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Thrilled with new Benni....until....

Renegade34

Renegade34

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Well I was going to start a thread on here tonight about how happy I am with the new boat and how I think it’s the first time that I received a new boat and everything was perfect and no issues whatsoever. It was the first real day on the lake (other than a bit of prop testing) and things couldn’t have went any better until I got her loaded back up on the trailer and back home. That’s when my heart sank. Out of the port side log where the nose cone is welded on was a very steady drip of water. The I rocked the boat side to side and sure enough I hear water sloshing around in there. It’s pretty much worst case scenario for me as I bought the boat 2000 miles from home due to a falling out with the local dealer (who is still 300 miles away).
I’m very disappointed with Bennington at the moment. Sure my last boat (South Bay) wasn’t quite as “pretty” as this one but at least the darn pontoons were water tight. It seems like Bennington might be focusing a little too much on cosmetics and maybe not quite enough on making sure it’s seaworthy as there seems to be more and more of these incidents :mad:
Sorry about the long rant but I needed to vent.
 
Oh man! Is there another dealer nearby or is the one that's 300 miles away the closest??? Maybe you can document the leak and send your selling dealer or Bennington pictures and/or video and because of your proximity to them they can approve the work to be done by a reputable company closer to you. It's worth a shot........
 
Sorry to hear. You could always try to get a local welder to repair it. Wouldn’t be the first time. Many times I’m sure this is the procedure. Can you pinpoint the spot it’s leaking at? Boat in front of us a couple years ago was repaired that way (local). Contact your dealer right away so the can get the ball rollig with Bennington on possible repair procedure.
 
The dealer that is 300 miles away is the closest. The next closest is over double that.
I could maybe find someone to try and repair it but it would be a long shot as there’s not a lot of aluminum welders around here.
 
My one dealing with Bennington on an issue showed me they stand behind their product and will bend over backwards to make it right. I doubt you'll have any problems with them and if they want you to go to that dealer, I would tell them how you feel about that dealer and I'll bet they'll make you feel comfortable about that too.
 
I had a leaking tube welded locally and Bennington reimbursed me later. $150 if I remember. Definitely not worth 300 miles let alone 2000.
 
I might’ve lucked out! There is a trailer manufacturing company here that does aluminum welding. I took it to them this morning to look at and they said they’d be able to do it. Now I just have to call Bennington tomorrow to talk about reimbursement. One thing that I liked about my South Bay was that each chamber had a valve stem at the top of the log so you could pressure check them. I think each one was pressured up to 5 psi. It was nice as you could check the air pressure to make sure there was no leaks and also helped to protect from denting. I wish the Benningtons had that feature. I may have them add them if I get permission from Bennington as the welding shop will need some way of testing it anyways.
 
I believe there is a port at the top, as they do check them, but not every leak is apparent during assembly. Could be dirt or something blocking the leak under pressure testing at factory, but in the water, the water presssure forces the leak. I think 3 psi is the max pressure for testing.
 
There’s already a port on top of the for each chamber, it usually has a 1/2IP plug in it with a vent hole. I found them when I was under the boat looking around, not that easy to see but once I found one I had to find the rest!
 
Well in retrospect it wasn’t that big of deal. I had the pontoon repaired at a local shop and life is good again :)
It was only a $200 fix and my dealer told me just to send them the bill. All is well that ends well and I probably over reacted initially. I’m in love with the new Benni again!
 
Great, glad to hear it ended well for you.
 
Glad it worked out for you. Now, enjoy the new boat!
Jack
 
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