Tiller arm extension DIY build. #jonboatlife

2026-07-25

Tiller arm extension DIY build. #jonboatlife

Channel: Dark Hollow Garage (1560 subscribers)

Note: today's crop is unusually weak — most candidates are Shorts, hashtag spam, or miniature-house timelapses set to music. This is the least bad option, but it's also a genuinely practical build worth a look.

A tiller arm extension is one of those small-boat modifications that punches well above its weight. On a jonboat with a tiller-steer outboard, the stock handle forces you to sit right on top of the motor — bad for weight distribution (bow rides high, prop cavitates in chop), bad for visibility over the bow, and bad for reaching gear amidships. An extension lets you sit forward on the middle bench, trim the boat properly, and steer with one hand while working a trolling rod or a push pole with the other.

Dark Hollow Garage is a small shop channel (1.5k subs) that documents real garage fabrication rather than polished builds. Expect to see the actual clamp-and-cut process: sourcing tube stock, figuring out the pivot geometry so the extension folds out of the way when trailering, and dealing with the throttle-twist linkage if the motor has one. The empty description means you're going in blind, but for a specific mechanical mod like this the value is in watching the joinery decisions and material choices — the kind of stuff you can't get from a written tutorial.

Why watch: A practical small-boat mod that teaches tube fabrication and pivot geometry from a working garage channel.

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