First time boat owner1988 bass tracker tx 17 leak?

[swink]

I bought a 1988 bass tracker a couple of weeks ago and took it out on the lake and noticed i had to turn the bilge pump on about every 45 mins to a hour and let it run for about 5 mins, got home and looked up underneath it and seen in the very middle of the boat there was what it looked like to be silicone or something all the way down the middle on both sides and it was rottening off and i pushed up on it and i could see dew were water had been there wear it is at any idea on how to fix this problem? this is my first boat and do i need to take all the old off and put something new on? Any advise would help thanks.

 

[swink]

Re: First time boat owner1988 bass tracker tx 17 leak?

anybody?

 

[briangcc]

Re: First time boat owner1988 bass tracker tx 17 leak?

I'm no expert but this boat is riveted together correct?

If so, what you have is/are a loose rivet(s) and a stop gap measure to correct them at best. As you've found out, silicone sealant isn't the way to resolve the issue. The correct way is to rebuck or replace the rivets after you get that goop off the hull. Reading through some of the other tin boat restores, you might be able to drill out the leaking rivet(s), put some 5200 sealant in the hole, insert a new closed end rivet and cinch it down tight to reform the bond between the hull sections. Those much more enlightened than I will be along to correct any of the information I may have missed/left out/what not.


Since you're looking at a leaking hull that has been leaking for unknown time, have you poked your head under the floor to see if there are other issues lurking?? Like saturated foam or a soft floor??

 

[swink]

Re: First time boat owner1988 bass tracker tx 17 leak?

ok thanks for the info and no not yet will look under the floor today when i get off work.

 

[jbcurt00]

Re: First time boat owner1988 bass tracker tx 17 leak?

Pix will help a great deal

I'm not familiar enough w/ Bass Trackers but if it was on a Starcraft, Alumacraft or Duracraft aluminum boat, the seams on either side of the keel running the length of the hull bottom, in the center, is an applied angle of aluminum that is riveted to the hull. It should have a couple weep holes along it's length to allow any water that gets into it, can drain out & not freeze inside the keel.

IT IS NOT a portion of the bottom of the boat that is a leak problem, many people often think it is & apply silly-cone or other material along the edges of the keel.

So pix when you get time, of the hull bottom, the places you can see the water dripping out, and of the interior side of the hull at those locations. NOT a pix of the interior finishes & deck (floor) of the boat, the bare aluminum hull. May require some demo, maybe quite a bit of demo.....

 

[jigngrub]

Re: First time boat owner1988 bass tracker tx 17 leak?

You can't stop leaks in an aluminum by applying goo to the outside of the boat, you may slow them down temporarily but they'll come back sooner than later.

Your best bet will be to clean off all of that silicone crapola and do a leak test. After you get the mess cleaned off set your boat up as level as possible on a nice flat spot and put the garden hose in the bilge to fill it with water, don't fill it up past the bottom of the deck and keep an eye on your trailer tires to make sure they aren't overloaded. Then look under the boat for drips and leaks and mark them, if it's just rivets leaking you can replace them like this:
1989 Sylvan Boat Rebuild Part 4 - YouTube

If your boat is leaking at the seams the fix is a little more involved, but it's usually just rivets.

I agree with bgcc that you should check below deck, Trackers are easy to take apart... I know because I own one and have taken it apart twice. Your deck panels should be screwed down through the carpet and you just have to look/feel around through the carpet knap to find them and back them out and your decking will lift up easily... unless someone has carpeted over the deck fasteners, then you have problems.

If your floatation foam is wet below deck it's adding hundreds of pounds of weight to your boat and slowing it down, it also won't float your boat in case of an emergency.