How To Reinforce Aluminum Boat Hull

Maintaining and protecting your Jon boat is essential whether your boat is a self-build, has been bought used or is a smart new dealership purchase. Particular care and attention needs to exist paid to your hardworking Jon boat hull which normally bears the burden of marine exposure and impacts.

Contents

Why protect your Jon boat?
- Advantages of Jon boat hull protection
Piece of cake Jon gunkhole hull protection
- Paints
  - Antifouling pigment
  - Enamel paint
  - Bitumen paint
- Polymer coatings
- Waxes
- Marine fillers
- Galvanic anodes
Jon boat hull-bottom protection
- Keel guards
- Rubbing strakes
Advanced hull protection solutions for your Jon boat
Rounding up

Why protect your Jon boat?

The Jon gunkhole is probably the virtually hardworking personal utility boat in America so protecting it is essential if you want your boat to last. However, hull protection does non just apply to utility Jon boats. Active recreational utilize, also as utility use, will commonly accept its toll on the hull of even the most sturdy of boats.

The near at risk area of a Jon boat is its apartment bottomed, with damage coming non only from the water itself in the form of corrosion but as well from collisions, and even slight impacts, with submerged objects in shallow waters.

Many Jon boats besides develop damage from the wear and tear that occurs while moving the Jon gunkhole in and out of the water. Impacts occurring with the trailer and shallow dock are all also common amongst Jon boat owners.

Once on dry land, environmental and UV exposure will also crusade damage to untreated boats every bit nature does its best to historic period your hull.

The skillful news is that these problems tin be easily avoided when proper protection is added to your boat.

Advantages of Jon boat hull protection

What are the chief benefits of taking precautions to protect your Jon boat?

Well, Jon boat hull protection has a range of benefits which include:

Maintenance of h2o-tightness.
Provision of a layer of resilience against abrasive surfaces, scrapes, and knocks.
Keeping the Jon boat streamlined for optimal operation.
Saving on costly repairs.
Helping your Jon gunkhole retain its value over time.

In this handy guide, we volition take a look at the cardinal types of Jon boat hull protection equally well as means to actually reinforce your Jon boat hull for even greater protection.

Well-nigh of the hull protection tips given in this commodity are quick, and like shooting fish in a barrel-to-apply, at-home solutions. However, other more than intricate tips for ultimate hull protection and reinforcement are besides covered. Be enlightened that those particular solutions will crave specialised application and installation by a trained professional though.

So, regardless of whether y'all want quick-fix hull protection tips or are more interested in professional hull reinforcement we are certain you volition find a solution that is right for your boat in this article.

Easy Jon boat hull protection

One of the simplest ways in which you can protect your Jon gunkhole hull is past using a specifically formulated pigment or coating.

These type of marine class paints and coatings offering protection to the hull by providing an effective barrier against water erosion and basic protection against impacts, thus helping to prolong the life of your boat.

Paints

Here are some cardinal types of paint yous may want to consider.

Antifouling paint

Antifouling paint is a biologically active blanket that prevents hull attachment of waterborne marine organisms that tin degrade your hull. This type of paint also facilitates the removal of these organisms if your boat already has this problem.

High quality antifouling pigment can be applied separately to specific parts of the gunkhole (such every bit the lesser which it is designed for) or every bit role of a entire hull protection system (which offers boosted benefits and is recommended if you accept the budget).

For a cheaper selection you can employ antifouling paint just on the lesser of your Jon boat then use enamel on the sides, bow, stern and interior for good overall protection.

Enamel paint

These solvent-based marine paints are a cost-effective solution for your hull and create an attractive and suitably hard-wearing stop.

The best commercial grade enamel boat paint greatly improves resistance against weathering and UV. Enamel paints typically utilize resin systems to create a tough, chemic resistant paint film with a winning gloss finish.

They are often referred to as topside paint because they are all-time used on areas that have little, to no, contact with the water.

Bitumen paint

Bitumen paint is a traditional coating that adds water and weather sealing properties to your hull. Bitumen pigment is also resistant to chemical and environmental exposure.

This type of paint works well with wood as well equally with metal hulls and can exist applied past brush, roller or spray painting. This makes information technology an platonic paint for those of you who followed our instructions for building your own flat bottom boat.

Polymer coatings

Polymer coatings are an excellent, but more expensive, option for Jon boat hull protection. They work especially well with aluminum and metallic hulls as they preclude corrosion. If you lot utilise your Jon boat in the ocean or in saltwater this choice may be preferable to you.

Polymer coatings may be clear or opaque and thus work exceptionally well as a blazon of protective "undercoat". They form a chemical and mechanical bail with your boat'southward hull that also protects the hull from staining, tarnishing and protects it from oxidative and ecology harm.

These types of polymer gunkhole coatings are highly resilient and provide the much needed protection in both fresh and saltwater (which is highly corrosive to aluminum).

Spray and roll-on truck bed liner is a pop grassroots hack for Jon gunkhole owners who want an effective overall hull coating which is affordable and hands purchased online or from a local hardware supplier.

These liners work well to protect your Jon boat hull from impacts, abrasions and corrosion from the marine environs and the weather. They do wear down though and will wear away quicker than the more than expensive alternatives, so you will need to regularly re-apply the coatings for continued protection.

Waxes

Waxes offering a sure degree of protection and are a cheap, quick and constructive mode of keeping your Jon boat hull looking pristine and performing well on the water.

Both marine waxes and the archetype carnauba car waxes piece of work merely too with very petty difference in price between the best products.

Waxes piece of work especially well on aluminum boats. The application does require elbow grease, but as with cars, persisting with a polishing routine builds upward a slick and shiny layer over time that volition raise your gunkhole'south operation and protect whatever decals on your gunkhole. Wax as well makes your boat expect ameliorate.

For best protection y'all are meliorate using wax after you have applied protective pigment or a protective coating!

Marine fillers

Marine fillers come in a variety of forms. They are good to have to hand if y'all want to correct pitting or cracks in your metal, forest or fiberglass boat prior to applying paints or other coatings.

A quality epoxy-based marine filler can exist used on areas of the boat that lie below the waterline and are fast curing with no shrinkage, significant yous will be ready to sand within minutes. Once set you lot can prime number the hull and use the paint of your choice with no issues.

Putty marine grade filler is another great choice for those of you in a hurry, or have to make repairs while away from home, equally information technology fully sets in about ane hour.

Galvanic anodes

Sacrificial Anodes, or Galvanic Anodes, can be used on any metal Jon gunkhole to offset the effects of galvanic corrosion.

These little blocks of metallic are a very easy-to-employ way of protecting the submerged areas of your Jon gunkhole against corrosion.

They tin can be attached to whatever metal Jon boat hull but will gradually erode as their more agile voltage metal interacts electrochemically with metal ions in the water so you lot they need replaced at regular intervals.

Jon gunkhole hull-bottom protection

At that place are as well other practical and affordable options for protecting your Jon boat hull from scrapes, dents, and scratches picked-upwards in shallow h2o or while hauling the boat around.

Basically, anything that volition create a resilient physical barrier betwixt your boat's bottom and submerged obstacles (without causing treatment bug) will protect the hull from impacts and improve its lifespan.

Keel guards

Elementary keel protection is probably the cheapest pick available to the upkeep-witting Jon boat possessor.

Although keel guards, or keel bands, are commonly used on v-hull boats, or these type of canoes, they are a applied and affordable way of protecting the bottom of your Jon boat.

They are a bang-up inexpensive manner of reinforcing the areas on your Jon boat that are vulnerable to dents and scrapes from abrasive surfaces including sand rocks and gravel often establish in very shallow waters. They commonly come packaged as cocky-adhesive strips which can be practical easily and quickly to any cleaned and primed keel expanse.

Rubbing strakes

Rubbing strakes are some other cheap way of protecting the bottom of your Jon boat.

Rubbing strakes are often made of rubber, or more than usually, stainless steel. They provide a simple but effective barrier between the lesser of your boat and submerged obstacles thus protecting the hull from being directly scraped or dented.

They are a very cost-effective solution. Both the self-agglutinative rubber strakes and the spiral-on steel strakes are easy to fit.

Advanced hull protection solutions for your Jon gunkhole

Teflon bottom and plastic lesser protectors are the nigh expensive options for Jon boat bottom reinforcement and protection. They require specialist application.

These bottom protection products are applied to the hull of your gunkhole using specialist techniques that create layered bonding. This type of specialist application provides a distinct protective layer to guard the boat against abrasions and heavy knocks.

Whole bottom solutions not only protect the flat lesser of the Jon boat but will also provide cover to areas that are near the waterline.

These 'Black Ice' or Teflon bottom products provide a 3/8" bonded layer of Ultra-High Molecular Weight (UHMW) polyethylene which tin can exist used to either comprehend the most vulnerable areas of the hull or the entire hull (see featured image at the top of this page).

A plastic or Teflon bottom can be used to offset the thickness of your Jon boat hull and will thus assistance buoyancy while also providing a gliding consequence if your gunkhole encounters submerged obstacles.

Plastic bonded layers can be applied to an aluminum Jon boat in a similar manner, normally by professional technicians who utilise layers of epoxy resin for a reinforced end.

Rounding up

There you lot have it, a wide range of options at a variety of price points that will provide even the well-nigh driveling Jon boat hull the protection it needs and give information technology the TLC required for optimal functioning on the h2o.

However, it is important to recall that when it comes to hull maintenance and intendance, yous should non rely solely on products!

A simple, but disciplined, maintenance routine that includes inspecting, cleaning and drying your gunkhole downwardly after utilize will ensure that problems don't develop and that any electric current problem areas are not left to deteriorate into serious issues.

Also go on in heed that storing your Jon gunkhole in an surface area away from straight sunlight will besides protect your hull from premature aging. And, of course, care should be taken when launching off those gritty concrete ramps and so you avert creating hull problems before you even go onto the h2o.

Source: https://www.flatbottomboatworld.com/jon-boat-hull-protection-guide/