The final installment of this bass boat rebuild project will include a few final components to make this rig a fully functional, tournament-ready bass boat.
August 27, 2025
By Thomas Allen
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Catch up on the series:
The rebuild came with its hurdles, for sure. That’s the nature of a boat job like this one, however. You have to accept that things are not going to go smoothly 100% of the time, but if you stay focused on the end goal, it’ll all come together. As the rebuild finally begins to come together, the vision becomes real, and a boy’s dream boat becomes a reality.
This final installment will cover the installation of a TH Marine Atlas Hydraulic 6-inch Jack Plate , dual Minn Kota Raptors and a TH Marine Hot Foot . Let’s dig into the final components to this project and we’ll end it with a test run.
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We had a local marina install a 6-inch Atlas Hydraulic jack plate on this rig for various reasons. It fit perfectly and improved the overall performance of the rig. Most of the bass boats you see today feature a 10-inch hydraulic jack plate. Why add a jack plate to begin with? Well, it certainly improves overall performance as well as the ability to make motor height adjustments on the fly, but the Atlas platform allows for additional modifications, such as the addition of shallow-water anchors like Minn Kota Talons or Raptors . A 10-inch jack plate was a bit too much for this boat, I felt like a 6-inch model would be the best bet—plus it would still accommodate the Raptors.
Here's a look at the jack plate from the top down, it shows the 6-inch gap between the transom and the motor mount. The TH Marine Atlas Hydraulic Jack Plate was indeed available in a 6-inch model, and that’s what we went with. We didn’t have the type of lift to pick up the motor so we could install the jack plate, so we dropped the boat off at a local marina to have it put on. This was the first of only two tasks we needed help to accomplish, and they did a fantastic job.
Here's the other side of the jack plate. You can see the two holes on the left side, or the boat side, of the jack plate, those holes are meant to accommodate the shallow-water anchor mounting bracket. The next job was to install the Minn Kota Raptor pumps. These two control systems had to fit in the center of the boat’s powerplant area, and our specific decision to add two Li-Time 36-volt lithium batteries to power the Minn Kota Ultrex Quest was made to accommodate the Raptor pumps. We knew we were dealing with limited space, so the decisions that we made up to this point were meant to make the most out of the space we had. And thankfully, we got them installed.
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Inside the powerplant, you can see where the Raptor pumps were to be mounted. The brackets were easy to install and securely fit the area. Here are both pumps installed in the rear of the boat. They fit perfectly. The next hurdle was getting the right stainless-steel bolts, washers and nuts into the jack plate that would ultimately hold the Raptors on. This was a simple problem, but a problem nonetheless. Due to the jack plate and Raptor configuration, the bolts the Raptors came with were too long. As the images indicate, there was a nut inside the jack plate that limited space for excess threads on a bolt. I had to hit the hardware store to get the correct stainless-steel bolts, and I mean the exact length, to get the Raptor mounting brackets installed.
NOTE: Anytime you’re putting stainless nuts on stainless bolts, make sure you goop up the bolt threads with plenty of anti-seize, or you may be dealing with a totally screwed up scenario. Trust me on this part. Use anti-seize!
The bolts that came with the Raptors were too long with this specific situation. You can see the nut inside the gap that is in the way. That nut is holding the jack plate to the transom, and we didn't want to drill new holes into the back of the boat to accommodate the jack plate, so buying shorter bolts was the most economic option. The right bolts were easy to find. Be sure you use anti-seize on the threads to prevent the nuts seizing on the threads. Here is the bolt nearly installed. The end result was a perfect fit. Once the brackets were installed, it was easy to attach the Raptors, and then you needed to level them—at least make them look even side to side. After you install the Raptors, you need to run the hoses, connect them to the correlated pump and cycle them a couple times to fill the lines with hydraulic fluid. Once you’re on the water for the first time, you’ll need to deploy and stow the Raptors a dozen times to get all the hydraulic fluid spread out smoothly through the lines. Keep an extra bottle of Minn Kota hydraulic fluid handy when you first put the boat on the water, because you may need to add some oil to fill the reservoir.
Here is the bolt nearly installed. The end result was a perfect fit. Here is one of the Raptor brackets installed. That red jig holds the bolts in place so you can get the Raptor installed without another set of hands, but another set of hands absolutely makes your life much easier. The first Minn Kota Raptor is installed here. One is on, the second is about to be installed. Here's a look at the rear of the boat with both Raptors fully installed and functional. The next thing we added were a pair of Minn Kota Stomp Pedals up by the trolling motor pedal. These run on battery power to send a Bluetooth signal to the Raptors to deploy. And they are easy to install and set up. Watch this video to learn more about setting up remotes to your Minn Kota Raptors .
Minn Kota Stomp Pedals to send a signal to the Raptors via bluetooth signal. Here are the Stomp Pedals installed. The next item on our list was to install the TH Marine Hot Foot. This is a very easy process in and of itself, however this boat was not originally designed to accommodate a Hot Foot—especially for a 6’4” angler. You’ll recall that we removed the stereo system so he could get his foot down to where the pedal would eventually be located. Before we dig into the Hot Foot, the marina that put the jack plate on ran a new throttle cable from the motor into position to connect to the Hot Foot. And thankfully, it was wrapped in a blue casing to match our theme.
Next, we had to install the TH Marine Hot Foot. Here's the view from the dash into the area where the Hot Foot is to be installed. We had to remove the stereo from this location to accommodate my son's legs. The wires were eventually pushed up and out of the way, and zip tied to the internal system in the driver's console. The concern I had was if we were to screw the baseplate down, would we puncture the bottom of the hull. This particular design didn’t leave much room between this part of the interior floor and the bottom of the hull. We had maybe an inch and a half to work with. We needed the screws to get through the floor, but not too far. We managed to get 1-inch screws into the flooring and it securely fascinated the Hot Foot baseplate to the floor in the correct position.
Here ist he position we decided on. Notice the blue throttle cable, it would later be installed once the actual Hot Foot is placed into the bracket. The throttle cable runs all the way back to the motor, but the hand-shifter still puts the boat into forward or reverse. Here is the Hot foot installed. Another view of the finished Hot Foot. And … thankfully, it was simple to install and worked perfectly. Works still.
We put Boat EFX straps over the graph covers for added security. And of course, we picked blue to accent the boat theme. The final pictures of this project demonstrate how much work went into the project, and a happy young man with his fully functional and budget friendly bass boat.
The boat is on the water for the first run! He's a happy camper! Everything runs and operates as it should. And she hauls! This rig, with a 150hp Yamaha 2-stroke, will run 55 mph, which isn't bad at all! We are both thrilled that this project turned out as well as it did. A near barn-find bass boat that, after some blood, sweat, tears and cuss words, turned into a fine decked-out bass boat. Proud of my son, he paid for this boat through hard work and a dream he had to own a boat. Never doubt it, it's his rig, bought and paid for. And I’m one proud dad knowing he’s set to go fishing by himself.
Thanks for following along.
