Grill Placement on 3300 SCR

[tackleshep]

Ok figured I'd start a new thread as I start this project.

Havamax, thanks for the pictures if I can figure it out I'll put your picture link in here so people have a different reference point.

After looking at a lot of options and trying to determine what works best for us here is what we've come up with.

The kettle style is just not going to be the right fit for us, usually we cook larger amounts of food and when the kids are gone and it's just me and mom we will probably change things up but for now I've ordered a Magma Catalina.



It has a nice cooking area and the warming rack which I find myself using all the time at home.

As far as location I just can't bring myself to go anywhere but off the swim platform as we have discussed before. Magma makes some great swivel style and fixed rail mounts but as you will see from the poor picture of the back of our boat. (note: this was the sale picture and we will hardly use the camper enclosure until late fall) my rails don't fall where HavaMax's do they are lower and the mounts won't grip them. The bow rails are just not strong enough to support the weight during movement and I don't want to stow and move a greasy grill everytime we want to buzz across the lake.



So if you look to the left of my entry door, the back of the boat has a long flat railing (fiber not metal) that is a level part along the entire back of the boat. I plan on using Magma's flush mounts with the plastic stoppers.



This will allow me to set up the grill facing either way (towards the platform or towards the inside of the boat) and because of the slant of the back of the boat it won't take up any seating or any room on the platform. You won't want to sit in that corner while it's on but when it's not hot is shouldn't get in the way. It also gives me a couple options for down time. Our cover will actually fit and bungee under the mounts making it so we can leave the grill on the boat but more importantly this design requires about 5 seconds to remove the entire grill and it can be stowed in my locked dock box during down times so it's not there for the taking. Also give me the opportuntiy in the colder times to remove it and put the camper cover on but also be able to pop just the back corner of the enclosure to be able to use it. The other crucial thing with this location is my bumper storage on the back of the boat gives me access to the underside of that rail so I can put locking nuts on the brackets.

The big downside is the drilling two 1 1/8 inch holes in my boat. While I worry about that the mounts are great looking polished stainless and have the black stoppers that allow it to look very professional plus they fit flag holders and other toys if we would want to use it that way.

The grill, mounts, and covers are all rated for heavy duty use and should be really stable back there for moving in the water.

I will be getting the items late this week and hope to start construction this weekend. I'll update with some pictures of the process and final product. You have 48 hours to convince me I'm crazy..............GO!!

[shrew]

Uh.....you're a boater. YOU'RE ALREADY CRAZY!! The grill and it's placement have nothing to do with it. That being said, it seems like a sound plan to me. Go For It!

[HavaMax]

Plan looks good to me........

[tackleshep]

Originally Posted by shrew

Uh.....you're a boater. YOU'RE ALREADY CRAZY!! The grill and it's placement have nothing to do with it. That being said, it seems like a sound plan to me. Go For It!

Ok to be clear this is boat number three in four years. It's just our first cruiser, everything before has been runabouts. And yes I'm crazy, the problem is I'm very limited on attention to detail and the engineering side. Now with the shop prices at the local marine I'm seriously thinking about taking some freakin classes. Living here in Kansas boating is not a week long vacation thing. The largest lake in our State is probably the size of many "sounds" in coastal areas. What we do very well is party and spend time with family. Therefore our goal is to leave our house every friday and come home on Sunday. Being a very "comfort" interested person I like the idea of getting everything on this boat just right so one trip from the car and were there without much work to do. Therefore things like having sheets and pillows just for the boat, a kitchen full over dry goods, and the setup is crucial to me doing nothing for three days. So just for the ongoing project.



Here is the inside shot of the cockpit. I'm thinking the grill will go in that right corner and the other attractive thing is I think I will be able to place it either way. Either cooking from the inside of the boat when it's just a few of us or turn it around and cook from the platform if thats more convienant. I really think It will stay out of the way of normal traffic when not in use.

[HavaMax]

I think your grill plan will work out just right. . Just a little tid bit from me.....on my 3200, the port rear bench seat is the same as yours as far as I can tell.....on mine I put in a folding leg under the center of the seat bottom. It really stops any sagging and instability in the seat bottom. I had to buy a longer folding leg and cut it down and reinstalled the rubber foot. Works very well, I can get a couple pics if needed(will be bigger pics this time).. Another modification worth it's weight in gold was to have carpet pieces made for the steps into the cabin...much nicer for us and daisy Mae(our boxer)!!!! The carpet pieces were made thru corinthian marine carpets. I think there is a couple pics I'm my album......just another money spending idea for ya! Jesse

[tackleshep]

Jesse,

Thanks for those tips. The carpet on the stairs is a good idea, I did see that on your albumn page. I have also noticed the weakness of that rear seat but have solved the problem a little differently. I located two 48 can capacity Igloo matching marine coolers that just happen to be a 1/2 inch shorter than the seat. They are permanent fixtures on the boat and we now store all coolers there. Not only does it keep them out of the way but also supports the seat.

[tackleshep]

Ok project update for the day. I have now recieved all my shipments and parts to start the project. I got the mounts and the grill today and I have to admit, Magma makes a great looking product.

Now for the bitch of the day. The grill came in and had a bag of screws/bolts to attach the mounting brackets to as advertised. With that said they shipped the wrong amount of everything. No instructions (have to go online) but I should have 8 bolts, lock washers, and self locking nuts and instead I have 4 plus four other bolts that match nothing.

To make things even more screwy the mounting brackets came in yesterday and they were completely missing half the parts, the instructions clearly say how many and of what and it was another hodge podge of wrong size and no nuts.

So no big deal, one trip to the hardware store and $15 bucks of stainless steel parts later I'm ready to roll but you would think for a grill retailed at over $500 and mounts retailed at over $80 they could atleast get the damn hardware right.

Now to convince the wife to watch the kids long enough in the evening for me to go and start drilling holes. Thank god I didn't do it last night, the mounts came with instructions of how far apart to put the holes and it was tempting but then I thought.....you know I'll get the grill and measure off the actual mounts and sure as hell the instructions are roughly 8 inches off.

[dragoy]

Greetings Tackleshep.

I did the exact same mount of my magna grill on my 2700 SCR. The back flushmount is the way to go, when the grill faces aft, I can stand on the swim platform and do my magic. The only thing I had to watch out for was the placement on the rail. I moved it as far starboard as possible so that if someone is sitting in the rear bench seat, the will not get burned from the grill.

Happy grillin :-)

Nils

[katsal2k]

Tackleshep,
my dock neighbor is a machinist who fabricates some pretty cool mounting brackets for magma grills. even has design patents pending. he is working on a mount for the same grill for another dock neighbor. since i have the same boat as yours, i'll let you know on the progress. i bought his mount for the dome grill and it is excellent. i hope i could help you out with this. i'll send the pics after this weekend. the best part about his mounts is that their is no drilling, they hook on the hand rails and you could pretty much stand on them their so strong..
everyone who has seen this thing has bought one.....or wish they had

[seapuppy]

kATSAL
Would love to see what you have on the dome style mounts...I have a huge swim step and was thinking of putting the mount on the swimstep..but need to find some way of mounting it....

SP

[tackleshep]

Sorry guys ended up doing most of the work at night and didn't get good pics. I will post the final product. It turned out perfectly. Can grill from the boat or the swim platform. Other than when it's on your not taking up any space, can run full speed without any fear of damage to the boat or the grill, and it uninstals in the matter of 15 seconds and can sit in my deck box for security or on a picnic table for large functions. Cooks great.