testing for leaks, how much water can I put in my boat? ;-)

[braindead0]

I know I've got a bit of leaking, very little.. but some. I suspect around the drain plug pipe..but I'm not sure.<br /><br />As I'm getting ready to strip the interior, I though why not fill it up with water? I'll be blocking the trailer up, I'm supposing I'll block it up at several points (for better support).<br /><br />Would it be ill-advised to say..fill it up more than 1/2 way to the waterline? That's gotta be a lot of water weight (tons perhaps).<br /><br />My other thought was to put in some water (maybe 50 gallons) and jack up each side, front and back so that I can find leaks.<br /><br />Nutty idea?

 

[braindead0]

Re: testing for leaks, how much water can I put in my boat? ;-)

Hmm, may have partly answered my question.. when I was removing some of the interior I noticed that the boat floor is the hull except in the center, so I think I could fill up the center 'v' with water without any problems. Any leaks elsewhere would have been pretty obvious I think.

 

[JasonJ]

Re: testing for leaks, how much water can I put in my boat? ;-)

Sometimes the fill-it-with-water trick doesn't work unless there is a lot of water. The weight of the boat has more pressure than a few gallons of water, so you can end up getting no water leaking back out. If it is your plug sleave leaking it is easy to fix.

 

[G DANE]

Re: testing for leaks, how much water can I put in my boat? ;-)

Hi Braindead0<br /><br />I think I would advise you to go in the upposite direction. Strip the boat and put it back in the water with some kind of weight. Before that visually inspect every crack and scratch in boat. Leaks in glassfiber is usually always visible onless around some fitting thru hull. ( guess you want to repair scratches anyway now ) Filling boat with water will wett any exposed wood and foam which will take months to dry of season.

 

[CTD]

Re: testing for leaks, how much water can I put in my boat? ;-)

I don't know if this will work for your boat or not but on cars with water leaks I apply soapy water at the area I think the leak might be and then blow compressed air at it from the other side. I hold the air hose about 6 inches away to start and don't get so close I blow out the weatherstrip. You can see the bubbles right away. As far as putting water in at 8 lbs per gallon you could crush your trailer. If your boat weighs 3000 lbs thats where your waterline is and you are displacing 3000 lbs of water so if you filled your boat to the waterline you would be adding close to that amount of water. (I think)??

 

[braindead0]

Re: testing for leaks, how much water can I put in my boat? ;-)

Perhaps I'll just test the plug tube by putting enough in the bilge to cover the plug (trailer nose up high of course) and wait and see if anything leaks out.<br /><br />As I plan on painting anyway, perhaps I'll be better off just giving the boat a good going over and repair any scratches and the like.. I know I'm not leaking much, after about 2 hours of boating I got up on plane and ran my bilge pump for perhaps 3 seconds before it ran dry.. at 750 gph I'd guess I dumped around 1/2gallon out.