Building prams

[Ed Wahl]

I love the ice-chest as a seat!

Makes me consider tearing out the aluminum/floatation seat in my pram (manufactured by Redwood) and getting the ice chest seat fabricated, etc.

That's funny OS, I was thinking the same thing about the seat in my metalhead.
Ed

[SHigSpeed]

When my pram was leaning towards being carbon-fiber/glass, the plan was to make an insulated structural foam cold box under the seat - but now that it seems like it'll be aluminum, the "Coleman" seat does seem to be the way to go!

Thing is to make it so it doesn't fall out when I flip it up on the roof of the car! Now if there was some way that I could roll back my moonroof and flip open the inverted cooler while driving to grab a cold soda... Hmm...

_SHig

[OceanSunfish]

That's funny OS, I was thinking the same thing about the seat in my metalhead.
Ed

For the sake of nostalgia, I still keep our old family ice chest from the early 70's. It's one of those light green Colemans made of metal with the metal latch... If it still has a seal, then it would float.... It would look kind of cool in the pram as a seat..... really retro... like something seen floating in the lagoon of the San Lorenzo River back in 1972.....

[tfish]

OceanSunfish, The ice chest is a Coleman 48 qt. It does not have a lock on them to keep the lid closed. The ice chest is bolted in on both sides. I load my pram onto a rack on my truck..So, Placed a bungee cord on it to keep all my goodies in. The other thing with the ice chest is the lid is hollow. I got some two part expanding faom in cans at TAP plastic and filled the lid with foam..It made it much more rigid. The ice chest is 14" high. Your oars need to be a few inches above that point to clear your legs. the sides of my boat is 1.5" inches above the ice chest's top. so I came up with some home made oar locks. They are 1/2 galvinved bolts and galvy pipe..1/2 fuel hose is used as a spacer. My oars are 4.5" above the seat top. I've rowed as hard as I can and the weak point is the oars flexing. My oars are 14.5" back from the edge of the seat.

Ed, A couple of questions on your Metal Head. How long is it? And how much does it weigh?

SHigSpeed, I've done a bit of glass and carbon work. I've thought about building a pram out of them. I think you would need some thickness to the build for strength. Atleast baltic mat if not some thin styrofoam. ?

If you guys are ever over in the Santa Rosa area and want to go for a row..drop me an email Tfish38 at aol dot com

Tony

[SHigSpeed]

SHigSpeed, I've done a bit of glass and carbon work. I've thought about building a pram out of them. I think you would need some thickness to the build for strength. Atleast baltic mat if not some thin styrofoam. ?

For sure you'd need a structural core. Check out my thread on pram design musing here on the board. Went on and on... I still plan to complete the project some day.

Ed: My parents have an old metal Coleman as well. I may have to "borrow" it.

_SHig

[tfish]

Only 10 years since last post.
The evolution on the pram.

The orginal 1991 wooden stich and glue 89x45"
Aluminum 2005 (?) 101x45"
Last Aluminum 2022 110x48"
Kids pram 1993 70x35"

Heading out tomorrow to teach some of my grandkids how to row a boat.
Wish us luck..we will have fun..
Photos to follow

Tony

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

In Australia, I see many people making their own boats from aluminum.

Most are under 20 feet and they weld their own boats.

A small boat or pram will change your life.




This is a very good post and thread.