Cobaltchat.com

This is the same platform I had on my old 240. Inside the transom (which is 4 or 5 inches thick we discovered when drilling for LED lights) there is a huge backing plate, brace apparatus, and a big ass nut holding it all on.

This design is supposed to be a "quick attach " but I cant imagine it's very quick. I never took mine off but I tried once and it wouldn't budge. There are pins on both side you you pull out, then its supposed to just slip off.
Also, those pins are crazy expensive if you lose one. One of mine was missing from the beginning and when I tried to source a pin from a dealer, they tried to rape me so I went a different route.

This brace inside the engine compartment goes all the way across and is bolted to the bottom as well as the transom. What I have circled is where it goes through the transom and the deck slides on and pins. I'm pretty resourceful, but I'd think long and hard before attempting a job like this. And having a 3rd party try to duplicate and build it, then cut holes in my transom to mount it would scare me off. I'm sure to get a brace in like that you'll have to pull the engine. A lot of weight will be on that swimdeck at times. Sometimes 3 or 4 people...

Swimdeckdotcom is starting to look pretty good, hmm?

Wow, It looks like kwilliard's is supported entirely by the perimeter stainless tube as opposed to others I have seen where the stainless tube is simply a rub rail and the support comes from the two brackets beneath.

So this is what I have in mind for supports. I think 1/4" stainless would be sufficient for the support brackets. I am thinking the bent over top needs to be full length to help with lateral support. With lower support legs the brackets would be more of a connection to the hull than actual load bearing. Thoughts?

What I can say with our factory platforms they don't use the down brackets. Ask T5billion how he likes his.

So here are pics of the one from swimplatforms.com Am I overthinking this?

Yea swim platforms uses those. Cobalt with the big thick stainless brackets don't need it.

So I have contemporary fiberglass in Spokane building a platform. I sent pictures and he is closely representing the factory platform. The pictures are the first I have seen, the only change is to radius the inside corners of the grab handle reliefs. He is fabricating a stainless rail to go around the perimeter. I made a template and having a local fab shop build brackets. There is a twin to my boat at Hagadone that they were good enough to allow him to use for templating.

That's awesome. Did you order sea dek yet?

So contemporary fiberglass has a sister company that is a seadek fabricator. Unfortunately he has limited color options and there is 5 to 7 week lead time on the material from reader. They are going to template the platform before shipping so he will be ready when the material arrives. I am going terra (a light gray brown) over chocolate simulated teak.

Well that's cool.

Following!

Apparently contemporary is still waiting on the stainless fabricator to finish the rail. I told him I could take care of it but they have bent the tube already and just need to weld on tabs to finish it. What sucks is that I need to make templates for the support brackets to be built from after getting the platform so when you look at our Oregon summer it does not look likely to be complete this summer. I did put the boat in its slip last night without the platform. This was the first time putting the boat in the water and i was quite pleased that it floats. The boat exceeded my expectations in power ride and handling. The only to-do I found is the controls need some attention as there are a couple stiff spots. I am thinking take apart the helm control and lube everything well.

So I thought I would provide an update. This whole thing went south, really strange how it all has gone. After being told that the stainless fabricator had already bent the tubing I was then told they were trying to source materials. I eventually was given an exorbitant price for the stainless rail and told it would be raw industrial stainless unpolished. I told contemporary that I would look into building it here and get back to them, now I can't get them to return my calls. I say the whole thing has been strange because after sending pics of the factory platform I got pictures shortly after of the platform in rough form then radio silence. I saw a 246 at the lake recently with a swimplatforms.com platform and it looks much better in person so I may just go that route.

Kwilliard -

I would love if you could send me those pics. We are looking to add an extended platform to our 2000 246 and I cannot see the pics in the thread for some reason. Thank you!