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Posts: 31
Location: Illinois | I am wanting to mount some down east rod holders on my lund explorer to help pull some big cranks this fall. I am considering mounting a grab handle to the side of my boat, but I am a little leary of drilling holes through the gunwales to mount these grab handles. My boat is pre sport track (2002) and the clamp on models scare me as they may damage the gunwales over time. Anyone have any thoughts or experience on this topic? |
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Location: Green Bay, WI | I had a Tyee with the Sport Track rails, but I did work in the gunwale area a couple of times. It's been a few years, but I seem to recall it was just 3/4" (or 5/8") plywood under the aluminum skin in that area--so I would think you could pretty safely drill holes for bolts, and then use fender washers and some elastic stop nuts (fiber lock nuts). I think that's what I did around the front casting deck and it worked just fine. No problem at all. Have you verified the structural material in your gunwales? I don't think mine was all aluminum in that area--I know it wasn't in the front casting deck gunwales.
TB
EDIT: As an FYI... I used #12 stainless machine screws to mount a couple rails on the gunwale of my Lund, and they worked great. I was going to do with #10, but ended up going to the next size up and was glad I did.
Edited by tcbetka 10/20/2014 7:15 PM
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Posts: 489
| I had a 2002 pro v. There was plywood under the aluminum of the gunwale. I recommend mounting rails there so you can attach anything you want to the rails. |
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Posts: 135
| If I remember correctly, the gunwale on a 2002 Explorer is a thin rail that the Downeast double clamp holders will fit right over. There is no better way to mount the holders, in my opinion. If you are concerned about scratches get the powder coated Downeasts. ProV and Tyee gunwales are very wide, compared to the Explorer. You can move them as needed on the Explorer and also clamp one or two on the transom to run baits in the prop wash. John |
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Posts: 133
| I use that thin foam padding that people use to line drawers with, cut to size and throw it over the gunwale and use the double clamp rod holders. Not a scratch yet on the boat over 5 years
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Location: Green Bay, WI | luredaddy - 10/20/2014 8:12 PM
If I remember correctly, the gunwale on a 2002 Explorer is a thin rail that the Downeast double clamp holders will fit right over. There is no better way to mount the holders, in my opinion. If you are concerned about scratches get the powder coated Downeasts. ProV and Tyee gunwales are very wide, compared to the Explorer. You can move them as needed on the Explorer and also clamp one or two on the transom to run baits in the prop wash. John
I wonder then...can you get to the underside of the narrower gunwales? I've never checked on a boat with that type of gunwale...
I ended up putting the Traxstech stuff on my Tyee, because I wanted to maintain the ability to move stuff wherever I wanted. Then I got the power-coated Down-East rod holders and the adapters for the tracks. Worked great.
Here is a link to the tracks I used: http://www.traxstech.com/Mounting_Tracks.html
You should also be able to find their adapter plates for the rod holders.
TB |
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Posts: 135
| The gunwale on the Explorer is just a narrow cap, there is no access under it. Clamp the holders right over it. John |
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Posts: 31
Location: Illinois | Thanks for the advice everyone. I went with a simple rail mount. Easy to access from seat or when I am running the kicker and gives me a lot of options. Thinkin a sweet go pro mount for the rail may be my Christmas present to myself.
Edited by benckdb 10/23/2014 7:51 AM
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