Working on equipping/rehabbing a recently acquired floater down south with some buddies. Any of you have any suggestions/must haves/lessons learned from your experiences with owning one?

Needing to set up the water catchment/storage system, replace some wood, generator, etc.

Appreciate it and Gig 'Em!

I don't have experience with a floater, but my buddy owns a cabin in Baffin. One nice thing is their solar setup. It powers all the lights in the cabin and allows you to charge cell phones. That keeps us from running the generator throughout the day. It also powers the water pump, so you can wash hands, dishes, etc without firing up the generator.

What is a floater?

Thanks! Looking into that design as well to save on generator noise and fuel. Appreciate it

Yeah, that's what came to mind....

My experience was it was a romantic idea but overall much more of a pain in the ass than its worth. My suggestion is to sell it to someone else and be happier just making the run down there.

Seen a few of these. Never stayed in one but look interesting!

https://baffinbayfloatingcabins.com/

https://lagunaadventures.com/floating-cabin-rentals



The list of amenities should help give you a list of things to add to yours. You can also look at how they have theirs set up. Hope that helps!

What do they do with these when storms come? Tow them in? Hope for the best?

My dads buddy had one for years around Baffin. It was anchored with a large marine anchor and had the ability to change directions based on the wind. It survived several storms over the years.

Great memories going there as a kid!

Fished near the ones on the inter coastal between port Mansfield and the arroyo Colorado for years.
Always appreciated the cabins there which were unoccupied with a nice dock and an unlocked crapper…

Even when the wind really picked up mid morning in the spring, we could always catch trout and a few flounder on the edge of the canal near those cabins.

Any hardware on the outside of the cabin needs to be stainless.

An inverter generator like the predators sold at harbor freight that are relatively quiet is very nice. Get some stainless flexible hose and extend the exhaust out away from the cabin.

There's a Facebook group of cabin owners thats good called Texas Floaters and and Stilts Fishing Cabins

Landcut cabin user here. I would stay away from solar. #1 reason they burn down because batteries explode. You can buy rechargeable banks that will cover almost all your needs. It will run our TV, cell tower booster as well as water pump when generator is off. Go all led on lights and yes get a good generator to run things. Mostly keep it simple and enjoy the peace and quiet.

Don't use solar recharging because the batteries explode....instead use rechargeable batteries?

Walk me through the difference here.

Are we talking about always hooked up to the solar array lead acid batteries left for long periods versus boating off site charged lithiums back and forth? Why not just charge the lithiums on site with the solar? They have management systems that keep them from exploding.

I have a land based cabin and use solar. Cannot recommend it enough, especially in a floater because the generator will be so close. All lighting should be LED if possible. I use AGM batteries. They are heavy but much less chance of fire.

I got a 30% tax credit on all expenses attributed to the solar purchase. Not sure if that's still an option but definitely look into that.

I was a part owner in one of those near Green Island in the late 60's.

Likewise a part owner of one on the south end of the Land Cut.. I liked it better because it was on the sand, Gladis was my favorite place to wade and flounder gigging in the cut was great. It got wiped out twice by barges.

I'm all in!

You just recharge the portable batteries while running the generator. You literally are never down there long enough for solar to be a viable option. Water, fuel and ice normally limit your stay. Salt conditions will limit the life of anything outside. You can pick up the portable battery banks on Amazon pretty cheap.

RCR06 said:

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What is a floater?

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I'm sorry, context is not allowed on OB.

I'm sorry but I don't understand your statement. My buddy has had solar and battery banks for years. They're fully charged when we get there because they stay there. All the LED lights run off of them, plus speakers, water pump (which uses rainwater collection) and probably some other things I'm forgetting. We really only use the generator for the a/c units.

His cabin is on land, maybe a floater is different because you may need to keep the weight down, I'm not familiar with their needs.

AgTrip said:

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Seen a few of these. Never stayed in one but look interesting!

https://baffinbayfloatingcabins.com/

https://lagunaadventures.com/floating-cabin-rentals



The list of amenities should help give you a list of things to add to yours. You can also look at how they have theirs set up. Hope that helps!

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We stayed in that exact cabin last October. Was a blast. Had 3 bedrooms, 2 with 1-bunk bed and one had 2 bunkbeds. It had instant hot water for shower, central a/c, couch with recliners, a cell booster and tv so we could connect with our cell wifi hotspot and watch football during the day. It was attached on all 4 corners to posts so it didn't swing around with the wind. Caught hundreds of schoolie trout under lights at night. Sits in back of the meadows. We ran genset all day everyday for 3 days and prob burned 15g of gas. Kept central air on 68. Was a perfect trip.

Not hard to understand. 34 years of experience in the cut. Never said that solar doesn't work. It works great but also introduces the risk of fire since unattended for long periods. For the money you put into it you can just invest in a quality generator that mitigated the risk. The great thing about it is everyone is free to choose their power source. I choose non solar and with today's cheap alternatives I have found it better and more reliable. My rechargeable battery pack is the size of a turtle box and I can run multiple items during the day. Gen runs all night to power ac, freezer and recharge battery pack. Rinse repeat!

When we got a permit we built the shack in a guy's back yard in Premont ....took it apart and loaded the sections on a truck along with the deck lumber. Loaded it on a small company barge and had a work weekend. It was the third shack in the south end of the land cut. We found out quickly that you couldn't leave anything of value inside.. The lights we used were 28 volt surplus military airplane landing lights purchased from Glick Twins surplus in Pharr. The best light was a locomotive light. Our light bar had four bulbs and we ran the setup off of a 120 volt generator. The first one was stolen. It cost $90 from Sears. I never understood the 120 volt generator and 28 volt lights. We were told you had to have four. I had two spares...got down to four and another burned out. Three worked for awhile.

We hauled the new gen back and forth. We ultimately got a much larger one and added a shack for it and made it secure enough that it never got stolen. I think we stopped door intrusion after the fourth door.. Guy Bailey built his place nearby and was very watchful. I used it very often for the four years we lived there.

We moved to Dallas...then Houston and then McAllen. I took my boys and friends to Guy"s as all of the original owners had moved on..

The first cabin I was on was located at marker 5. Still there and is on land. Built in 1975. The first windows they had on it came from a convenient store and did not lock. Back then the boys home at Rohoff cut was still operational. They would walk 5 miles and cross 2 channels to get into cabins looking for cigs and alcohol. Break ins have quieted down in the past few years. The cut was a hot bed of drug traffic in the early 2000's. It was nothing to see black boats running in the middle of the night with no lights. Customs patrols it pretty regular and lately even DPS had started patrolling the area. Last week I ran up on them picking up 2 guys all camoed out who I guess were doing night surveillance. I never make a trip south without having protection in the boat and cabin. Aside from all that it is the most amazing place. I got some great picks of the comet.

TX AG 88 said:

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1990Hullaballoo said:

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RCR06 said:

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What is a floater?

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doodie! doodie!

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It's no big deal.