Mt aluminum boat leaks!

[ertauber]

I have a 20 yr old Bass Tracker and has recently started to leak. Usually about 1-2 gallons per hour while out fishing. With the boat on the trailer I filled the bilge with water. Found one leak immediately. Patched it, stopped that leak but the boat is still taking water. Filled it again and now I see water dripping from the runner on the bottom of the boat. The boat actually is a modified jon boat with a v front. The three runners are riveted on the bottom and have a drain hole at the rear. I ASSUME that the water dripping out the rear hole of the runner is from a leak covered by the runner. Since the boat has decking I don't have access directly to the hull inside.

Well fellow boaters, what do I do? Suggestions?

[DixieReb]

Find a way to jack it up a little and see if the leak is under the runner. My Dad had an old aluminum boat that started leaking like that, and his was so bad he ended up selling the boat and getting a fiberglass one.But his had scrubbed over several sandbars and scraped the metal so bad you couldn't seal it. Hope yours isn't that bad, good luck.

[ugadawg]

I also have a bass tracker about that old that I use to fish the flats with, and I had the same problem. For me, the carpet bunkers on the boat seemed to be holding salt against the hull as that was the only place that wouldnt get washed down after fishing, and salt had gotten in between the sticker on the side and the hull. What I did was fill the boat with about a foot of water above the bottom floor, and got under the boat and marked all the places it was leaking. I removed all the stickers, and got a wire brush attachment for a drill and removed all the corrosion. As a temporary fix, I filled the holes with JB weld and had plans to have a metal shop patch it up, but that was 5 years ago and the JB weld is still keeping the boat dry as it can be.

The most important thing I did, however, was the rearrange the bunks on the trailer so that they supported the hull at different spots than before. If you can lift your boat off the trailer and get under it to see, I bet you have a pile of corrosion and a bunch of pin holes where the boat sits on the trailer bunks.

[hambric85]

Fill it with water, mark where it's leaking and take it to a quality welding shop. Is your boat riveted?

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[silverking]

If you do find holes where the hull meets the trailer bunks, adding bunk slicks could help prevent future problems after you get the leaks fixed.

Coastal Trailer in Medart sells two types: Vinyl pre-fab that mount over the boards or poly strips that are cut to fit.

They won't retain salt water and also make it easier to unload and load the boat. Not too expensive, either.

Coastal Trailer (across from Wakulla Middle School on Hwy 98 in Medart)
Dan or Rex
850-984-0728

[Gulf Coast]

What does aluminum bring a pound now ?

[Can'tCatchAnything]

What does aluminum bring a pound now ?

Bout 27c for clean and 17c for dirty.

[hambric85]

It's fixable. Don't sweat it.

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