I have see alot of yall puttin Steel Flex on you boats and i have a couple of questions... Exactly what does Steel Flex do? Strengthen your hull? Just a good coating to put on?

Thanks for any input!!!

Makes the bottom of your boat slick. Easier to slide over stumps, hydrilla and mud. Might gain .5mph-1mph. Doesn't help out in sand, and rocks and oysters will chip it off.

Got to take everything off your boat, flip it over, and sand your boat down like this.


Then apply, babysit and watch it dry, and then put her back on the trailer after 24hrs.


Took me 3 hours to take off motor, seats, poling platform etc.

My boat already had another product on the bottom that was chipping off, so it took me 2-3 days at 1-2 hours a day to get ALL the old stuff off.

Takes 30 minutes or so to apply and then 3-4 hours to dry to the touch. You have to babysit it so bugs, pine straw, leaves etc, don't fall on it and become part of your boats bottom. Then another 3 hours to rig everything back up.

Its about a 3 day, 12 hour project that costs $200 to do. The airboat guy down the road charges $350 to put his mixture on.

I won't do it again. I run the coast about 50% of the time and after 3-4 trips the oyster bars put a hurtin on it. Now there is so much friction from having the Steel Flex chips still on there, I think its hurting the way my boat runs.

You might be better off with a thin sheet of polymer on your boat BBB. Only issue with it is you have to drill holes in the hull to mount it.

Nathan

I ain't drilling no holes in the bottom of my boat. Plus it adds like 200 pounds.

There was some other stuff they were putting on with adhesive, but it was like $900.

I'm just gonna let it all chip off and run it bare.

My advice is to not put Steel Flex on your boat. It was on mine when I bought it, shortly after running stumps it started chipping off and eventually I had big pieces missing. It is also a pain to get off but I picked up about 2 mph from doing so.

Sanded the bottom down with some 40 and 80 grit then wiped it down really well with denatured alcohol. That is how he prepped it coming from his post on another forum. It worked for him for a long period. However, the SteelFlex did not last one duck season from riding stumps after I got the boat. Once it starts chipping off it starts getting worse. If you patched it up as it chipped off you would probably be fine, but flipping my boat over multiple times a year is not an option for me.

I have a buddy who has steel flex on his boat, and loves it. I have been thinking about doing it myself. The stuff is really slick. You can literally back your boat down the ramp, with the boat barely in the water, give it slight shove, and off she comes. You better have her hooked though if you are going to back her in, b/c if you break too hard, or the ramp is steep, you are swimming to get it! Great for launching in the shallow water ramps. I have been to places I couldn't even launch because I couldn't get the boat in the water! It is hard to compare how it glides over the veg, but if slides that easily off a trailer, you know it is helping you get to places you may not otherwise be able to get to.

Keep in mind though in FL, we hunt in the marsh- really heavy topped out veg, mud etc. We are not running oyster beds, flooded timber etc. I am not sure I would put it on if I were running those areas...it will chip off...

The instructions say to sand with 24 grit. I used a drill with a sanding disc, but you have to be carefull because that 24 eats.

I tried sanding the Steel Flex off didn't work to well, so I resorted to a hand grinder. I think the application process was fine, as the stuff was on their real well. Just the stump after stump rocking and rolling is what it could not hold up to. Each to their own, but from my experience Steel Flex is not worth it. I also debated whether or not to reapply it to my boat.