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Teakgate


martinarcher

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Well I finally completed my project. I've been working on a fully automated "Teakgate" system for my 87' Sunsetter for about 4 weeks. It turned out to be a lot larger project that I originally had thought, but then again I kind of went all out with it. :) I built the gates from teak wood and used 2" stainless bar to fasten them together. I polished all the stainless to a mirror finish including the hinges. The amount of time I have in polishing is insane. :lol:

The side of the boat is pretty close to a 17 degree angle. When designing the gates I relized that that 17 degrees would be a bit much to lean the hinge line over to. With a 17 degree from vertical hinge line the end of the gate would rise almost 6 inches. I designed a wedge block to go between the gate and the hinge line to reduce the hinge angle to 9 degrees. This brings the gate elevation change to 2-3 inches. It also allows the actuator mounting point to be under the teak deck. At a 17 degree angle, the actautor angle was so great the trasom mount would end up above the teak deck....not good.

I designed the gates to be level with the teak deck when stowed and then "dig" a bit deeper when deployed. The gates stow at 27 degrees and deploy to 30 degrees. This 57 degree swing is accomplished using Lenco 102 actuators. When designing the angles and mounting points of the gates and actuators, I realized that the actuators mounting point on the transom would need to be exactly where the swim platform was. :Doh: I came up with a solution by welding the existing backets to a larger 1/4" aluminum plate that would offset the bracket toward the center line of the boat. This also allows the actuator to be mounted to the aluminum plate. I had them powder coated along with the backets that mount on the platform. The finish turned out great.

The gates had to be cut with several angles, it is probably best to let you look at the pics instead of describing the angles in text.

I mounted the gates to the transom and the new brackets along with the actuators. The meant drilling 14 new holes in the transom per side. That's right, there are 28 new holes in the boat! You can rest assured they are very well sealed with 3M 4200. I also had to do gel coat work on the transom where the swim platform brackets mount. The old brackets were mounted with 4200 and required a lot of scraping to remove. It also pulled a few small bits of gel off the transom. I re-gel coated the area so the new brackets would have a good surface to seal to. All holes were pilot drilled in reverse and then over drilled the OD of the screws being used and then countersunk to prevent any gel cracking.

As for the control, I had designed and built a GPS speedometer for the boat two years ago. This system uses a Arduino controller and a GPS receiver along with a 2 line LCD display. I added onto the existsing system to control the Teakgates. It allows a couple control options using 3 switch inputs and 4 actuator outputs, a couple output amps, and 4 relays to reverse the polarity to the actuators in order to extend or retract them. The system allows you to manually extend or retract each gate one at a time or at the same time. It also allows you to arm a gate which is then deployed when the boats speed is between 7 and 12 mph.

The gates are finished with Star Brite's Tropical Teak Sealer. The wood turned out beautifully and really shows off the grain and knots in the wood. I also cut compount angles in the teak platofrm to match the gates when stowed and finished the fresh cuts with the same teak sealer. I remounted the teak deck and it now comes right on and off the mounts.

Well here are the pics. Tomorrow I hope to get out and test it in the water. :yahoo:

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Temporary switch bank until I decide where to mount and what switches I want to use for the long run. Also a USB cable for software changes. The laptop will be going on the maiden voyage tomorrow.
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The box of fun. :) Look for wireless surfer initiated gate control from the wave in the future....it will be this winter's project. I'm planning on doing a wrist mounted transmitter the surfer can use.
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Thanks guys. It was a fun project.

MN - It has been something I was working on any spare minute I could find. I'm just glad it's done so I can get the garage back to normal. It looked like a tornado hit it yesterday afternoon when I finished. :lol: At least it's all cleaned up now.

Levi, the boat buckles work just like Malibu's. They sneak right between the gate and the actuator. They just touch the inside top of the gate so I might slide the buckles toward the center line of the boat a bit so they are totally clear of everything.

old skool - Thanks! That would be fun for sure. :) If I worked for Malibu I would have way too much fun at work doing what I love!

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Looks great. Glad to see it finished!

I just had a flash back... remembering that boat sitting for sale in a church parking lot, bone stock and needing TLC. Well it certainly got the TLC over the years! haha Now it's even more versatile.

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Thanks guys!

Rugger - right on! It has come a LONG way from when you picked it up there in the parking lot!

Woodski - I do like the speedo a lot. I just wish I used a backlit display on the gauge. I ordered a backlit LCD a couple days ago so I'll have to make up a new gauge over the winter. I use the GPS speed fr the gate deployment and the speed on the gauge display to calibrate my Perfect Pass paddlewheel. The brackets are powder coated black. I am very pleased with how the finish turned out.

Well today I spend a ton of time surfing and expected to come home with a lit of tweaks and changes. My list has 0 items! The system worked beautifully. The only snag was an undersized fuse that popped the first time I tried a surf side swap underway. Running both actuators at the same time with the water pressure drew enough current to pop my fuse. I upped it 5 amps and it worked great all afternoon.

I'll type up a full report tomorrow. I'm uploading videos and pics so I'll post them up tomorrow, I'm headed to bed for now. I think my buddies wife got a good video of the cross over so I'll have to swing by and get it off her camera. Stay tuned!

  • Like 2
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Thanks guys!

Rugger - right on! It has come a LONG way from when you picked it up there in the parking lot!

Woodski - I do like the speedo a lot. I just wish I used a backlit display on the gauge. I ordered a backlit LCD a couple days ago so I'll have to make up a new gauge over the winter. I use the GPS speed fr the gate deployment and the speed on the gauge display to calibrate my Perfect Pass paddlewheel. The brackets are powder coated black. I am very pleased with how the finish turned out.

Well today I spend a ton of time surfing and expected to come home with a lit of tweaks and changes. My list has 0 items! The system worked beautifully. The only snag was an undersized fuse that popped the first time I tried a surf side swap underway. Running both actuators at the same time with the water pressure drew enough current to pop my fuse. I upped it 5 amps and it worked great all afternoon.

I'll type up a full report tomorrow. I'm uploading videos and pics so I'll post them up tomorrow, I'm headed to bed for now. I think my buddies wife got a good video of the cross over so I'll have to swing by and get it off her camera. Stay tuned!

Amazing work! Funny how you could retro fit your bu from scratch and Malibu won't retro any of their past model years! Very impressive.

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