear about Cherokee boats?

I do lots of decorative concrete and none of the polymers that I have used for bonding agents really have any effect on rust. Let me know the product you are going to try and I will do some checking.

BTW: I like the old canoe!​

 

[beerfilter]

Re: About to pick this up - Yall ever hear about Cherokee boats?

Wow !
That trailer looks better than mine did .
I tore mine down and had it the old fasioned way ,
ye olde grinder and wire wheels .
I have never gotten good results with those fancy , expensive , stinky , chemical concoctions .
IME , better to go to good metal and prime / paint .

Two coats of grey enamel primer , followed by two coats of white enamel paint (tractor paint , no less..) .

New lights and wires .
New coupler and chains .
New winch.
New bunks and rollers .

Recentered the axle , was exactly like yours .
New bearings and races .
2 new hubs after 1 cracked(been doing this crap for 20 years , and this is the first I can recall ! ), and , NOBODY had a 4 hole 1" spindle hub .
Ended up buying 2 hubs with pressed in studs .
3 new tires and wheels , plus , a mount for the spare .
Bearing buddies ,and ,the old good spindle and bolts packed with new races/bearings for a spare .
New folding jack .

Still need some guide ons , but the 12' is plenty light .
I can reposition it even when out of the water and fully loaded .

BTW , those bracket on your Grumman are probably for an outrigger setup .
You can buy brackets for that canoe that mount an outboard .
It should flat move with that 4hp and 1 person .
Mine sure does!

Are you putting in a front casting deck on that Cherokee ?
Before you think about using wood , check your local recycling center .
You can probably buy scrap aluminum at reasonable prices versus new cost from a metal dealer .
I got 2 4'x4' sheets of 1/8" aluminum for scrap price , plus , various pieces of angle , u-channel , square channel .
Also got some thinner plate scrap (old Hummer doors !).
The stainless steel bolts and screws may get pricy , but you wont have replace it in the next 50 years .

I couldn't find any 1 1/2" plate 2'x4' , or , I would have replaced all the wood in the transom .
Price THAT hunk of aluminum new!

Also , I've occasionally seen aluminum plate scrap on Craigslist , so keep an eye on that site .

 

[bassboy1]

Re: About to pick this up - Yall ever hear about Cherokee boats?

As for the trailer, the guy who told us that, seemed to know what he was talking about. So, we figure we may as well try it. Seems to be a similar chemical structure for the stuff made for this.
Also, on the casting deck, we are definitely gonna use aluminum for the framing. Going to the scrapyard tomorrow, got a load of scrap to sell already loaded. But, as for the deck, dad talked me into using plywood for the actual deck. Instead of using stainless screws, we are using aluminum marine rivets. The compressed air powered rivet gun is much more practical, and if we need to attach something through the hull, we can do so just fine.

As for the canoe, we got it only cause it is a good deal, but we didn't have a use for a canoe. Only then, did we think about putting the 4 on it. But, since we really don't have much of a use for it, it may not stay with us for long. I would like to keep it, but, as I don't write the checks, and we need a new arc welder pretty badly, I don't have much say in it, unless I save up the money to buy it from dad, and though I take every single job I get asked to do, no matter the pay, there still isn't enough demand these days. So, I hope to get the 4 horse on it, and hopefully keep it. I just wish I could get a dang job, as I have found a couple good deals on outboards, but ain't got no money.

 

[dabalone]

Re: About to pick this up - Yall ever hear about Cherokee boats?

Bassboy, I am sure your project will turn out just the way you want it and the Bass in your area better be looking for more cover. Don't know how old you are but get a feeling you can work closely with your Dad, always good to hear of a father .. son combo working on a project.

 

[bassboy1]

Re: About to pick this up - Yall ever hear about Cherokee boats?

I am 14. I am extremely lucky to have a dad who does what he does. He has built houses himself, built plenty of furniture himself, and has an excellent woodshop. Also, he turned wrenches for about 20 years, so I am learning all that as well. He can basically do anything with his hands, and I am taking to it real nicely. The only thing is, he does work longer hours, and has a long commute, and he is stuck in his job, and with 3 siblings, he isn't doesn't have as much free time as either of us wish. That is why the Lund hasn't been finished after more than a year, and why I only get to fish about once a month.

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: About to pick this up - Yall ever hear about Cherokee boats?

nice find.