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Old Coleman Ram-X canoe

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JW_Halverson:
Found this old Coleman canoe for a song, so I snatched it up.  Gsulfridge has been posting near daily reports on Facebook with pics out on the water catching crappie, bluegills, bass, etc and he just was eating me up with jealousy!  I have been planning on making a small skin-on-frame Wee Lassy canoe, but for the now, I just cannot wait.

I drove out to a really sketchy campground to meet an even sketchier dude to buy it.  I wrote down the hull number and pretended to get a phone call from a friend and walked away a short distance.  I called a contact at the local police and read off the hull number to see if it was hot.  It came up clear and the last registration was in 2004 to the guy that had placed the add. Whew!

The hull number ends in the two digits "93", so according to one website that tells us that it was manufactured in 1993.  Ok, so the canoe is 25 yrs old, good to know.

It's got the cheapy aluminum tubing framing and reinforcement in the keel, but nothing is bent and there appears to be no creases in the hull.  A number of the bolts holding molding/etc in place have been replaced with random hardware, but not a lot is missing either!  The aluminum is pretty hazy/oxidized, but a little fooling around with polishing compound will brighten all that up.  Rub rails have a few rub-through spots, but once again, they are not thrashed out either.

My plan is to spend a few odd hours here and there tuning her up and using her over the summer, then put her up for sale next summer at a modest profit for my efforts. And considering I paid a light sale price for her, I am very sure I can make a couple bucks on the deal.

I know serious canoeists look down their noses at this model/mfr, but many of them also admit this thing is stable, can take a fair bit of abuse, and will last a long time. Anyone else have one of these, have experience with one, or have advice on it?

osage outlaw:
NEED PICTURES!!!

JW_Halverson:
Here she is. The Tiny-tannic!

Dirt and some random bird turds discoloring the hull will wash off.  Oh, and the guy threw in a pair of cheap-o plastic and aluminum tubing canoe paddles.  I think I can turn out something nicer from wood!

Swampman:
I have an old Coleman scanoe (the one with the flat back for a small motor).  I have had mine for quite a while and love it.  It is very stable and floats. I had a couple of cracks near the rear seat but they were easy to fix with a plastic welder.

Enjoy your canoe. Looks like a good score.

willie:
swampman, cracks in the hull? or the seat?   

jw, I have beat the crap out of two of those colemans. Back when we were trapping we would use it in icy rivers at well below zero. if the ice was thick enought to walk on, the canoe got dragged for miles, if the ice was sketchy, we would get in the canoe with all our gear and skate across the ice, pushing with ski poles until we broke through, then finally get out the paddles after icebreakin down to open water. when in open water and approaching ice again, we would paddle like hell and ram our way up on to the ice, using the ski poles until we could get out and drag the canoe.

my only reservation in an old canoe is sunlight making the poly brittle after many years. you might want to do some serious flex testing to see if cracks happen. When in newer shape, I have seen these canoes literally folded in half with broken aluminum ribs after getting wrapped around rocks in white water. when that happened the aluminun ribs got replaced with nearby spruce poles to get home. those guys never did get around to replacing those poles.

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