bench removal

I have a 14 alum fishing boat and id like to remove the center bench. will this affect the structural integrity? what will i need to do to make this happen?

I got 14′ with the usual three rows, well chopped out a third of the back row so legs can sit towards sides and chopped the middle row leaving two lil spits on each side that converted to storage. No difference at all, but then again did all the mods before even had it in water so wouldn’t know either way. All I know that lil boat is a champ and has seen Canada for years and the river down here every week in summer.

Will post pics of it tomm maybe got a bunch of kids crap in it in garage.

I looked into this and was told you need to add a rib or ribs where the bench was to strengthen the hull. You can get order these through a dealer, not sure how labor intensive it would be to install them.

Yes it will. I have seen a lot of people do it though.

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Yes it will. I have seen a lot of people do it though.

I have a ’65 Lund 14footer that I removed the middle bench seat from, when I made the cut to remove the first side it sprung open slightly. I removed the seat totally used 2×4’s across the bottom and mounted a flat floor from the 1st bench seat to the back bench. I use this boat for duck hunting and running the backwaters, when moving the sides appear to flex against the water, but in over 15 years of running this boat without the middle bench I’ve had no structural issues or leaks. I’m certain Lund wouldn’t recommend doing this but in my case it hasn’t hurt anything and given me more room and options for using this boat. I have a 15hp on the back, no it’s not fast but it gets me to and from point A to B. Pk

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I looked into this and was told you need to add a rib or ribs where the bench was to strengthen the hull. You can get order these through a dealer, not sure how labor intensive it would be to install them.

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One should really renforce the boat where the seat was to keep the structual integrety of the boat. I just finished a mod. on a 1972 Lund S16-20. Once the seat is removed, there is a lot of flex on the side walls! I replace all holes with alum. grade aircraft rivets!

I have a 16ft lowe lunker v and was thinking of making the back bench so my legs could swing through and making the next bench forward either so I could walk through or removing it adding a full floor and then side storage to both sides of the boat to give strength back to gunnels. Ideas? Boat has a ’83 50hp merc tiller so there is some speed and power there. Don’t want to compromise the boat.

Give you good sense of it. Had it loaded with as much equipment as one can have it float and boat hour and a half to campsite in Canada and no structural wear yet. 2 stroke 25hp on for the trip, but 15 hp for rest of year.