Alum Keel

[River fish]

Today while I was inspecting the underside of the 1988 17' bass tracker I purchased <br />recently I noticed that the keel had been apparently repaired, there is a factory aluminum<br />“V” which runs from bow to stern which is riveted on. <br />It appears that someone in the past had removed it and welded something and ground flush the welds at various places then re-installed the “V” channel , it looks like the workmanship is ok<br />but I can’t see any of the actual keel seam to find out for sure. I am wondering if anyone knows if Bass tracker boats of this year have a seam down the<br />middle of the keel that may cause problems or are they one piece.<br />I did fill the boat up with water through the bottom deck grate ( inside on the floor ) to <br />about 6 to 8 inches deep and there were no leaks, not even a drop.<br />Has anyone ever seen anything like this? Thanks

 

[rickdb1boat]

Re: Alum Keel

I'm sure what you are looking at is the Keel Shield which protects the seam where the two sides of the hull were welded together. There is nothing wrong with this design, although it apparently did have a problem if the Keel was removed and replaced at some point. But it was probably done by the dealer, most likely under Warranty, so I would'nt be concerned about the structure of the hull. If it does'nt leak now, odds are it never will with normal use.

 

[River fish]

Re: Alum Keel

Thanks for the info, It does look like it was repaired by someone who knew what they were doing, I just wondered if there was a seam under<br />there or if it had stress cracked, it was probabley just a few small cracks in the seam that they repaired. Thanks again.

 

[kg4nfb]

Re: Alum Keel

I have a 1991 Basstracker TX-17 and just pulled the floor out of it. Mine doesn't have a seam down the center like it was 2 halves welded together. Looks like solid aluminum. Hope that helps.

 

[rickdb1boat]

Re: Alum Keel

kg4nfb,<br />Just curious, does yours have the keel shield(V) running down the middle of the hull? Makes me wonder.

 

[River fish]

Re: Alum Keel

Yes, it does have a keel shield running down the center.<br />It does not appear to have any problems, what really drew my attention was the other morning I found a small wet spot on the patio where the boat is parked, it was about a foot or so in front of the transom, at first I thought it was just dripping out of the drain plug hole and running forward, then after looking closer I discovered it was leaking out of the keel shield. when I got on a creeper and was looking around under there I realized that the keel shield was not water tight and rain the night before must have run down the side of the hull and collected there, then dripped out as there were several places that it was not tight against the hull.<br />I assumed that it was somewhat " normal " that it had these little gaps between the hull and shield. It also looked like the repairs had been done by a competent person i.e. no excessive welding or grinding, everthing nice and flush and all the rivets look exactly like the other factory rivets.<br />I realy was'nt sure about the two piece hull though, since I had looked at the new Trackers<br />at the dealer and they have a one piece design<br />but I think that is fairly new.

 

[kg4nfb]

Re: Alum Keel

Rickd1boat, yes, mine has the keel guard on it, riveted on. Mine has some loose rivets and I have seen some water dripping out from around some of them. I'll be sealing them up from inside before long.