Reinforcing Locker Dividers

The rear lockers of my Falcon V have removable dividers between the storage locker and the engine compartment.  I had heard others say that it is possible for the 1100LB jumbo sac to flex the divider enough that it pops out of the channel that holds it in place.  At first I was skeptical about that because my locker dividers seemed very strong.  They didn't have any flex to them at all when I tried to bend them.  But while I was doing my initial water test on the lake I heard a big bang about the time the sac was reaching capacity.  I was quite startled by that and thought something had broke or the sac had burst.  Fortunately the noise was just the locker divider being pushed out of the channel.  Some other models of boats may not have this issue depending on how the metal frame around the engine compartment is built.   My dividers have no middle support, it is only supported at the top and bottom which causes them to flex under the pressure of the fat sac.

To reinforce my locker dividers I went to Home Depot and purchased some 3/8" aluminum channel, 1" screws and small washers.  I cut the aluminum channel into two 18" and one 12" sections.  I then fastened the 18" sections to the large divider and the 12" section to the smaller divider.   The channels are on the engine side of the divider so that they do not interfere with the fat sac.  Below is a picture showing the completed dividers.



I then did another quick test at the lake to see if the reinforcement would hold the force of the sac and they appeared to be just fine.  The dividers still flexed a little even with the aluminum but not anything significant.

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