Cooler Cushion.

[kodydog]

A friend of mine bought a 21' tunnel hull fishing boat 3 months ago. This boat needed much work including new controls, a new motor and a wrap to the outside. Right before Christmas he dropped it off at the shop to have me build a cushion to fit the top of an Rtic cooler.

I cut a piece of plywood to fit the top of the cooler and added SS t-nuts. I primed the plywood twice then one coat of Oil based paint hoping this would help preserve it from the elements. I then added 3" foam and covered with a nice piece of thick vinyl. I screwed it to the top of the cooler with SS bolts and washers. When he asked how much he owed we told him to donate $100 to mission work he does. 

This 65 qt Rtic cooler is impact resistance and durable for long lasting ice retention. They run about $250. It was also loaded with boat gear so weighed about 60 to 70 pounds. It took both of us to lift it up into the boat. That thing aint going anywhere, right?

He headed to his condo at Panama City Beach. A 260 mile drive. Half way there his wife e-mails me and says a fellow in a truck flagged them down and told them the cooler blew out of the back of the boat. Damn! They pulled over and could see about a mile back, under an overpass the white cooler and a car pulled over next to it.

Now what to do. He couldn't back the boat that far and didn't want to walk. I think I would have sat there and waited to see if the guy in the car would bring it to them. He decided to drive to the next exit and flip flop to the overpass where the cooler was laying on the shoulder. You can guess what happened. When he got there both the cooler and the car were gone. 

[MinUph]

It's amazing what flies out of a boat at highway speeds.

[gene]

Do you think the mission will still get their $100? It wasn't the missions's fault the cooler blew out of the boat.

Paul, I love seeing folks drive down the road with a mattress tied with a rope to the roof of their car - the front of the mattress almost folding in half as the wind lifts it up.

gene

[kodydog]

Do you think the mission will still get their $100? It wasn't the missions's fault the cooler blew out of the boat.

gene

Yes I agree, and there is a passage in the bible about that.

The boat owner stopped by the shop today and offered to pay me for the cushion. He is the leader of our Monday night bible study. I told him the deal was to donate to the mission and it still stands. I told him normally we would have charged $180 for that cushion parts and labor.

Because he is a good friend we were only going to charge for parts. $100. Then later we decided it would be a donation to the mission. Yes its confusing but I think he understood. 

[Mike]

Needed cooler tie down. I had that happen to a customer once with a rear bench seat.
Only he got it and had me redonit for him

[kodydog]

Yep, the tie downs were inside the cooler. It would have taken 10 minutes to screw them into the floor. We could have done it while the boat was at my shop. He wasn't sure what permanent location on the boat he wanted to store it. I imagine the cushion got pretty banged up. I wonder if the new owners will use the tiedowns?