How to Build a Console for a Pontoon Boat

We’re going to embark on a DIY adven­ture — build­ing your own con­sole for a pon­toon boat. It’s like the heart of your boat, con­trol­ling every­thing from your speed to your direc­tion, all while hous­ing your must-have gad­gets and maybe a snack or two.

How to Build a Console for a Pontoon Boat

Build­ing a con­sole for your pon­toon boat is a project that requires a bit of elbow grease but can lead to great sat­is­fac­tion when you’re sail­ing smooth­ly with your own cus­tom-built com­mand cen­ter.

1. Plan­ning Your Con­sole Design: Con­sid­er the avail­able space and what you want in your con­sole. Typ­i­cal inclu­sions are steer­ing wheel, throt­tle con­trol, gauges, switch­es, and per­haps space for a sound sys­tem or a fish find­er.
2. Select­ing Mate­ri­als: Choose a durable, weath­er-resis­tant mate­r­i­al. Marine-grade ply­wood is a pop­u­lar choice.
3. Cut­ting Pan­els: Mea­sure and cut out your pan­els based on your design.
4. Build­ing the Frame: Con­struct a sim­ple box frame.
5. Assem­bling the Con­sole: Attach the pan­els to the frame using water­proof glue and screws. Remem­ber to check that every­thing is square and lev­el.
6. Installing the Con­trols: Cut holes for your steer­ing wheel, throt­tle con­trol, gauges, or switch­es and install your con­trols as per man­u­fac­tur­er’s instruc­tions.
7. Seal­ing and Paint­ing: Seal your con­sole to pro­tect it from the ele­ments. Con­sid­er paint­ing it to match your boat or adding a per­son­al touch with your choice of col­or.
8. Installing the Con­sole: Secure­ly install your new con­sole on your pon­toon boat.

Con­sid­er the space avail­able on your pon­toon boat and what you want to include in your con­sole. A steer­ing wheel, throt­tle con­trol, gauges, switch­es, and a place for your trusty boat bev­er­ages are stan­dard. If you’re an over­achiev­er, you might also con­sid­er space for a sound sys­tem or fish find­er.

Once you have your design sketched out, you’ll want to choose your build­ing mate­r­i­al. Marine-grade ply­wood is a pop­u­lar choice due to its dura­bil­i­ty and weath­er resis­tance. Mea­sure and cut out your pan­els accord­ing to your design.

With these steps com­plete, your pontoon boat should now have a func­tion­al con­sole and ready to dri­ve a pon­toon boat.

Build­ing a con­sole for a pontoon boat is not a dif­fi­cult task and can be com­plet­ed in a few steps. You will need to mea­sure the area where the con­sole will be locat­ed in order to get the prop­er size and shape. Once you have the mea­sure­ments, you can begin con­struct­ing the frame of the con­sole out of wood or met­al. Once the frame is com­plete, you will need to attach the nec­es­sary hard­ware such as the steer­ing wheel, the gauges, and the nec­es­sary switch­es. 

Tools and Materials Needed

You’re going to need some stur­dy ply­wood or marine board to act as the main body of your con­sole. Marine board is a lit­tle more resis­tant to the ele­ments, but ply­wood is a sol­id, bud­get-friend­ly choice.

We’re going to be doing some cut­ting, so you’ll need a jig­saw or a cir­cu­lar saw. Safe­ty first – use these tools wise­ly, and they’ll be your best friends.

We’ll need some stain­less steel screws and bolts to put every­thing togeth­er. Why stain­less steel, you ask? Well, it laughs in the face of rust, so it’s per­fect for life on the water.

What’s a bunch of screws and bolts with­out a good drill? This will be key for cre­at­ing holes for those screws and bolts to snug­ly fit into.

Depend­ing on the design, you may also need addi­tion­al mate­ri­als such as hinges, han­dles, and latches. Sim­i­lar tools might be need­ed to install best pon­toon boat lad­ders.

Tools:

• Drill
• Cir­cu­lar saw
• Jig­saw
• Screw­driv­er
• Sand­pa­per

Materials:

• Ply­wood
• Screws
• Marine grade sealant
• Marine grade paint
• Stain­less steel hard­ware

To build a con­sole for a pontoon boat, you will need a drill, a jig­saw, mea­sur­ing tape, sand­pa­per, screws, ply­wood, fiber­glass, sealant, sil­i­cone caulk, and paint. You may need a router and a router bit, as well as a few oth­er hand tools.

Designing the Console

You’ll want the con­sole to be com­pact enough to not take up too much space, yet large enough to house all your con­trols and equip­ment. A typ­i­cal size might be around 2 feet wide and 3 feet high, but feel free to tweak these dimen­sions to fit your needs.

Sketch out the shape. Most con­soles have a rec­tan­gu­lar base and a slight­ly slop­ing pan­el for the con­trols. The top can be flat or slight­ly curved to shed water. Make sure the design allows for good vis­i­bil­i­ty and easy access to the con­trols.

Plan out where to place your con­trols and equip­ment. Com­mon items include the steer­ing wheel, throt­tle, gauges, switch­es, and pos­si­bly a radio or GPS unit. Arrang­ing them log­i­cal­ly will make oper­at­ing the boat eas­i­er and safer. Think about the ergonom­ics – the items you use most often should be with­in easy reach.

Don’t for­get to leave some space for stor­age. A small com­part­ment for stow­ing away per­son­al items can be a god­send in the tight quar­ters of a boat.

Think of adding a wind­shield for pro­tec­tion against the wind and spray. It can be as sim­ple as a piece of clear acrylic fas­tened to the top of the con­sole.

Size

The size of the con­sole should be pro­por­tion­al to the size of the pon­toon boat. A larg­er pon­toon boat can han­dle a larg­er con­sole, while a small­er pon­toon boat will require a small­er con­sole. Make sure you mea­sure the area you plan to place the con­sole and design it to fit that space.

Storage

When design­ing the con­sole, you will need to con­sid­er the type of stor­age you will need. Do you want draw­ers, cup hold­ers, or some­thing else? Make sure you design the con­sole with enough room for what­ev­er stor­age you plan to include.

Seating

If you plan to include seat­ing with your con­sole, make sure you design it to accom­mo­date the seat­ing. You will need to con­sid­er the type of seat­ing you want and the num­ber of peo­ple you plan to seat. Make sure you allow enough room for the seat­ing and any stor­age you plan to include.

Cutting the Plywood

Once you have gath­ered all of your tools and mate­ri­als, you can begin cut­ting the ply­wood for your con­sole. Start by mea­sur­ing the area where you want to install the con­sole. You will need to cut two pieces of ply­wood to the size you need. For the top of the con­sole, you will need to cut a piece of ply­wood that is slight­ly larg­er than the size of the area where you want to install it.

Cutting the Base

For the base of the con­sole, you will need to cut two pieces of ply­wood to the same size. Place the two pieces of ply­wood togeth­er and use a jig­saw to cut out the shape of the base. Once you have cut out the shape, you can use a sand­pa­per to smooth out any rough edges.

Cutting Holes for Wiring and Switches

Once you have cut the base and top of the con­sole, you will need to cut holes for wiring and switch­es. Use a drill to make the nec­es­sary holes. Make sure that the holes are large enough to accom­mo­date the wiring and switch­es.

Adding the Hardware

Once the holes have been cut, you can add the hard­ware. For the con­sole, you will need to attach hinges, han­dles, latch­es, and oth­er hard­ware. Use stain­less steel hard­ware for the best results.

Assembling the Console

Now that you have cut the ply­wood and added the hard­ware, you can begin assem­bling the con­sole. Start by attach­ing the base to the top of the con­sole. Use screws to secure the two pieces togeth­er.

Applying the Sealant

Once the con­sole has been assem­bled, you will need to apply a marine grade sealant. This will help to water­proof the con­sole and pro­tect it from the ele­ments. Apply the sealant accord­ing to the manufacturer’s instruc­tions.

Painting the Console

Once the sealant has been applied, you can paint the con­sole. Use a marine grade paint to get the best results. Make sure to let the paint dry com­plete­ly before pro­ceed­ing to the next step.

Installing the Console

Once the con­sole is built, it is time to install it on the pon­toon boat. Here are the steps you will need to fol­low to install the con­sole:

Secure the Console

The first step is to secure the con­sole to the pon­toon boat. Use screws to attach the con­sole to the floor of the pon­toon boat. Make sure the screws are long enough to hold the con­sole secure­ly in place.

Seal the Console

Once the con­sole is in place, you will need to make sure it is sealed. Use a marine grade sealant to seal any cracks or seams in the con­sole. This will help pro­tect the con­sole from water dam­age.

Paint the Console

Once the con­sole is sealed, it is time to paint it. Use a marine grade paint to paint the con­sole. This will help pro­tect the con­sole from the ele­ments and give it a fin­ished look.

Using the Console

Once the con­sole is installed and paint­ed, it is ready to be used. Make sure you use the con­sole safe­ly and secure­ly. You should also make sure to clean and main­tain the con­sole reg­u­lar­ly.

Pontoon Boat Console with gauges and switches

A pon­toon boat con­sole typ­i­cal­ly includes a vari­ety of gauges and switch­es that allow you to mon­i­tor the boat’s per­for­mance and con­trol its sys­tems. Depend­ing on the mod­el, gauges may include speed, fuel, tem­per­a­ture, and depth, while switch­es can con­trol lights, bilge pumps, and oth­er boat sys­tems.

It also often includes a marinized stereo sys­tem, and can pro­vide access to nav­i­ga­tion­al sys­tems such as GPS and autopi­lot. Many con­soles also fea­ture cup hold­ers, built-in tack­le stor­age, and oth­er ameni­ties. Since pon­toon boats are designed for leisure­ly activ­i­ties like fish­ing, tub­ing, and sight­see­ing, the con­sole is typ­i­cal­ly designed for com­fort and con­ve­nience.

FAQs