TomS
Well-Known Member
Slide them in the belly of that 757 no problemo!
Got a really UGLY curve ball thrown at me today
- Thread starter tcpip95
- Start date
Slide them in the belly of that 757 no problemo!
lakeliving
Well-Known Member
I was thinking you could do something like this Tom (see link below). You can start in the Mississippi river and float them down like the old loggers. This will also complete a section of the great loop for you.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjs3tjqzL3TAhXhy4MKHUOYA2sQjRwIBw&url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FLog_driving&psig=AFQjCNGtOvxaYGhhpJ9nLWf-j_feSRTHaQ&ust=1493140734886014
Figures. Radar was from Otumwa, Iowa. I've been many places in the U.S. Only one place I've had a gun pulled on me... Ottumwa, Iowa. (and it was 100 yards from the police station, and no it was not a police officer!)
1Blderbob
Well-Known Member
After doing some research on marine corrosion and the results of electric currents in water. I'm not so sure that the boat could have enough anodes to stop the corrosion to the toons. The other thing is the cord was probably not the cause either,it was that the a/c unit was not installed correctly.
But, did you look at your agreement with the marina? I would think that they should bear some responsibility with monitoring the water for stray currents. Your situation has really made me think about stray electrical currents.
By the way, this absolutely goes for people with pools also!
Oh ya, I +1 with Semp. I'd go with the used toons and not buy the new boat.
But, did you look at your agreement with the marina? I would think that they should bear some responsibility with monitoring the water for stray currents. Your situation has really made me think about stray electrical currents.
By the way, this absolutely goes for people with pools also!
Oh ya, I +1 with Semp. I'd go with the used toons and not buy the new boat.
tcpip95
Well-Known Member
Didn't want to hijack the "Tritoon vs. Pontoon" thread, so bringing it back here.
While I was talking to the guy who is doing the pontoon repairs, we got to talking about electrolysis and I told him my story. He mentioned that "stray current in the water" is becoming much more recognized as a problem in the boating world. He mentioned about how many people are dying from this, and how marinas are finally starting to take notice of this, and are beginning to test their slips - some of them on a daily basis. He mentioned Electric Shock Drowning (ESD). When I got home I looked it up. It's become such an issue that they now have their own Association: http://www.electricshockdrowning.org/
Here's another link from BoatUS. What's important is to read the sidebar: http://www.boatus.com/seaworthy/magazine/2013/july/electric-shock-drowning-explained.asp
OK, so end of the PSA. Now on to the pontoons...
As I mentioned in the other post, he's pretty confident that all of the holes are small enough that they can be easily welded - just don't know how many there are exactly yet. He's going to pressure test each compartment of each pontoon, mark them, and then weld them.
I told him about the slow leak that I had on the port pontoon. It turns out that after we soda blasted the boat, I noticed a very slow leak. It was literally about 10 drops per minute. I tasted the water and it was salt water. I had not had the boat in the water for approximately 1 month before I had it soda blasted, so the water was inside the pontoon for at least that long. When I picked up the boat from the soda blasting, I noticed a small puddle of water under the port pontoon. I thought it was a result of the soda blasting, since it uses water in the process. Didn't give it a second thought, and drove the boat back to the storage lot (about a 40 mile drive). The next morning I went to the lot, and noticed another small puddle under the same port pontoon. Now I'm wondering "WTH is this all about?" and brought it home. Sure enough, there was a very slow leak somewhere along the keel of the port pontoon. Since it was on the trailer, I couldn't see it. ANYWAYS..... he believes it's a small hole that was probably opened up as a result of the soda blasting. It's got to be small, since it literally drained for over a week. I know that when I brought the boat back in when I was out the last time, I didn't notice any handling problems or listing, so I don't think there was too much water in the pontoon to begin with, so the hole is most likely pretty small.
I next asked him about some of the pitting, and whether or not we could sand them smooth. He recommended against removing any metal. Better off to simply put down a coat or two of barrier epoxy. He was initially going to put down marine bottom paint specifically formulated for pontoon boats (I believe it's called PontoonPro) but I told him I'm not EVER going to wet slip it again, we decided against that. By doing it that way, loading and unloading the boat on the trailer won't mess up the EXPENSIVE bottom-paint job, and besides unless the boat was going to be in the water for two weeks or so, the marine bottom paint wouldn't be needed, since I'm trailering the boat. In addition to helping hide the multitude of cosmetic sins that are on the toons, it will also add an additional protective hard surface to the pontoons themselves. I'm a little bummed that it will have the "black bottom paint look" again, but knowing what I know now I'm SO glad I did that soda blasting job now and discovered this problem. I can't imagine had I not discovered it and suddenly started taking on water 15 miles offshore! Better that I know about it now. Since we're going to epoxy it, I told him to put 3 coats on. He thought that was a little overkill, but since I'm going to be loading it and unloading it off a trailer, there's going to be some wear that a boat only kept in a wet slip would not encounter. It's a lot cheaper to have him add a 3rd coat now than to come back a year from now and do it again.
Since the pontoons are soda blasted now, he's also going to buff the toons to put a shine back to them, then apply the Sharkhide. He wanted to talk with Clint about some metallurgy stuff (can it go directly from "white metal"-to-buff-to-Sharkhide, or something like that), so he put a call in to him while I was there but got his VM. Anyways, he'll be able to do a much more thorough job having the boat up on stands than I could crawling around under the trailer, so the extra money is well worth it to me. My back will appreciate it.
Blondie is happy with this solution as well, although she is a little bummed that she's not getting her ellipticals back (still in shock about that!).
It'll be 3 weeks before he can get to it, but I was happy to leave the boat with him.
This psychological roller coaster ride that I've been on the past week has really driven me nuts! Hopefully we've got this whole thing finally figured out and can get back on track again.
While I was talking to the guy who is doing the pontoon repairs, we got to talking about electrolysis and I told him my story. He mentioned that "stray current in the water" is becoming much more recognized as a problem in the boating world. He mentioned about how many people are dying from this, and how marinas are finally starting to take notice of this, and are beginning to test their slips - some of them on a daily basis. He mentioned Electric Shock Drowning (ESD). When I got home I looked it up. It's become such an issue that they now have their own Association: http://www.electricshockdrowning.org/
Here's another link from BoatUS. What's important is to read the sidebar: http://www.boatus.com/seaworthy/magazine/2013/july/electric-shock-drowning-explained.asp
OK, so end of the PSA. Now on to the pontoons...
As I mentioned in the other post, he's pretty confident that all of the holes are small enough that they can be easily welded - just don't know how many there are exactly yet. He's going to pressure test each compartment of each pontoon, mark them, and then weld them.
I told him about the slow leak that I had on the port pontoon. It turns out that after we soda blasted the boat, I noticed a very slow leak. It was literally about 10 drops per minute. I tasted the water and it was salt water. I had not had the boat in the water for approximately 1 month before I had it soda blasted, so the water was inside the pontoon for at least that long. When I picked up the boat from the soda blasting, I noticed a small puddle of water under the port pontoon. I thought it was a result of the soda blasting, since it uses water in the process. Didn't give it a second thought, and drove the boat back to the storage lot (about a 40 mile drive). The next morning I went to the lot, and noticed another small puddle under the same port pontoon. Now I'm wondering "WTH is this all about?" and brought it home. Sure enough, there was a very slow leak somewhere along the keel of the port pontoon. Since it was on the trailer, I couldn't see it. ANYWAYS..... he believes it's a small hole that was probably opened up as a result of the soda blasting. It's got to be small, since it literally drained for over a week. I know that when I brought the boat back in when I was out the last time, I didn't notice any handling problems or listing, so I don't think there was too much water in the pontoon to begin with, so the hole is most likely pretty small.
I next asked him about some of the pitting, and whether or not we could sand them smooth. He recommended against removing any metal. Better off to simply put down a coat or two of barrier epoxy. He was initially going to put down marine bottom paint specifically formulated for pontoon boats (I believe it's called PontoonPro) but I told him I'm not EVER going to wet slip it again, we decided against that. By doing it that way, loading and unloading the boat on the trailer won't mess up the EXPENSIVE bottom-paint job, and besides unless the boat was going to be in the water for two weeks or so, the marine bottom paint wouldn't be needed, since I'm trailering the boat. In addition to helping hide the multitude of cosmetic sins that are on the toons, it will also add an additional protective hard surface to the pontoons themselves. I'm a little bummed that it will have the "black bottom paint look" again, but knowing what I know now I'm SO glad I did that soda blasting job now and discovered this problem. I can't imagine had I not discovered it and suddenly started taking on water 15 miles offshore! Better that I know about it now. Since we're going to epoxy it, I told him to put 3 coats on. He thought that was a little overkill, but since I'm going to be loading it and unloading it off a trailer, there's going to be some wear that a boat only kept in a wet slip would not encounter. It's a lot cheaper to have him add a 3rd coat now than to come back a year from now and do it again.
Since the pontoons are soda blasted now, he's also going to buff the toons to put a shine back to them, then apply the Sharkhide. He wanted to talk with Clint about some metallurgy stuff (can it go directly from "white metal"-to-buff-to-Sharkhide, or something like that), so he put a call in to him while I was there but got his VM. Anyways, he'll be able to do a much more thorough job having the boat up on stands than I could crawling around under the trailer, so the extra money is well worth it to me. My back will appreciate it.
Blondie is happy with this solution as well, although she is a little bummed that she's not getting her ellipticals back (still in shock about that!).
It'll be 3 weeks before he can get to it, but I was happy to leave the boat with him.
This psychological roller coaster ride that I've been on the past week has really driven me nuts! Hopefully we've got this whole thing finally figured out and can get back on track again.
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kaydano
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You are on the home stretch!!!
Thanks for sharing all this. I know this has been a major stress for you. I had a pin hole in a pontoon weld myself, and it took me a few weeks to figure out what was going on. Once I found the hole, I drilled a second hole to drain the water, and then had both welded shut. Not nearly the fiasco you had though. Many Bennington owners have learned much from your experience. This is a great example of what this forum is all about. Glad you are near the end!
Thanks for sharing all this. I know this has been a major stress for you. I had a pin hole in a pontoon weld myself, and it took me a few weeks to figure out what was going on. Once I found the hole, I drilled a second hole to drain the water, and then had both welded shut. Not nearly the fiasco you had though. Many Bennington owners have learned much from your experience. This is a great example of what this forum is all about. Glad you are near the end!
SEMPERFI8387
Moderator
So you're able to salvage it after all. That's great.
Now we gotta find someone else to spend their money ..... :lol:
Glad it worked out.
Now we gotta find someone else to spend their money ..... :lol:
Glad it worked out.
mattb
Well-Known Member
Glad to hear this TC, hope it all works out.
Spoiledrotten
Well-Known Member
Makes me appreciate my small ordeal with the log contact causing a split at the factory weld. That was an easy fix, and didn't cost me anything.
tcpip95
Well-Known Member
So far, the only true money I'm out is 3 tankfuls of diesel dragging the boat all over Florida - which I'm grateful for. I feel so snake bit now, I'm reluctant to predict anything. I looked up NADA resale value for my boat (which BTW, another dealer confirmed) and the 24 SSL in 2012 has a retail range of $26k - $29k, so with a bad SPS platform, that brings it down to about $11k trade in. So at this point, we'll be keeping the boat. There's a lot more life in it. The dealer looked my engine over and said "keep doing what you're doing and you'll see 8-9k hours out of this. It looks brand new."
So assuming I'm at ~ $4k for the pontoon repairs, the boat wrap is back in the picture (shhh, don't want to mess with any mojo that I may have left).
So assuming I'm at ~ $4k for the pontoon repairs, the boat wrap is back in the picture (shhh, don't want to mess with any mojo that I may have left).
tcpip95
Well-Known Member
lakeliving
Well-Known Member
What a change of events TC! Hopefully this will get you back on the water before too long.
BigKahuna
Well-Known Member
When will they do the repairs and how long will it take?!?
tcpip95
Well-Known Member
He's going to try to get to it within the next 3 weeks (little bit here, little bit there). I'm guessing it'll be 4-5 weeks before I get it back in the water.
BigKahuna
Well-Known Member
Not bad. Around Memorial Day.......
tcpip95
Well-Known Member
Yeah, I'm ok with the wait. We get to boat pretty much year round down here, so it's not like I'm going to be missing out on a season or anything like that. Blondie's still on the mend from here shoulder fracture anyways, so we wouldn't be doing anything adventurous with it for awhile.
mattb
Well-Known Member
You working her that hard cleaning the boat??
tcpip95
Well-Known Member
Blondie is "All Madden". Back in Feb. we had some family coming to town. We were going to trailer the boat down to Key Largo for a long weekend. The night before we left, I dropped the hound off at the dog sitter. While I'm doing that I get a phone call. She tripped over my computer bag in my office, fell and fractured her shoulder in 3 places. She made it to the phone and dialed 911. They came and took her to the hospital. I get to the hospital, and told her don't worry, I'll call the family that we won't be able to join them down in Largo. "Bulls*it!" she says. "I've got a broken shoulder, and they're not going to be able to operate for at least a few days. If I've gotta be miserable, I'd rather be miserable down in The Keys". I told her ok, but we won't bother trailering the boat down. "No, let's take the boat so that I can at least enjoy the scenery". So we trailered the boat down (4 hours in the truck), and proceeded to load her up with Vicodin. She was in a lot of pain, but she didn't really let on because she didn't want to ruin it for the family that came down from up north.
She's awesome!
BigKahuna
Well-Known Member
Sounds like a real trooper!!!