21' Elliptical toon water issue

[Maniac]

I recently discovered water in one (sloshing sounds), possibly both elliptical pontoons on my 2017 21' SXF and haven't a clue as to how it got in there. I bought the boat new in 2017 and put 87 hours on it the 1st year and about 20 hours per year the past 4, and while sometimes moored to my dock, it spends most of it's time on the lift and generally only used when water is fairly flat. No dents or any damage except for some side scuffs. Boat stored indoors for 5+ months per year.
Last Fall I had it parked on a concrete pad next to my house for 2 weeks before I took it to storage and while I wasn't yet aware of the water, it would have had ample time to leak outand I never saw any evidence of that. When we were backing it into the barn for the winter is when we heard water, mostly in the left 'toon.
One thing I'm wondering is if the pontoons are compartmentalized or just baffled? I see 3 plugs per 'toon on top, but not on bottom so it appears I'll have to pump it out somehow.
My plan is to take it to a friend and long-time co-worker who is expert at aluminum welding and has the testing equipment to safely detect leaks and if it's cracked welds, contact Bennington. But any ideas or suggestions from anyone who has encountered the same would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

Charlie

 

[Vikingstaff]

In 2019 we developed some cracks along interior performance foil welds on our 2017 with an SPS hull. They were mid way up on inside of port pontoon…very small cracks along welds…Wouldn’t even see them if not for water and leaking inside when in the water. Ours used to sit on lift, and then indoor storage off season - Similar to you.

Covered under warranty. Drilled holes, drained, drain holes welded with drain plugs, and performance foil welds ALL redone. Covered under warranty. Pontoons have been flawless since then.

There are three chambers in each pontoon. So it is compartmentalized. Should be an easy fix once the welder identifies where the problem(s) are. Best of luck to you.

 

[DVW]

I can tell you how to find the leak and how it will most likely be fixed. The tubes have bulkheads that in your case create 3 separate compartments. First pressure test the most likely to leak compartment based on the sound of the sloshing. Use a shop vac to pressurize the tube thru the vent at the top. There is not much room on the top of the tube. A small diameter hose duct taped to the shop vac hose might be needed. It will take about about 15 seconds to build up enough pressure. Do not worry, a shop vac cannot burst the tube. Do not use a air compressor! Remove the low pressure hose and quickly seal up the vent port with your hand. Listen for the leak. A quiet shop and a helper with a good ear is helpful. It is probable that you will hear the leak and under the circumstances there is only one leak. If the leak is super small you may need to do a bubble test with a 409 soap spray bottle. A professional would probably start with that. To suck the water out of the tube I have never been able to to get a flexible hose down to the bottom of the tube. I have pushed a copper tube thru a hole cut in the floor but in most cases there is a better way. A welder will simply drill a drain hole in the bottom of the tube (it’s tough to watch) and then seal it up after the water is drained. If the welder who does the final repair work is just someone at the dealership than insist on a bubble test. A young trained professional would probably do a bubble test. A experienced professional welder might not and that would be OK. Hope this helps.

 

[BigKahuna]

Happened to our old Bennington years ago. Backed the boat up to the welders shop and by the time I got out of my Expedition and walked back there he had already drilled the hole at the bottom of the rear of the pontoon and the water was pouring out! He welded a threaded bung hole (In case of future leaks) pressure tested it and we were good to go! The baffling thing was he never found out how the water got in. Your friend should easily repair this for you!!!

 

[Jack M]

Have an authorized dealer make the repairs. If your friend makes the repairs you will most likely void your "Lifetime Structural Warranty" .

Lifetime Structural & 10-Year Bow-To-Stern Warranty | Bennington

Bennington customers are offered an industry-leading 10-year bow-to-stern warranty in addition to our lifetime structural warranty, giving you and your family the protection and assurance you deserve.

www.benningtonmarine.com

 

[BigKahuna]

Have an authorized dealer make the repairs. If your friend makes the repairs you will most likely void your "Lifetime Structural Warranty" .

Lifetime Structural & 10-Year Bow-To-Stern Warranty | Bennington

Bennington customers are offered an industry-leading 10-year bow-to-stern warranty in addition to our lifetime structural warranty, giving you and your family the protection and assurance you deserve.

www.benningtonmarine.com

Good point Jack! My boat was 12 or 13 yrs. old at the time. Did that lifetime structural warranty apply to boats back in 2004?

 

[Jack M]

My first Bennington back in 2013 ,had 5 years and the lifetime structural . Im not sure about your 2004 .

 

[Vikingstaff]

Have an authorized dealer make the repairs. If your friend makes the repairs you will most likely void your "Lifetime Structural Warranty" .

Lifetime Structural & 10-Year Bow-To-Stern Warranty | Bennington

Bennington customers are offered an industry-leading 10-year bow-to-stern warranty in addition to our lifetime structural warranty, giving you and your family the protection and assurance you deserve.

www.benningtonmarine.com

Good point. I had to wait an extra couple weeks to network through my dealer. Sucked to lose the time on the water when I could have gotten in done much quicker going directly to the welder myself. However, it was worth it to insure maintaining warranty and secure warranty work.

 

[Maniac]

Have an authorized dealer make the repairs. If your friend makes the repairs you will most likely void your "Lifetime Structural Warranty" .

Lifetime Structural & 10-Year Bow-To-Stern Warranty | Bennington

Bennington customers are offered an industry-leading 10-year bow-to-stern warranty in addition to our lifetime structural warranty, giving you and your family the protection and assurance you deserve.

www.benningtonmarine.com

No doubt, I will contact a higher-up at Bennington to discuss the details of my issue before I have it worked on. However, the particular dealer I bought my boat from proved them selves incompetent when I bought it in 2017 and I told myself then I'd never bring it back there, and haven't had to. I've been doing all the servicing required by Yamaha. When called them about my water in (Bennington) 'toon issue, I was told that they didn't handle that, they have someone who does. They offered me the telephone # of the repair place because I had to call to see when to bring it in because they could have a month backlog. When I mentioned that I didn't expect that repairs were going to cost me a cent, they had to put me on hold to discover that the Benningtons they sell have a 10 year warrantee! They then told me to bring it the following day (1-1/2 hours one way) despite telling moments earlier they'd told me that I had to call to see when to bring it to the same repair company. Pure incompetence.
I don't want my boat sitting on a lot for weeks before it might be repaired.

 

[Vikingstaff]

I hope it goes smoothly for you, but can appreciate your angst given what you said above.

Technically, the dealership would normally inspect and document problem, and submit it to Bennginton for warranty approval. If approved as warranty (vs. you/insurance due to usage), warranty repairs can then be done . Those repaires could be in house if they do that sort of welding work, or farmed out to a dealership approved aluminum welder.

The person who repaired mine did it off site at his shop, but was the one approved via the dealership for all their aluminum repairs (warranty or otherwise).

Thus, on trying to find a positive for you, the work will likely be done elsewhere, and I believe warranty submission for review by Bennington can be by ANY certified Bennington dealer/service department. Easier said than done though if a trusted dealership is not nearby. I hope you can get pointed in the right direction to get this repair in motion.

 

[Maniac]

I hope it goes smoothly for you, but can appreciate your angst given what you said above.

Technically, the dealership would normally inspect and document problem, and submit it to Bennginton for warranty approval. If approved as warranty (vs. you/insurance due to usage), warranty repairs can then be done . Those repaires could be in house if they do that sort of welding work, or farmed out to a dealership approved aluminum welder.

The person who repaired mine did it off site at his shop, but was the one approved via the dealership for all their aluminum repairs (warranty or otherwise).

Thus, on trying to find a positive for you, the work will likely be done elsewhere, and I believe warranty submission for review by Bennington can be by ANY certified Bennington dealer/service department. Easier said than done though if a trusted dealership is not nearby. I hope you can get pointed in the right direction to get this repair in motion.

The dealer told me I had to bring it to them first in any case, so I took it down today. They could hear the water in the pontoons and said they'd had a case of leaking welds before. Because the pontoons have to be removed to repair, their solution then was to backweld all the bracket mounts. That makes perfect sense because it's very expensive to remove the 'toons and takes so little time to backweld.
Last night when I priced out a new Benny that was spec'd out as close to mine as possible, I noticed that when I selected the elliptical 'toons, the upgrade to the rough water package was mandatory, and it wasn't when I ordered mine so Bennington must have seen some weld cracking issues in the past few years with those brackets.
Other than the leaking 'toons, my 21 SFX has performed flawlessly. Love that Yamaha 115 SHO!

 

[mtudb24]

The dealer told me I had to bring it to them first in any case, so I took it down today. They could hear the water in the pontoons and said they'd had a case of leaking welds before. Because the pontoons have to be removed to repair, their solution then was to backweld all the bracket mounts. That makes perfect sense because it's very expensive to remove the 'toons and takes so little time to backweld.
Last night when I priced out a new Benny that was spec'd out as close to mine as possible, I noticed that when I selected the elliptical 'toons, the upgrade to the rough water package was mandatory, and it wasn't when I ordered mine so Bennington must have seen some weld cracking issues in the past few years with those brackets.
Other than the leaking 'toons, my 21 SFX has performed flawlessly. Love that Yamaha 115 SHO!

Check out this thread on my rough water package stern " M" brackets that I found had some welds that were back where the bracket meets the rear pontoon. Dealer was way behind in getting to look at it, so I had a local fabricator find the bad welds and re-do them. Back in 2011, the rough water package was optional with the 32" elips.

Cracked M Bracket on Back of Pontoon and Leaking Water

Hi All! Bought a used 2003 Bennington 207Si earlier this year. Changed the carpet out with woven vinyl, did some work to the 4 stroke 90 HP Yamaha. Took it out for the first time last week, unscrewed the drain plugs from both pontoons and water came out of one (about 1 gallon). Started looking...

club.benningtonmarine.com

 

[Vikingstaff]

So did they “find” the specific location(s) of the leak or cracked welds? Is it actually specifically some M bracket welds, or some other welds?

The reason I ask: Most pontoon leaks/weld cracks can be repaired WITHOUT removing pontoons. Drill —> Drain —> Often add a bung-hole plug —> aluminum weld —> Back in water ready to go.

I can see in some instances where it might be necessary to actually remove and repair pontoons such if it is M bracket related, or potentially replace a damaged and punctured pontoon. However, in most cases, more extensive and extreme repairs are not going to be necessary.

I guess after their earlier comments about warranty, I am skeptically curious on the actual cause of your leaks and their assessment to remove pontoons to make the repairs. I am probalby just being overly skeptical not knowing the details of the problem.

 

[Remediation]

2015 22' elliptical toons. The crack was on the top of the toon at the m brackets. Not fixable per Bennington. Because the water only came in from the splash of the water it took 5 years to find that we had a problem. Bennington had no issue sending a new pontoon and the dealer only asked us to wait for the winterizations to be over before we brought the boat in.

 

[Maniac]

2015 22' elliptical toons. The crack was on the top of the toon at the m brackets. Not fixable per Bennington. Because the water only came in from the splash of the water it took 5 years to find that we had a problem. Bennington had no issue sending a new pontoon and the dealer only asked us to wait for the winterizations to be over before we brought the boat in.

 

[Maniac]

They hadn't had a chance to check them as of yesterday, but if they do leak they were talking about installing new pontoons. I wonder if the "rough water" upgrade has to do with the way the M brackets are attached to the pontoon? If that's the case and the rough water brackets attach to the deck in the same spots the standard brackets do, I'm thinking the new 'toons will have the better brackets. It's entirely possible that the water has been building up over the 5 years I've had it, but I'd think less from splashing and more from rain because my boat is always on a lift when not being used and has less than 200 hours on it.

 

[mtudb24]

So did they “find” the specific location(s) of the leak or cracked welds? Is it actually specifically some M bracket welds, or some other welds?

The reason I ask: Most pontoon leaks/weld cracks can be repaired WITHOUT removing pontoons. Drill —> Drain —> Often add a bung-hole plug —> aluminum weld —> Back in water ready to go.

I can see in some instances where it might be necessary to actually remove and repair pontoons such if it is M bracket related, or potentially replace a damaged and punctured pontoon. However, in most cases, more extensive and extreme repairs are not going to be necessary.

I guess after their earlier comments about warranty, I am skeptically curious on the actual cause of your leaks and their assessment to remove pontoons to make the repairs. I am probalby just being overly skeptical not knowing the details of the problem.

Seems as though its a common thing where the M brackets on top of the toons has bad welds. It had been years for water to get into mine as it was only splashing that leaked into the top of the toons under certain conditions

 

[DaveyJ]

I have heard water sloshing in my toons off and on for years (bought used in 2016). Typically it doesn't sound like very much and by the time I get it to the dealer for end of season service, the sound is gone. However, last year, my center toon was sloshing when I brought it in so I pointed it out to the service adviser who suggested I bring it to a welding shop because it was not covered under the structural warranty. This is the same service adviser who declined warranty on an issue a few years ago that was eventually covered by Bennington when I brought it up to the service manager. The boat sits on Sea Legs so it's never in the water for very long but I wonder what would happen if I left it in the water for a week. It sounds like your dealer is taking responsibility so hopefully they get you back on the water quickly. Good luck!

 

[Vikingstaff]

I have heard water sloshing in my toons off and on for years (bought used in 2016). Typically it doesn't sound like very much and by the time I get it to the dealer for end of season service, the sound is gone. However, last year, my center toon was sloshing when I brought it in so I pointed it out to the service adviser who suggested I bring it to a welding shop because it was not covered under the structural warranty. This is the same service adviser who declined warranty on an issue a few years ago that was eventually covered by Bennington when I brought it up to the service manager. The boat sits on Sea Legs so it's never in the water for very long but I wonder what would happen if I left it in the water for a week. It sounds like your dealer is taking responsibility so hopefully they get you back on the water quickly. Good luck!

If it was leaking due to bad welds, or welds that gave out, then it absolutely would get covered under structural warranty. If caused by accident or damage, then of course that would be insurance. Did you ever do anything about it, or just let it be for now?

 

[DaveyJ]

If it was leaking due to bad welds, or welds that gave out, then it absolutely would get covered under structural warranty. If caused by accident or damage, then of course that would be insurance. Did you ever do anything about it, or just let it be for now?

I’ve let it be for now as it’s never been enough water that it’s been an issue. Of course I say that and this summer it’ll start listing or riding lower.