Skanu with Pivot Drive

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Swapped boats. Now have a Skanu. I originally wanted a pedal kayak.


12'4" Long X 39" Wide, 160#'s dry hull weight (according to website), rated for 2 people. It's 1/4"-1/2" thick plastic. Reason for the weight. Storage under the two black lids. Front area is quite shallow (enough for a 3700 series box or a life jacket, rear has a cutout, giving access to the hull. These are a two piece boat, the top cap is welded(?) to the hull. Previous owner had a bow eye installed, transom reinforced, raised transom plate, stern eyes installed, quick disconnect trolling motor bow plate, trolling motor plug. He had a 5HP on it, boat is rated for a 2.5HP. The rear storage, you can store rods in it. I put a couple 7' rods in.
I have no plans of a gas engine or trolling motor. I'm putting on a pivot drive, from NuCanoe. Too get some exercise and not have to register it. Bought a used drive for a Frontier12. Wanted one from one of their shorter boats, beggar's aren't choosers! These things aren't cheap!!!


Here it is, with bracket to fit in a frontier 12, first pic. That takes up WAY to much room! Second picture, see how the drive cable has some bends in it? That's why I wanted a unit for one the shorter nucanoe's. Same for the steering cable. Pedaled it at home, all was good. I took it to the lake, all was not good. The drive cable was twisting, rendering the drive system quite difficult to use. Luckily this vessel paddles nicely!! For the drive cable, think of a weedeater drive cable, that's what this is. To make it easy to remove the drive unit, for transportation, I have a thought to alleviate this issue. Use PEX angle supports. See next pics.



1/2" PEX supports fit quite nicely! My other thought, which won't make removal of the drive unit easy, is to put the drive cable in a rigid conduit elbows. Your thoughts? Something else?


Made a bracket out of aluminum flat stock, put three holes on each side. Two mounting holes on the front of the pedal drive, see second pic. Used rivnuts to secure it. Contemplated cutting an access hole in floor of front storage, to put fender washers and nuts on backside, instead of rivnuts. Your thoughts? Did I mess up using rivnuts? A pro to this is, it's easily removable, when I don't want it on. If drifting a shallow creek.

These vessels have side scuppers, instead of the traditional bottom scuppers in kayaks. I have one way scupper flaps on order. To keep the floor drier, especially in colder weather.



To aid in no ramp, or busy ramp situations, added wheels on the transom. Which meant removing the stern eyes. C-tug dinghy wheels. These are easy to move from up/down position. This vessel is quite bow heavy!! I will not be dragging it very far!!! Mounted a millennium seat, on a swivel. Ideally, this would be mounted on strut or something similar, to give infinite adjustment for seat placement when pedaling. I might still do that. The pedal tower does have multiple adjustments. I want to get the drive cable situation figured out first. I felt stable/comfortable in it. I turned around multiple times, when messing with the drive cable. Not once, did I feel like I'd tip over. Which was good, since I didn't even hesitate, when turning around. It wasn't until after I turned around, I realized what I'd done. While holding the cable, I had some good speed.

[DockShootinJack]

Good looking rig

[SuperDave336]

Never seen anything like that. Interesting and cool project you have. Customizing is always fun. Hope the PEX supports work. Good luck.

[BuckeyeCrappie]

Cool! Time to rig it up…

[STUMP HUNTER]

Nice setup, look forward to seeing some on the water pics and reports, Congrats!

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Added some one way scupper covers.
Had it out a couple times yesterday, made some changes. The pex supports helped, the cable still twisted though, I had the right thought. I swapped those for a 3/4" 90, piece of pvc, followed with another 3/4" 90. That was better, still twisted, not as bad. Added two more 90's. See pics.





Took it back out, MUCH better! I didn't glue the fittings, with not knowing how it'd work. I will glue at least some of them. With not being glued, some did come apart, going from forward-reverse, cable did flop around, that was it though. No resistance when pedaling. I think once fittings are glued, that will stop it.
Reason for hesitancy on gluing together? Removing the drive unit for transportation (see first pic, that is the approximate location for transportation) and for access to the rear storage, as a one piece, 7' rod fits in there. That will be trial and error. Next time I go, i'll take the pvc glue with me.
My reason for adding the pvc 90's, instead of cutting the cable, then resmashing the end to fit in the drive unit? I wasn't 100% how I'd like this setup. If not, then I could re-sell it, for it's intended application. Or, sell the boat, get a frontier 12, put this on it.

I will add a support, on the rear of the pedal unit, it was moving some, flexing the floor. I didn't realize how much force would be put on the pedal unit, while pedaling. I'm starting to understand why the original base was so big, especially since the nucanoe would have thinner plastic.

A big adjustment, that I never thought of......stick steering. Can't tell you how many times i turned the wrong way!!

Did fish some while out "testing". Caught two this size, there mouths where definitely bigger than there bellies!!! One of them hit when the lure landed, I yanked so hard he flew halfway back!!



Thinking about raising the seat. Putting it on a slide system. Aiding in removal, placement and clearance over the 90's

Your thoughts please! Something I need to do differently?

[skunked again]

Pic with one way scuppers. They don’t stop the water from coming in, did reduce it though.
After receiving them, reading the instructions. They are not recommended for under the water line use.


Sent from my iPhone using Crappie.com

[SuperDave336]

You’ll get it dialed in soon. Be a good work-n-progress. I’m still tinkering with my kayak.

[RedHillsPapa]

That's nice! Without being hands on its hard to add any input, but I think you've made the right calls. Tons of room which is different from the production yaks too looks like.

[skunked again]

SuperDave336 - Yes, Tinkering is something I enjoy.

RedHillsPapa - Thank You! Yes, lots of room. That was one of the things that caught my attention with this vessel. In a way, it saves money and time. How? Storage for rods, inside the vessel. Room to lay rods and nets down, without any extra mounted holders. Storage for miscellaneous small items in the front compartment. Rated for two people. From the few times I've had it out, I'm thinking I'll like it. With that said, it's not the save all cure all of small crafts. It is heavy, it's not fast, it is wide.

I had bought a 94" long kayak paddle, given what I'd found online for sizing, this should have been ideal. The craft is 39" wide, I'm 5'9" tall. ..... NOT so! You really have to dip down, on the stroke side, to catch water. I have to lift the blade that was just in the water, above my thigh, to get the other blade in the water. This time of year, and summer, that's fine, sometimes needed! In 4-5 months though, it will not be. The good news is, the paddle is there for shallow water, and a backup.