Hobie Revolution Rod Mount Question

[warburto]

Hi Guys, (First post!)

I'm in the process of fitting a Hobie Revolution 13 for kayak fishing and getting ready to install one or two Ram Mount 2008 rod holders on the forward rails of the boat. I wanted to ask some advice from the other Revo owners out there before I actually drill holes in the boat.

1. Positioning. I want to mount the 1 1/2 Ram balls on the last little flat bit of rail right before the "up" and "down" pulls for the rudder. Any problems with those cables interfering? I can reach up there and they don't feel like they should be too hard to work around.

2. The Ram ball mount is a 2 1/2 inch circle that overhangs the rail by a small (1/16") amount. I was thinking of either doing nothing and mounting as is, or taking a grinder and shaving a small amount off, so there was no overhang from the ball base. Worth it?

3. Mounting hardware. I've seen people just screwing right into the plastic, through drilling and mounting with nut/bolt/lockwashers, and rivets. Any suggestions? Also, should I try to come up with a backing for the base? I saw in another thread someone suggesting the cheap plastic cutting boards from Walmart making a good base backing.

Once I'm done, I'll post some pics of the install.

Thanks in advance for any advice.