This will begin the saga of a SDB Bateau that I bought last summer when I came home from Afghanistan. I will include pictures to show everyone what was done to rectify the structural problems more will come this is only the preperation for the story. Please feel free to comment. more to follow.......

Deja Vu

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=891&hilit=SDB

Atleast your not the only one.

Thanks for your service. Should be made a sticky as to why not to buy one............

Yep they sell some of the prettiest pieces of crap on the market.

Now i will say that the boat itself while structurally unsound performed great its cornering ability leaved a little to be desired but i think that just inherent in a flatbottom boat. Here is a link to my photobucket that shows the initial problems that i discovered after i cut the floor out with a circular saw. In the pictures there were at least 66 cracked welds or welds that were not completed. Now I did by this boat from one of thier "employees" as a used boat. However after call the CEO and telling him about the problems with this boat i was informed that this boat was not to be sold by him to the general public as it was a prototype. Here is the link to the pictures and i will post some of the bracing that was added to strengthen the boat. Now that it is braced and stiffened up boat actually runs faster. go figure. Here is the link to photobucket: http://s1002.photobucket.com/albums/af1 ... %20Bataeu/

More to follow

That lying azz mofo tried to convince everyone that he was the boat building guru of all gurus. Come to find out they didn't even build their own crappy boats. What a sack of chit...........

Was there a weld on that hull that wasn't cracked?

some one needs to go to welding school. thats some sh!tty welds

I have never welded in my life and I can even see that was the work of a totally incompetant person.

After talking to the head guy and him revealing what he did I would have demanded my money back. There is absoutely nothing that could be done to make me feel safe in that thing after seeing those pictures.

Wear your lifejacket always!!!!!

Well according to the CEO of SDB the guy that built that boat was the same guy that built prodrive boats. He touted that the boat hull was the same as a prodive now per the CEO of SDB they dont use this guy anymore due to problems. now they contract build with i believe weld craft could be mistaken. Now i will say that SDB did give me 300.00 to have my boat repaired or i could have taken it all the way to birmingham Al to have them fix it. but it would have cost me way over that just to take it and i didnt trust how it would be done so i got me a welder here at home and paid him to do it. i added about 30 to 40 lbs of additional bracing now its good. did have some cracking problems to in the hull but all good now. oh the ceo also told me that JB weld after all his expereince was the best way to repair cracks and so forth on an aluminum boat. Hmmmmm.

JB Weld, who would have thunk it..............

A buddy of mine has a SDB and hasn't had any problems with it. What year was your's made? His is just an improved semi-v with a 36 PD.

Lets see some pics of how the layout of the bracing was set up, I'm curious.

I'll get them up. the only pictures of the bracing are after my welder put in the new ones. but you can see what the bracing layout was just visually remove the diaganol bracing.

[img][[IMG]http://i1002.photobucket.com/albums/af143/mharms909/0115111058-00.jpg[/img]/img]

[img][IMG]http://i1002.photobucket.com/albums/af143/mharms909/0115111059-00.jpg[/img][/img]

[img][IMG]http://i1002.photobucket.com/albums/af143/mharms909/0115111058-01.jpg[/img][/img]

I was told that this boat was built in 2007. From what I understand the guy that built this boat down in LA is no longer used by SDB. However, I do not know what the circumstances are that caused the person to not complete the welding on this boat in the bracing.
Now to give a little back ground on these pics: The transom bracing originally was minus the braces on the hull the braces that are there were added to prevent the hull material from bowing up any more than what it already had. and yes the braces should have been up off the floor to allow drainage. So anyway the transom braces originally did not form a triangle as they do now. Much stronger now. Now the second and third pics show the bracing as it is now. However, originally the diagonal braces were not there the only bracing was the full length 3"x 3/8" bar strap and the cross braces. I had my welder put in also the side braces that you see that come up from the cross braces to the sides all this bracing was 1.5" square tube all acft grade aluminum. The boat originally would flex and bow and vibrate all to hell if you went over a wake the hull would flex over it like a wave. Because of the way the hull was braced the boat would flex front to back and thus cause the sides to bow out while running and caused the braces to crack at the weld points on the hull as well as the weld points where the floor was welded to the hull. also the floor plate was totally popped from the cross braces. I reattached the floor using screws a lot of them. I imagine that all of you are going to ask why diagnol bracing it seemed more appropriate given the existing bracing that was there this gives me not only longitudinal bracing but also lateral stiffining if going through a stump filled creek where i might experience a stump pushing the bow to the side. With the addition of the braces extending up from the cross bracing i eliminated the need for the prodrive box brace box. now the sides do not flex out at all and the boat is nice and rigid but not too ridgid. all in all the boat is solid and all leaks are repaired boat is dry. total cost of reconstruction was about 650.00.

Now to get it repainted and the bottom of the hull needs to be re-steel flexed also.

As long as you're happy that is all that matters, but there ain't no way I would still be rollin' that hull. You should have driven to B'ham and gotten your money and a chunk of that dude's azz for putting the screws to you.

There is no telling who built your boat for them. They probably don't even know. Those guys have lied to everyone and then told lies to cover the original lies. SDB's have to be the most poorly constructed boats on the market regardless of who all they have contracted with in the past.

Phathead, You are probably right, I am curious to know what thier relationship is with KP from Prodrive they were dropping his name left and right. My guess is they did that because they know his reputation in the mudmotor world and that by dropping his name will give them creadance to thier product. I guess I was the sucker in this deal.

I also have all the email traffic that was between myself, Jason Rhoads and Mike Franklin. Mike Franklin was the guy i bought the boat from.

Damn im really disappointed to hear all this. From what i though SDB was a pretty good boat. Mines a 09 but i might just be sellin my boat ealier than i thought. But as of right now my boats a tank. Sturdy as hell and i've run over se pretty thick trees and jumped over some fat long piles and levees i have yet see any problems with my welds or anything yet. I only have one hook in my hull but it was there from the guy before me. But thats just my boat.

NFW, Like i said above this boat was either built in 06 or 07 and the guy that built it apparently had a beef or did not get paid or flat out did not know what the hell he was doing. I wish that I could talk to him and find out the real story behind this boat. The CEO told me that the boat was never supposed to have been sold out to the general public as it was a prototype and the guy i bought if from was expressly told not to sell it. I guess i was the sucker in this whole deal. One of my biggest problems with how this all played out with Jason Rhodes is I was being accused of beating the hell out of this boat and I was being blamed for the problems ultimately he ended up giving me 300.00 dollars to help with repairs. My guess he talked to his attorney and was told this was a good course of action. I don't know. All in all my boat runs 26 to 27MPH with only me in the boat, steps out real quick on the water in very shallow water, It was just a mess getting to this point.