I'm redoing my boat this winter-gutted it down to the hull, checked for leaks, fixed them and am now in the process of building it back like I want it. I've been on tinboats looking at several different "designs" and gotten some advice from Cray about how he would do things. My boat is a 16' mod V with a bottom width of 48" and a beam of 70". The previous owner had removed the middle seat, and I like the clean floor this provides. I'm building a drop deck and have added a short piece of 1/4" aluminum plate that is welded on top of the sides from the point of the bow back about 22". This will be the mounting surface for the tm and da ducer. I do not spider rig but am interested in trying it. I don't know how much strain this will put on the mounts/floor and was planning on making the drop deck out of 1/8" aluminum. Will this be adequate? My second alternative is to use a sheet of 1/2" plywood (sealed) under the aluminum, but to keep weight down I don't want to do this unless necessary. Does anyone have firsthand experience-or knowledge- about this? Any help will be appreciated. I know this boat is really not ideally suited for this, but it is a project for me, and I don't want to be redoing it again any time soon. I have learned one thing so far. There is a good reason quality aluminum boats are fairly expensive. I would hate to think what one would cost building it piece by piece. By the way, if anyone wants to try using the durafix aluminum welding rods be advised that they don't work as easily as the videos indicate. I can patch holes slick as anything in the boat itself, but when it comes to welding together the aluminum bracing or decking that I'm using it is a whole different ballgame. All my welder friends tell me that there is a huge difference in how the different grades of aluminum react to gas welding. TIG welding is still the preferred method, but I don't own a TIG.