@@johnbannister501 I had the marina weld the hole that I drilled shut, touched up some other cracked welds and put a drain / screw cap at bottom back of leaking toon, haven’t had any issues since. 👍🏼
Awesome fix man!!! One concern if you have this issue again... if it's an under water weld leaking... the only thing keeping the toon from filling with water completely, and fully sinking.. is the built up air pressure in top of the toon. Drilling a hole up top like that would release that air and the toon would fill up with water even faster... sinking quickly. Just something to keep in mind... SCIENCE hahaha
Mine looked just like that. Hurried up, got it out, sucked water ouut for 3 days using shop vac sucking through a tiny drip hose. Found 3 bad welds on aft end of port tube. Mine were the exact same welds you showed.
The plug held the entire summer, the silicone must’ve covered the leaky weld crack because pontoon was empty when we pulled out of lake in the fall. Marina has an aluminum weld guy that’ll fix the hole this spring.
@@ProjectswithChaz Hopefully the silicone doesn't cause the welder issues. That stuff bonds almost at a molecular level and one of the keys to a good aluminum weld is cleanliness. In the future, if you are going to get something welded afterward, a butyl based sealant might be a better choice for a temporary repair as it is easier to clean up. Still, a very innovative temporary fix.
If your logs have factory plugs why not remove the plug install a ball valve extend the piping above water level then insert small tube and pump no need to drill.
I could barely see the air valve on top of toon due to the boat being in the water and deck flush with dock height, the only way I could access would be to get into the water and then I wouldn’t have been tall enough to see on top of log. If you have the opportunity to pull your boat from the lake and tinker with in a driveway while trailered your idea would be preferable. Thanks for watching!
The pontoons have air valves on top for that exact purpose (find the leaks) I just haven’t had the marina perform yet. I’m on season 2 with the plug and have only pumped water out once.
@@whatthe2458 I bought a 1/2" street ell, a male quick disconnect screwed into the street ell. Connected the hose from my tiny Harbor Freight pancake compressor. Sprayed welds and any other place I suspected with water and Dawn. 3 bad welds bubbled up right away. Then took off street ell, fed plastic pipe in though the coupler welded on top of the tube and sucked water out with a shop vac. Took about 20 hours over 3 days at about 5 US gallons an hour. Really tedious. That'd be 100 gallons, about 800 to 850 pounds. The hole though the top of the tube is really small. Could only fit a tiny pvc hose about 3/8 inch OD but, the hose wouldn't hang straight so went to a smaller softer piece of tubing about 3/16" OD that would. Took quite a bit of duck tape too...
Thanks I’ve seen someone do this before. I never thought about the welds letting in water. I have an older pontoon and got it running well last summer but notice water in the pontoons. This makes sense that the water may be from the welds. How did the sealant hold up?
The silicone over the welds held all summer, even the plug kept water completely out with wake going over it. Our marina is scheduling spring work now before launch time, if welding the hole shut is too outrageous I might leave the plug for future access if needed. Good luck with your pontoon!
My pontoon was leaning to one side by late August and when the marina pulled it in September we could hear the water splashing back and forth inside. I shot this video in the spring when I placed back into the lake, the marina was supposed to fix but forgot so that’s how I decided to fix myself at the dock. Thanks for watching!
@@andyho361 My marina dude thinks the water is getting in through hairline cracks at the weld spots. This is a Tri-tune with a 150hp outboard and hauls butt. The prior owner(s) probably pulled a lot of tubers and beat the hell out of this boat. I’m too cheap to buy a new boat so I’m improvising. I plan to have visible cracks aluminum welded in the next month before I launch here in Michigan. Thanks for watching!
UPDATE… I just had the welds re-welded where the pontoon connects to the deck brackets, welded shut the hole drilled in this video and installed a brass drain plug at the bottom of “toon”. They also welded a hairline crack in my transom so my motor won’t snap off unexpectedly. It cost $225 which seems like a fair price for skilled labor! Ask around for a qualified aluminum welder after you perform my quick fix.
I looked and didn’t see any. I researched Harris Pontoons and a video showed that there is a way of forcing air compressor air into a screw hole to locate leaks, didn’t have time to pull out of water and attempt. This is a temporary fix on a budget 😁
@@ProjectswithChaz very interesting amd wasn’t trying to to be negative. Was just shocked as I had never heard of any without those. Make you wonder how the tested at factory.
There are air hose nipples on top of toon to hook a compressor up and force air into, apparently this is how to identify the cracks/leaks. My marina mechanic said this needed to be done at the shop with boat on trailer, my boat was already in the water and leaning to one side so I did a “quick fix”. There are no caps or entry points on top of my boat tubes that would accommodate a hose.
No idea, bought it used by-owner and it was pretty well used, I didn’t have time to look into the warranty so I did the quick fix, I’ll definitely look into now that you mention; thanks!
They're referred to as drain-plugs or expansion-plugs, ask someone in the plumbing section at a hardware store they should have them, I bought mine at an Ace Hardware if you have those in your area. I bought two just in case I dropped one in the water. You can twist the black rubber part to make the fit tighter or looser depending on the size hole you drilled. Try to match the plug size to the expander drill-bit size you're using (1-inch plug for 1-inch bit). Good luck!
@@richardfuerst5286 That’s what the marina guy told me but recommended as a temporary solution until I could get the boat out of the water and fixed properly. I should change the video title to “Temporary” Quick Fix. Thanks for commenting!
