stv light layup rant

[BRB]

Is anyone else as sick and tired as I am of every stv on here being a light layup. ...or 450-500lb boat for sale.....son of biscuit....most weight methods r well I poked around on the deck.....summerford basically made a 75lb and a 125lb deck.....when a true light boat was built the weight come out of the hull.....without paperwork there is no way to tell if it was a double kevlar or glass...and it depends on if one layer of 3oz and one of 6oz or 2 of 3oz or 2 of 6oz ect..ect...plus how much of the excess resin was removed....only true way is to weight it....it

[wtsjr66]

We have a guy down here in Georgia that can look at one from the road and tell you how much it weights!

[BRB]

Lol....lol

[Instigator]

We have a guy down here in Georgia that can look at one from the road and tell you how much it weights!
Hilarious!

I'm ate up enough that if i think I really do have a light one...., I do what ever I had to to weigh the damn thing.
Went to Walmart one time and bought 4 matching bathroom scales for the trailer.

Great thread BRB. Quite a few recent transactions on this board that weren't quite as represented.

Lightest STV I ever saw, I had for a while. Old Sprint bottom Pro Comp from the Mod VP days. The cross members were notched from where the capsule used to be.
468 as I recall.
The forward cross member was cut clear through and in that condition you could pick up the tip of one sponson 4" or 5" before the rest of the boat moved ;) You could watch the deck/cowl, forward of the dash wrinkle when you did it.

My buddy in Ohio w/the F-1 V-8 says his is 450. I think his deck is as thin.

[baja200merk]

A light boat 10 years ago is a heavy layup today. 700-800 used to be regular layup now 550-600 is going rate.

My boat is 620 and its so stiff beef jumps up and down on the dash balancing on 1 foot and it doesnt even creek. Nothing less then 3/4 foam core bagged and infused every inch. Beefs mirage deck feels like a wet bud light box but im pretty sure mine is still lighter. The old knock and poke test doesnt work with todays composites.

Andy's carbon kevlar STV looks like he could blow it over at 40mph :eek:

[wtsjr66]

I got a better trick. The guy that can look at your boat and tell you its heavy, buys it and all of a sudden it loses weight!

[BRB]

I never seen the one in oh run....but heard it was bad a@@

[Michael J Giesler]

Yea Gary your river rocket is up here now and it is a medium to heavy lay up and the new owner couldn't be happier all the light one I have ever seen got wreaked up here by bad water Bruce mason broke two modvp carbon Kevlar boats in one season smokin Joe blew the bottom out of his three times in glass water they are nice but in rough water a lot blew apart the build quality has gotten WAY better as the years went on I always liked stv

[BRB]

here r a few what i consider light lay boats ive owned(but i was told i was a junk peddler too...soo...lol)...the teal boat was a drag bottom carbon/kevlar......well under 500lb.....the grey won was a carbon/kevlar under 500....the red one was owned one time by ron alstott carbon kevlar....dont know how much under 500 but u couldnt pick it up nose to tail at the races they had to cradle it....lol

[racerx]

Had a 490lb Allison raced the island 3 years no stress cracks-- Mason busted 2 light weight stv- joe busted the bottom 3 times on his after I busted it the 1st time and then I busted the bottom out of another one that was new And have owned 20 allisons since...

[BRB]

here r some more light ones ive had...the blk/white modvp was bout a 500lb boat....the white/blk rr was bout a 515lb boat...the white/purple rr was bout a 515lb boat.....i currently own the red modvp its bout a tick under 500lb...lol

[BRB]

now what i consider med lay up boats ive owned...the orange was a doulbe kevlar 600-615lb....the yellow modvp was bout mid 600....the hydrostream vking was a tick under 600...the yellow rr i currently own is 600-615

[BRB]

these r the heavier to standard ones ive owned...procomp and euro around 750....teal pc and hydro std weight

[BRB]

the rest...lol

[BRB]

last but not least and i currently still own the fountain.....ive also owned a 208 baja and a glastron cvx 18(dont have pics)wheeew im boated out......lol...lol...or ocd one

[patchesII]

I'd say 90% of people's estimates on boat weight are wrong. True sub 500 lb boats are fairly rare, no matter how thin the deck feels to you. I've seen a Mirage that felt like paper mâché hit the scales at 625 lbs. Older STV's from Summerford were normally 575-650 lbs or heavier. My Allison that I sold in February was a real 475 lb boat and, without bragging, I don't remember seeing another glass boat get that light on DSRA's or ODBA's scales, despite hearing about numerous 450 lb boats out there. I know my boat was rigged super light but what it boils down to is most people fudge the weights downward significantly from reality. I can think of one older Mirage that I heard once was a 450 lb(that number gets used a lot in boat estimates) and it can't seem to get much under 1400 lbs at the races. Knowing the rigging and driver weight that makes it about 625 lb hull. Lol

[BRB]

all my light ones were weight either here with dig scales or at jasper

[JWTjr.]

I have never met anyone who is not actively racing that really knows what his boat weighs. But I'll agree with a laugh, most say theirs are lightweights. They're not. They almost never are.

[Instigator]

I have never met anyone who is not actively racing that really knows what his boat weighs.

Bingo.

The STV I quoted was un-rigged.

My Vector (on real scales) was 543 unrigged and was afraid to see a true rigged weight.

I always thought the ironic thing was for all the lake guys wanting light boats is there's more negative than positive to having one for that application.

[Instigator]

I never seen the one in oh run....but heard it was bad a@@
I've ridden in it while sitting on the gas tank and can report that it is evil.

Local lore says (pre GPS) 141 (from Merc guys) on radar 20 yrs ago.

[Instigator]

Yea Gary your river rocket is up here now and it is a medium to heavy lay up and the new owner couldn't be happier all the light one I have ever seen got wreaked up here by bad water Bruce mason broke two modvp carbon Kevlar boats in one season smokin Joe blew the bottom out of his three times in glass water they are nice but in rough water a lot blew apart the build quality has gotten WAY better as the years went on I always liked stv

Always wanted to weigh that one but never did. The STV experts I trusted told me medium lay up and I thing guessed 650 - 725??
Course the anti OMC guys always told me it had to be a fly weight for it to run so good ;)

Glad the new owner is enjoying it. Seems like a nice guy and is a gorgeous boat.

To your point on build quality, w/current methods and materials they are also WAY stronger.

[Instigator]

My name is BRB and I have a STV addiction!

Dude......, knew you owned a few but.......yikes!

[baja200merk]

I'd say 90% of people's estimates on boat weight are wrong. True sub 500 lb boats are fairly rare, no matter how thin the deck feels to you. I've seen a Mirage that felt like paper mâché hit the scales at 625 lbs.

Yup, thats what my brothers mirage deck feels like, the bulkheads in the hull have punched through the deck completely in 3 spots. You cannot walk on it anywhere, period. The previous owner weighed it on a hanging scale (for shipping) at work and he said it weighed 515lbs. We took it to dump scales and came up with a much heavier number.

My T1 weighed 550lbs bare hull and was 720 on jack's scale with 4-5 gals of fuel, rigged with no battery.

The difference in all the scales that are not inspected is probably comical. We are going to weigh mine vs my brothers soon. My motor is heavier so we shall see.

[2us70]

I worked at Action Marine in the 1970s and I learned that building ultra light fiberglass boats is harder than you think. It takes a lot longer and it takes much more attention to detail to keep weight from creeping into the boat.

[LakeRacer99]

Whats so hard about taking them across a truck scale at the local COOP and then taking the trailer back across empty? My Mirage river racer weighed 580 that way before i hung the motor on it. Truck scales are calibrated...is your race scale?

[BRB]

Yeh truck scales r calibrated.....by the ton....so they could be off 50...100lbs......most wont even weight that light.....scrap yard scales would be more accurate....and yes our scales r calibrated....and so r odba's

[Mark75H]

Not sure what the difference is between "truck scales" and "scrap yard scales" ???

[Instigator]

Yeh truck scales r calibrated.....by the ton....so they could be off 50...100lbs......most wont even weight that light.
I asked and they told me they were certified to with just a few lbs. I'm sure not APBA/ODBA level but for what I was doing...
I know I could step on one corner and it "saw" it.

The scrap yard scales (at the drive through)are much lower reading so you'd think (assuming certified) they'd be more accurate.
1% of 500 Vs 1% of 20,000.

[baja200merk]

The scrap yard scales (at the drive through)are much lower reading so you'd think (assuming certified) they'd be more accurate.
1% of 500 Vs 1% of 20,000.

The scrap yard and county dump scales are pretty close when I weigh my truck on them. Within a couple hundred pounds but the truck holds 36 gals of diesel and I never went back to back same day.

[JWTjr.]

The truck scales have been, in my experience, very accurate. We have done some back-to-back weighing at Allison (back in the 90s, for BWB stories) and at the truck scales. Weights recorded were within a few pounds.

[BRB]

The truck scales I went to wouldnt even weight just the boat and trailer.....too light said the scales only started weighing at a certain weight.....and would be off 50 to 100lbs or so because they weight in heavier incraments not that crutial.......were as a scrap yard pays out by the pound so they get them calibrated a little closer.....easier just to rent a digital scale thats calibrated and hang the boat....if its that important....but what my gripe is people selling a light layup boat with no clue.......and the reason is more money....ive talked to people said ohhh its a 450lb boat with no clue...only to say well when u tap on the deck it sounds light....then get mad when u call thier bluff...

[afr]

boats are just like us old guys they gain weight as they age true that

[baja200merk]

The truck scales have been, in my experience, very accurate. We have done some back-to-back weighing at Allison (back in the 90s, for BWB stories) and at the truck scales. Weights recorded were within a few pounds.

I watched SBT dump a pile of sleeves on the ground, drop 55 gallon drums of crank and rod bearings and another couple 55 gallon drums of pistons. Here I am dropping off a mere 120 pistons and 9 cranks... felt like a whimp but truck weight was spot on when I was leaving :leaving:

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