Skanu with Pivot Drive

[skunked again]

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.