Been kicking this around in my head for many moons now, not that I'm ever actually gonna build one (closest body of water is my shitter ).  Just love the concept: a basically unsinkable boat, something with positive buoyancy.   And even better, you could prolly put the whole thing together for under $500!

My first thot was 55 gallon drums, but of course the steel ones will rust.   Soooooooooo, the plastic ones!   They'll never rust, even in salt water.  Teflon tape on the bungs, those suckers are never going down!   Two to three per side, even if one floods the rest will float, use nothing steel in construction, and head for the high seas!


















Aaaaand a quick squint @ Bing images shows me I'm not so original of a thinker as I think I am:











Recliner optional, of course.   But furniture does make for a nice, homey touch.   Make sure to have enough recliners for your & your buds, maybe a sun shade, and of course a built-up spot for the beer cooler so it doesn't slip overboard.  Oh, as well as a small, attached ladder, so's you can climb your drunk ass back in the boat if when you fall in.

Serially, if I lived on the water, I'd have some kind of boat, and one of these strikes me as just about optimal.  You'll never get it over 5 knots (unless you drop a Chevy 350 into that byotch ), but it's about style, not speed.   And, it's about as unsinkable as a boat can be.

What sayeth the hivemind?  Am I all wet?  Tips, tricks, and suggestions?  Anyone ever actually build one?  They say "a boat is a hole in the water you throw money into"; this is a boat that should cost next to nothing to build & maintain.

I see them around here all the time old ones for $500 Usually come with a motor too. If you have an area of your state with lakes or large rivers you will find used ones cheap all over. Your idea may work, motor will be your biggest expense

I've been thinking about it too. DO IT!

Looked into this a few years back and found some scratch and dent aluminum pontoons online but never went any further.

I bought a used party barge in excellent condition for $4k. I can't see it being worth the trouble to build at that price.

They make awesome base stations for jet skis and speed boats which is how mine is used when we hit the lake with the hoosier flotilla.

I see tons of those on the Wolf River with a little shack and some cane poles on them.

  O. M. F. G.  Arfcom aircraft drunkard carrier!   Have the booze... erm, I meant, the fuel supplies for the jet skis!

And hey, you should be able to cook on a barge, right?

A pontoon is the first boat a lakehome owner should get.  You can use it as soon as the ice comes off the lake, and it'll be the last boat you take out in the Fall.

I'd, of course, recommend buying used instead of building your own, but that's not the GD way.

Are you going with aluminum or wood for the main structure?  If wood, you'll be limiting the life of the boat.  AL won't degrade like wood will.

You know me!

I'd thot of starting with wood; cheap, easy to work with, seal with exterior stain/poly/spar varnish, should look fine, last along time.   However, I've a sneaking temptation to delve into a fiberglass framework then, since that should be as impervious as the plastic barrels themselves.  I'm seeking to make a zero-maintenance Arfpocalypse zombie bugout vehicle (those zombie fuckers can't swim ).

Nothing that floats is zero maintenance.

Wave action will make short work of it.  Keep it on a pond.

  But but but plastic and nylon rope and fiberglass, oh my!

Yea, I was jest jestin' about taking it out on the ocean...

I helped my neighbor's kid build a boat from 8" PVC pipes in 10 foot lengths. I don't know where this kid found the pipes, but they were super old and I helped him chop them down to 7 or 8 feet and I capped the ends off and let him do the rest.  The kid's dad went and bought some aluminum deck that he mounted between the two pipes and their plan was to make it a pedal boat of some sort. They moved away before I got to see it in action.

I let friends spend the bux on expensive tow boats and nut busting jet skis. I run base station with the grille and the coolers.

You could also use trex for ultra low maintenance but by then aluminum would probably be cheaper.

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A friend of mine built this,a little Moore than $500.

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After a tornado.

sweet, this will be my winter project.

I built this with my son last summer, It is twice as big now and secured with large zip ties.

Where'd ya get that possum hat...pretty wild...

park it here

It didn't sink, did it?

That would be perfect.   Hiya, neighbors!

I saw one on a local lake that had a 60's VW van, not sure if this is the actual one but it looked exactly like this:

Lol, how appropriate, a double-wide.

Go for it OP!

Did not sink.

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Better pic. before the tornado.

Our company goes through half a dozen white 55 gal HDPE barrels a week (we pump GOJO soap out of them into smaller containers).

The empties are highly sought after, even though our official policy is to recycle them.

Several employees have reported making pontoon boats from them. Others use them for rainwater (strictly for gardening, our barrels are not suitable for potable water, it's molded into them).

Fiberglass can get a bit expensive, when you start moving up in size.

If sticking to a budget, wood structure with fiberglass sealing it, may be the better option.

Mister, that is actually a very nice lookin' boat.

  That, is a brilliant idea.  I'd imagine those two-part epoxy paints would do a similar job.

Love pontoon  boats

Doing this would make it all worth while

A quick how-to video on fiberglassing wood boats:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jHUI0CiYbs