Topic: Reccessed TM Foot Control (Read 1576 times)

Rowdy · « **on:** December 20, 2004, 06:22:36 AM »

Guys

You all may have seen this already, not sure. Just thought I would try and post this and see if you have. For you that use the foot control TM this is about as good of an add on as I have found yet. I have built several of these and mounted them on customers boats. The difference I do has both ends rounded. I never have liked the idea of the square corner for fear of this corner having a crack start from it if the floor was to flex much.

From building things for over 20 years in extreme situations I have seen over and over that if things was going to break or crack it was going to happen in a 90 degree corner. Still for the price of this unit its the best I have seen yet. I sure can't build them for that price they do LOL... You all may have seen these already, I know they have been around for a while.

http://www.comfortroll.com/

Rich Boger · « **Reply #1 on:** December 20, 2004, 07:02:35 AM »

Mornin' Rowdy! Wish you was closer I would let you put one of those in my boat. One of the reasons I quit fishing in the winter was because I was always tripping over my foot control and going in head first. Always carried an extra set of clothes just because of that! LOL Can't stand a hand control though so I have always just put up with it. Rounding the corners is a very good idea for the cut you have to make. I have seen the top cap flex on boats in rough water, along with every bone in my body. LOL

Rowdy · « **Reply #2 on:** December 20, 2004, 07:46:39 AM »

Rich, mornin to you dude. Yes the one's I have made over the years has a big radius on both ends like thew one end that this one does. I just don't care for the corners in any design if you can get away from them. Somethings you can't, the recessed TM foot control you can easy enough. I just have not seen anyone do this on a big scale to get them cheap enough for everyone. Guess I should look into this, or should have years ago when I made the first two I did LOL...
Have a good day, I think its about to turn off cold around this part of the world.

MotherNature · « **Reply #3 on:** December 20, 2004, 10:43:56 AM »

I think it is a great idea! I know Mike complaines about his back hurting all the time, he has a bad back to start with but I bet this would make his day on the water a little more comfortable.

Rowdy, Mike has the same trouble as you dude! I can't tell you how many times he has been in the water. Maybe if I got him one of those he would stay a little dryer

Rowdy · « **Reply #4 on:** December 20, 2004, 11:31:04 AM »

Laurie

Now I want to be the first here to say having the foot control level with the floor or at least within a half inch anyway, makes all the difference in how that setup works. The foot control level with the floor is at least for me the best.

The price of this unit is like 130 bucks and seems to be ok and the bioggest thing for someone to get over after getting one would be cutting the hole for it in there pride and joy LOL... Other than that its not bad to do really. I do like to seal off the unit at the flange on the deck with silicone and smear that all over the edge of the deck at the cut area before mounting the unit in place.

Then if you have a compartment under that you will need to affix a drain hose to the drain hole that has accomadations for that on the bottom side to get the water drained off into another area, be it over board or back down in the bilge. I have yet to meet anyone that has used the foot control flush that didn't perfer this to the on top of the deck mounting. Should only take a good shop dude about an hour to mount this at the most, if you chose to have someone do it for you. So has this been posted here before? Didn't know for sure if it had or not...

MotherNature · « **Reply #5 on:** December 20, 2004, 11:42:07 AM »

I had seen it in a boat somewhere, just can't remember where it was. I don't think that the link has been posted though. $130 isn't bad. I got Mike a Lock R Bar for Christmas last year and that required him to drill holes in the boat and he didn't seem to mind too much. I think there was a little sweat on his brow at first but he dug right in and it works and looks good. That was a bit easier though since he only had to use the drill and a circular bit to cut the right size holes. What do you use when you are cutting that big of an area in the deck?

DundeeMike · « **Reply #6 on:** December 20, 2004, 11:52:53 AM »

One of my club members is a metal worker. I gave him the measurements and made a drawing of what I wanted. Well, he made it out of stainless steel, and it was a breeze to install. Since, i installed it and been fishing, my back doesn't hurt anymore. It is at floor level, and is comfortable to use. This is one item I am glad I use.....

Rowdy · « **Reply #7 on:** December 20, 2004, 02:49:14 PM »

The one's I make are out of stainless too, I tig them up and polish them out. Not at all a problem to install really. I use a sawzal to cut the hole, but a jig saw or even a hole saw the right size for the rounded ends and then a circular saw to cut the middle out would work. A sawzal takes me about 5 minutes to make the cut, but I have used tools like this for many years and I am very comfortable using any hand tools really.

I guess where a guy needs to spend the time on this project would be making sure where you want the foot paddle in relationship of the bow. One wouldn't want to have to make two cuts at landing the hole in the right place if you could avoid that LOL...Now that is really the scarry part LOL...That or like the one here in the link, have the wrong end facing forward, now that would really be bad. Laterz...

225HO · « **Reply #8 on:** December 20, 2004, 04:36:26 PM »

Hey folks,

I have allways been interested in this, but I've never actually stood in a boat that had a recessed troller pedal. I too (being around 6'3'') have some lower back problems and this could be a blessing on the back. Now.....Can you powder coat these things?

? And what about the carpet? Just cut it out on the outline and then peel it up?

I don't mind cuttin a hole really. I just want it to look as good as it functions...

Brandon

Rowdy · « **Reply #9 on:** December 20, 2004, 04:50:03 PM »

Yo BJ dude, hows things your way? Good I hope and you are all ready for the holidays... Now with the rig like you have, with that center compartment you would need to fit a hose up to the drain tube on the bottom side and route that below that compartment so that it drains into the bilge. No big deal really just an extra step.

The carpet, I cut the carpet back from the actual hole size your going to cut, say like a 1/4" extra. Then lay the hole out on the deck and then cut that. Reason for doing like this because the way the carpets are they can get all unraffled if you will. The carpet can get hung up in the saw blade and pull a thread or two up and into the area you don't want, like a runner in panty hose. So cut the carpet back just a 1/4" will allow the deck cut without the carpet in the way. Then the flange will sit down over the fresh cut carpet edge that could still unraffle if you didn't seal this all together with silicone and then screw the flange to the deck in a few places.

I would seal all the edges of the cut with silicone, the cut carpet and the deck. This will help seal off everything and leave enough to mash out slightly when you screw the drop in assembly in place. I have no fear you can master this dude, and with you liking to fish as much as the rest here, you would love this setup dude...The black paint job on these already would contrast your rig to the "T" also, unless you got your sites on another color LOL...Heck I would knock the black paint off and put a brush affect polish on that sucker as I did the stainless I have made. That brushed looks way cool for my liking... By the way the add reads on these, they are powder coated...

SCSAM · « **Reply #10 on:** December 20, 2004, 06:19:02 PM »

Rowdy,
How much would be involved in installing one of these in a 21 ss extreme stratos. I would not have any trouble doing the work, just wondering if I would need the drain hose like some boats do.

Rich Boger · « **Reply #11 on:** December 20, 2004, 07:50:37 PM »

Brandon, you need to be conservative on weight in the front of that rig! LOL Rowdy, what do you think about making them from aluminum? That will polish up like stainless or take a real nice satin finish----just have to clear coat it to keep it that way. Sent you the catalog number for the boots---hope that helps.

Rowdy · « **Reply #12 on:** December 21, 2004, 07:05:13 AM »

Sam, the 21SS you have will have quite a bit of foam slamed up in the front of the bow. Now this is a good thing so no frit, all that you will need to do here would be to run the drain hose one of two ways dude.

You can use something like a wire snake to pull the hose down the starboard or the port side of the boat where the wires run back to the rigging compartment for the TM or the drivers console(starboard side) then once where you can get this in the two long storage boxes up front make entry point into the very center of the floor to dump the water into the bilge.

My favorite way for that rig would be dumping the water right straight over board with a through hull fitting up front and right under the cut out you made for the TM recessed pocket to drop in. You can saw the hole or drill the hole for a smaller fitting and silicone this into the hull really easy enough while you have the hole all open. Just make sure to roll a loop in the drain hose that layes out flat under the foot control insert as you put it in place. This way you can hook all this up and then put enough slack in the drain hose that will make this all easy to do and not have the hose kink up when you screw it to the deck in place. For us that love to do things that make things better and give things a true custom look, this is a fun project. Way fun...

Rich, I did get the number went to there web site and copied it to the search engine and wham, there it was. Thanks for what trouble this was, I even after seeing this on the web site went and found it in one of the cat. I have. I just looked right over them when I was thumbing through them LOL...Dah, one of those moments I guess LOL...

You can make these from aluminum, no problem at all really. I just made the ones I have from stainless because I love to tig the stainless and I had the thin sheet of stainless already for which to make them LOL... The cool little crow foot weld patterns of the tigged beads has always made me smile so I only brushed finished these and left the tigged beads on them to look at LOL... I did polish one for a customer who wanted to pay for the time to make it look like it was chromed. Even after I told him he would need to wipe this off and keep it a lot cleaner all the time to keep the look.

You decide to make you one dude, radius off both ends and then also slope the front side of the assembly as to allow for the angle of how the bow runs if you mount them up real close to the bow panel. Some guys want matter as they like the foot control back quite a ways from the front, Me I want mine right on the front, and I mean on the front close LOL...

Now I guess guys, I should also mention there is a two-fer here if you wish. You can with the foot mounted flush in the floor, you can now mount the TM itself right down the very center of the boat. Do all this at the same time and just move the bow light socket to one side of the TM or even change the bow light out for one green light and one red light for each side and you don't have to look for the bow light to stick in the socket. Those lights can be left in place and hard wired...Even doing all this at the same time its a fun project and its not at all hard to do, not to mention the big hole you just cut for the foot control makes getting to the nuts and backing plates on the TM mount. Something to think about anyway...

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Author Topic: Reccessed TM Foot Control (Read 1576 times)