John Mulcahy III
Member
looking to pick some brains on these boats any info is appreciated ! TIA
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tell me the good /bad of a 1989 tdb 14
- Thread starter John Mulcahy III
- Start date
Things to look long and hard at: 1.) The seam where the deck and hull sections join, particularly from mid-ship back around the stern, since this joint is often underwater when the boat is loaded. Hydrostatic pressure can drive water through any gap and into the two sealed floatation chambers, eventually entering the deck. 2.) If the boat has no storage cover, precipitation allowed to pool on the work deck can eventually penetrate the fiberglass via several freeze-thaw cycles. 3.) Check carefully around the bases of the two stern floatation chambers for cracks or signs of water intrusion. I installed a deep-cycle group 24 battery in mine to power the running lights I wired-in, as well as installing a through-hull shooting flasher in the port-stern quarter to function as a sounder that I always ran with the bottom alarm set to 4' to protect my skeg.
The motor board mounts are another area for water intrusion, particularly in the hulls that were build with a smaller/thinner design which was beefed-up in the early nineties and on hulls. Bob Furia still has his and may be able to give you the exact year that this change was made.
They are, overall, a pretty bombproof hull, but underpowered if you go by the USCG plate power recommendations. A fifteen will push you along well unloaded, but never allow you to get up on plane with two people and a load of decoys and gear. A two-stroke 25hp is a nice match, just feather the throttle back on turns to a speed that holds the boat barely on plane
They do not like running in the trough, particularly in shallow water lakes where the leeward water sections can generate some large swells...only time I have ever heard of one flipping was in this type of sea on Houghton Lake. I couldn't get much information from the boat owner, but, from what I was able to glean, operator error may have weighed heavily in this outcome.
Good luck in your search!
The motor board mounts are another area for water intrusion, particularly in the hulls that were build with a smaller/thinner design which was beefed-up in the early nineties and on hulls. Bob Furia still has his and may be able to give you the exact year that this change was made.
They are, overall, a pretty bombproof hull, but underpowered if you go by the USCG plate power recommendations. A fifteen will push you along well unloaded, but never allow you to get up on plane with two people and a load of decoys and gear. A two-stroke 25hp is a nice match, just feather the throttle back on turns to a speed that holds the boat barely on plane
They do not like running in the trough, particularly in shallow water lakes where the leeward water sections can generate some large swells...only time I have ever heard of one flipping was in this type of sea on Houghton Lake. I couldn't get much information from the boat owner, but, from what I was able to glean, operator error may have weighed heavily in this outcome.
Good luck in your search!
John Mulcahy III
Member
thanks for the info a its actually not for me my buddy picked up a 1989 that was garage kept an didnt know anything about the boats so im trying to help him im personaly not a tdb guy i run a duck boss an a old heinricks box for my hunting he said some one did some work on the transome of this one as i guess it was naturaly a short shaft boat his has aluminum brackets to make it a long shaft ?i have yet to see this boat as the weekend was busy busy for me but deff good info on it thank you