splashed

[junkman41]

hello all,
I finally got my pontoon in the water this past weekend, this was the first time since I bought the toon. we just wanted to get to know the boat and how everything works and how ot handled. it did fine. or should I say we did fine. once I put the pontoon back up on the trailer and moved it to the lot , so I could lower the hardtop and secure it to the trailer, I noticed a fair amount of water coming out of the botton front of one of the logs at the weld.the next day it was still dripping water out. So needless to say its a the welding shop now. I am having him pressure test the logs and repair the leak, and also having him weld something on the front of the log for a skid plate, I'm not sure if it was there when I bought it, or if I put it in when I beached the pontoon. I need to be able to beach it so I can let the dogs off and find a tree and not my carpet. has anyone welded anything on there logs so it can be beached without worring about putting a hole in the log? or am I worring to much?

thanks Jack

 

[MH Hawker]

Re: splashed

Mine has a small 1 x 1 piece of alum angle welded all the way from the back to the front of the logs as a keel strip, and beaching a toon is one of the bigger plus`s things you can do with one. It is sort of odd thats its leaking in that spot but I would agree on beefing it up. Normally the alum is very tuff and hard to knock a hole in it sounds like you have a seam leaking as a guess. Not sure if its a new boat or a used one but right off hand it sounds like some one in the past has hit it on a rock at a good speed to cause that, or its a bad weld seam from the factory.

Being as your in PA you should have about the same type of shore line as I have here in WV a mix of sand, mud with a few rocks thrown in for good measure lol and ever now and then a stump the size of a dining room table. The way I beach is to come in slow at idle while watching the dept finder and and bring the boat to a complet stop around 5 to 10 feet off of the back, and I walk up front and look and see whats there. At idle speeds it wont hurt a thing if you bump something but if a toon rides up on top of a stump, log, or a rock it sure is a total PIA to get it back off and I wont put mine in on top of big rocks even knowing it has a keel strip. That will grate on the alum and do damage, wood is ok though. and if its clear I idle up till it hits ground and give it a shot of throttle and back to neutral.

 

[junkman41]

Re: splashed

yes the leak is on the seam
thanks jack

 

[MH Hawker]

Re: splashed

Right off hand I am betting its a used boat and this is the reason it was sold in the first place. And by chance are their any dents in the area of the seam split or it a cracked weld and what brand of boat.

Congratulations on getting it splashed by the way, I know it sure feels real good. When I got mine ready to put on the slip for the summer a few weeks ago after making 3 shake down trips out to test things. What I thought was going to be the last tow trip for awhile I ran into a starter probles straight off and had to drag it back home and sort that out. Turned out to be solenoid but I had ordered a new starter just in case. While many say boat stands for ( bust out another thousand ) my belief is it stands for ( best of all times).

 

[junkman41]

Re: splashed

i did not notice any dents, and it is a used pontoon 1986 SanPan. the leak is at the weld seems to be cracked. hopefully it will be taken care of. good luck on getting your back in order

 

[MH Hawker]

Re: splashed

I had mine fixed with in a few days. I have a book on my motor and ran a solenoid test and it showed up bad and my local dealer had one. And the welding should be a easy fix, with no dents around the seam I have no good idea why. and yes I would also have bouth logs pressure tested while its at the shop and the SanPan`s are known to be a long lasting boat. Hope you get it out and back in the water soon and enjoy it .

 

[junkman41]

Re: splashed

thanks MH I hope to get it back in the water in 2 weeks