Houseboats anyone?

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Houseboats anyone?

Postby jstrubberg » Tue Aug 23, 2016 3:39 pm

I think I've brought this up before, but the idea of a small houseboat for travel just fascinates me. We have small rivers crisscrossing Missouri all over the place, and being able to just slip into one of them and disappear for a few days would be fantastic.

Here's my current daydream;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48Atps5UOnE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMgXZimds8k

Home built, weighs in around 1500 lbs and will float in around 6-8 inches of water. The owner runs a 9.9 hp outboard, which should go all days on a couple gallons of gas. If you look around on YouTube, you can find videos of this boat going up rivers full of snags and slipping right over them.

Wouldn't even be a bad road rig, camping in it with it on the trailer.


How about it. Anyone else fascinated by the shanty life?
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Re: Houseboats anyone?

Postby Rick Tyler » Tue Aug 23, 2016 4:12 pm

jstrubberg wrote:I think I've brought this up before, but the idea of a small houseboat for travel just fascinates me. We have small rivers crisscrossing Missouri all over the place, and being able to just slip into one of them and disappear for a few days would be fantastic.


Here you go -- plans for houseboats (guaranteed to float upright): http://bateau.com/products.php?cat=27
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Re: Houseboats anyone?

Postby cigarsnjeeps » Tue Aug 23, 2016 6:38 pm

I've always wanted to find an old pontoon boat that I could build a small living quarters on. I miss my old 20' pontoon and would love to have a "house boat". Could always do something like this with a teardrop...
http://blog.rvshare.com/rv-boats/

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Re: Houseboats anyone?

Postby wagondude » Fri Sep 23, 2016 8:08 pm

cigarsnjeeps wrote:I've always wanted to find an old pontoon boat that I could build a small living quarters on. I miss my old 20' pontoon and would love to have a "house boat". Could always do something like this with a teardrop...
http://blog.rvshare.com/rv-boats/

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When I was little, My grandfather had just such a "houseboat". It was a pontoon that someone had put a small canned ham on the deck. We had a lot of good times on that boat. Later, he scrapped it out and the stove from the canned ham ended up in an Apache pop-up That my dad and I reworked.
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Re: Houseboats anyone?

Postby VijayGupta » Fri Sep 23, 2016 9:27 pm

I've been fascinated with canal boats. I don't know how sea-worthy they would be on open water, but they sure look cool. https://www.google.com/search?q=canal+b ... 52&bih=558
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Re: Houseboats anyone?

Postby rebapuck » Sat Sep 24, 2016 10:46 am

I'm with Vijay. Love the idea of canal boats.

Living on the water seems like it would be so relaxing. I may be wrong. I once told a mechanic that my dream car was a 50's MGTD. He said it would be until I drove one.
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Re: Houseboats anyone?

Postby cigarsnjeeps » Sat Sep 24, 2016 8:46 pm

One of those canal boats would be awesome.

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Re: Houseboats anyone?

Postby Philip » Sat Sep 24, 2016 10:19 pm

rebapuck wrote: I once told a mechanic that my dream car was a 50's MGTD. He said it would be until I drove one.


He was right. I have driven a 52 TD. My one ton 4x4 dually rode just as good as it did. Mine had leaf springs in the rear at that time. That's why I installed a air ride rear suspension. :lol:
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Re: Houseboats anyone?

Postby swoody126 » Sun Sep 25, 2016 8:08 am

Roy & Dianne have towed Dianne's Rose ALL OVER

w/ just a few glitches, tires..., they made it all the way down to the PlyWooden Boat Festival in Port Aransas, Tx, camping, in her, most every night along the way

your quest/dream is most sensible/doable

having had the pleasure of seeing/boarding Dianne's Rose i can tell you SHE IS BEAUTIFUL & FUNCTIONAL

an interwebsite yo might enjoy is

http://shantyboatliving.com

several modern designers have SHANTYBOAT plans available

or you can make up your own, like so many TearDrop builders do

GOFORIT!!!

sw
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Re: Houseboats anyone?

Postby jstrubberg » Mon Sep 26, 2016 8:08 am

cigarsnjeeps wrote:I've always wanted to find an old pontoon boat that I could build a small living quarters on. I miss my old 20' pontoon and would love to have a "house boat". Could always do something like this with a teardrop...
http://blog.rvshare.com/rv-boats/

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Not much of a fan of pontoons myself. They have very little reserve flotation and require very flat water as a result. They work great on a river or very calm lake, but I would hate to build something to adventure in and then be limited as to where I could take it. That's another reason I like the Diane's Rose design. It's got huge reserve flotation.
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Re: Houseboats anyone?

Postby lrrowe » Mon Sep 26, 2016 11:55 am

Tube boats such as poonton's have come along way these past few years. I have a tritoon and it serves us very well on a large impoundment lake. It is very nimble for such a boat and takes me on down the lake quite quickly, whether touring, fishing or pulling tubers/wake boarders. I know you can build on the right tube selection and be very stable. In fact we have at this lake, a lot of professionally built house boats built which set on pontoons.
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Re: Houseboats anyone?

Postby RonS » Sat Oct 15, 2016 4:36 pm

cigarsnjeeps wrote:I've always wanted to find an old pontoon boat that I could build a small living quarters on. I miss my old 20' pontoon and would love to have a "house boat". Could always do something like this with a teardrop...
http://blog.rvshare.com/rv-boats/

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Several times I've thought about a pontoon boat, set up somehow to put a teardrop on the deck as sleeping quarters....

I'm sure it could be done....edit: and following your link, I see it basically has been.
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Re: Houseboats anyone?

Postby Bear_Rider » Tue Oct 25, 2016 1:13 pm

You can do better than Diannes Rose.

Look at the Retreat by William Atkin. http://www.atkinboatplans.com/Misc/Retreat.html

It's a little heavier, but it was designed by a naval architect and intended to be lived in.
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Re: Houseboats anyone?

Postby jstrubberg » Tue Oct 25, 2016 2:55 pm

Thanks Bear, but...not a fan. I don't like stooping over to use half of the cabin and the bed setup is tiny. The weight is really good for a craft that size, though. The shallow draft is impressive.

Diane's Rose certainly isn't perfect, either. You have to resign yourself to making up the bed every night and you have to have storage for linens and blankets during the day. I also think I would forego the arched roofline. It looks great and I'm sure it keeps weight down, but you are giving up all that deck space on the roof, which I think is a mistake.
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Re: Houseboats anyone?

Postby rowerwet » Tue Oct 25, 2016 7:48 pm

With the size of Diane's rose, people on the roof might be too much for stability.
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