What are the advantages / disadvantages of foam filled pontoons?

samo_ott

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And how much weight would it add roughly to 20' pontoons? Any ideas? thx :)
 

1fishbone

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Re: What are the advantages / disadvantages of foam filled pontoons?

Why????:confused:

If it ever got wet, you'll have to take the toon apart.

If you're thinking of more flotation for your toon...add more toons!
Adding foam to the toons will not gain...buoyancy!
 

samo_ott

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Re: What are the advantages / disadvantages of foam filled pontoons?

Heck no, I would never add it in. waste of time in my opinion. I was looking at buying an old one and it has already been done to it. So wanted to know the pro's and con's.
 

Jeep Man

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Re: What are the advantages / disadvantages of foam filled pontoons?

No significant advantage or disadvantage. The only downside is that if you get a leak and the foam gets saturated, your in for a world of hurt.
 

samo_ott

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Re: What are the advantages / disadvantages of foam filled pontoons?

That'd be my thought. Wet foam would be a disaster. So why do folks foam fill then? Seems like a big expense for no reason? I guess it would make it unsinkable. Is that the only reason? And how much extra would each pontoon weigh as towing it could be a problem for me. (assuming the foam is dry)
 

5150abf

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Re: What are the advantages / disadvantages of foam filled pontoons?

Are they U tubes, the short time I built them they had to be filled with foam, the coast gaurd classifies them as a hull or something, this was early 90s.

If they are round I don't see any reason to fill them, as everone else pointed out, water logged foam in a tube would be terrible.

We are asked several times a year to weld air fittings on tubes so people can fill em and make em float better, one even wanted to put helium in the tubes so people don't alway make sense.

I would put that much foam at @ 80-100lbs per tube, 400-600 if it is wet.

I personnally wouldn't do it because you know at some point it is going to leak and the foam will water log and there is nothing you do to fix it.
 

samo_ott

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Re: What are the advantages / disadvantages of foam filled pontoons?

Nope, they're round tubes. And There's a large 8" or so patch every few feet where they put the foam in. Weird.

In theory helium would make em float higher but that'd be expensive. Foam on the other hand, even dry would weigh as you mentioned and thus they'd float lower.
 

rentprop1

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Re: What are the advantages / disadvantages of foam filled pontoons?

people take the cheap way out and fill them with foam when they start to leak rather than have them welded correctly, I would never buy a toon with foam filled tubes, if it leaked before and they took a short cut I will leak again, the foam will biuy you a year or more but only if you don't leave the boat in the water.....my neighbor has a dock from old foam filled toons, every year I watch it get lower in the water in the back end :eek:

if you have a leek, you can add a cheap harbor freight pump, similar to a wash down pump and run a line down inside the pontoon, and just suck the water out .......I have seen several boats like this, they only pump out about 2-3 gal of water per day any more than that and you are looking for trouble
 

5150abf

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Re: What are the advantages / disadvantages of foam filled pontoons?

That is odd they would go to the trouble to cut holes in the toons to "fix" them.

Either way I would steer clear, eventually they will be a pain.
 

scott10d

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Re: What are the advantages / disadvantages of foam filled pontoons?

I think the newer u shaped pontoons have closed cell foam and they
Should not hold water.
 

samo_ott

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Re: What are the advantages / disadvantages of foam filled pontoons?

I agree with these comments. And I don't even see foam being cheaper than a weld. Welding is not that expensive. The only plus I can see is unsinkability... Like the Titanic! There's lots of negatives and the boat would be heavier and slower. I will also stay clear. Thanks for all the comments.
 

scott10d

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Re: What are the advantages / disadvantages of foam filled pontoons?

I took a spin in a g3 Thursday and was very impressed with the ride.
The speed was not bad at all 20' 90hp and 30 gallons of gas and 2 240 pound men we got 29.8 gps and 31 by speedometer.
I am thinking of getting one my self.And that was on lake lanier with a little chop
 

seldomseen

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Re: What are the advantages / disadvantages of foam filled pontoons?

Admiral Samo is correct, replacing the air in a typical two toon 20 footer with Helium would result in a ten pound weight saving so it is not cost effective. Adding welded in air fill valves, putting 2 psi air in the toons and spraying them with soapy water would reveal the leaks that need welding. (100 cubic feet of helium weigs 1.03 pounds. Air is 7.24 times heavier. One cubic foot of anything is 7.49 gallons)
 

Silver Eagle

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Re: What are the advantages / disadvantages of foam filled pontoons?

Helium is Flameable they nitrogen instead.That's what they put in tires now a days.
 

seldomseen

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Re: What are the advantages / disadvantages of foam filled pontoons?

Silver Eagle; Helium is not flamable. Nitrogen has been used to inflate pneumatic tires since their invention as the air that we breath is almost 80% Nitrogen
 

samo_ott

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Re: What are the advantages / disadvantages of foam filled pontoons?

Er, I thought it was hydrogen that was flammable and that helium was inert...
 

5150abf

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Re: What are the advantages / disadvantages of foam filled pontoons?

Helium is inert, that is why they use it for welding and don't they use nitrogen to fill racing tires, something about it doesn't expand when heated like regular air air.

Point being, unless you are checking for leaks there is no advantage to having air in a pontoon tube.
 

CBR75

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Re: What are the advantages / disadvantages of foam filled pontoons?

scott10d is correct about the G3 pontoons using the closed-cell foam in the logs, they do not absorb water. But, it is highly unlikley that that is what was used here.
 
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