Saturday, March 26, 2016

Boat Grills

Like everything else boat-related, you can spend HUNDREDS on a boat grill.  It's not that I have a problem spending money on something of quality.  I have a problem overpaying though.  Boat grills cost WAY more than they should.  That's pretty much on par for boat stuff though.  You know what BOAT stands for, right?  "Break Out Another Thousand..."

Being overpriced isn't the only problem I have with "boat grills" on the market.  The other problem is they all require some kind of mount.  That means drilling holes in the floor.  If there's one thing that shouldn't be taken lightly, its drilling holes in your boat!  They won't un-drill themselves when you change your mind.  Some grills use a railing mount instead of a floor mount.  The advertisments say you can mount your grill to any railing anywhere on your boat.  That's just code for scratching your railing.  

Rail mounts can get in the way of the mooring cover too.  My mooring cover touches every inch of railingIf I had a grill mount, I'd have to unbolt or it would wear a hole in the cover.  Who wants to unbolt the grill every time you cover your boat?  Or, who wants to bolt on the grill mount every time you grill?  Neither are for me.

The rest of the grills use floor mountsA floor mount is a metal ring you screw to the floor.  Then you screw a metal post into the ring.  Then you bolt the grill to the post.  It's the same concept as the floor mount on your captain's chairIf you look closely in the picture below, you can see the ring and post under the captain's chair.  The grill mount is the same, but with a longer post so you don't have to bend over.  This is a fine way to mount a grill if you want it to be permanent.  Just be aware when you don't want your grill on your boat, the ring will ALWAYS be there to bash your toes into.  By the way, no one wears shoes on a boat...



So, where do you store a grill that's bolted to a 3-foot post when you're not using it?  Your garage.  More important to the point, not your boat.  You do get to haul the greasy monster back and forth to the lake though.  Just leave your friends at home so you'll have space in the car for the gill.  This is a hassle you just don't need.  

I wanted a grill on our boatI also wanted it out of the way when it wasn't used.  I didn't want to drill holes in the floor.  I didn't want my railings scuffed.  I didn't want anyone tripping or smashing their toes.  Was this too much to ask?   

I thought about it off and on for over a year.  I came up with several ideas.  The simplest are often the best, right?  My solution is shown in the picture below. This is about as simple as it gets.  It's a board, with a grill on it, sitting on the ladder.


The grill is a Coleman "Fold N Go".  It uses the small green LP tanks.  I got it at Menards on sale for $35.  You can get it right now on Amazon for around $50.  

The base is just a piece of wood with two slots cut in it.  This lets the board rest on top of the ladder railings.  You can't see it in the photo, but I put 4 bolts through the bottom of the board, pointing up, so the threaded ends would just fit into the holes in the feet on the bottom of the grill.  This keeps the grill from sliding off into the lakeThat would not be good.  I countersunk the bolts into the bottom of the board so the bolt heads wouldn't scratch anything.  I put some Gorilla tape around the threaded ends so they wouldn't scratch anything either.  The LP tank isn't shown in the photo, but it rests off the back edge of the board.

The advantages are many:  No holes in the boat.  No railing scratchesNo tools neededThe base stores easily under a seatSo does the grill.  Set up is cake.  Just set the board on the ladderSet the grill on the board.


The slots in the board are just a bit shorter than the radius of the ladder handles, so the base wedges itself into place.  I can easily adjust the "tilt" to make the grill level at any time.  If we're on the water, I tilt it level with the lakeIf the boat is up on a beach at an upward angle, I just tilt the grill base forward a bit to level it off.  A grill on a post might never be level.

Here's another photo:



There are some disadvantages.  First, the grill is smallIt doesn't cook a ton of food at one time.  Four burgers fit easily.  Maybe 6 McDonald's sized onesAny grill cooks enough hot dogs to feed the planet.  If you take a lot of kids out, take hotdogs.  You do have to kneel or sit by it when you are cooking.  This isn't a big deal for me.  It might be as I get older.  I like to sit on the edge of the boat, dangle my feet in the water, and grillOur favorite sand bar has a gradual slope, and I can even stand in the water next to the grill and cook from there too.

The ability to store the grill on the boat 24x7 is an excellent trade off in my book.  This grill is very portable, so I can take it ashore and use it at the beach or a picnic table at a park.

I hope this idea might work for you.  If you're still contemplating whether you actually need to even have a grill on your boat, know this.  There's nothing better than a rib eye cooked out on the lake.  I don't know why, but for whatever reason, a steak is 10x better out on the water than anywhere else.  You'll just have to trust me on that.

Good luck and happy grilling!

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