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Cleaning pontoon tube questions
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#1 August 31st, 2010, 06:35 AM
cbavier
Lieutenant
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Roscommon, MI
Posts: 1,252
Cleaning pontoon tube questions
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I recently bought a used pontoon that has scummy tubes. I am asking for help from the experts. I have three questions.
1- I have Starbright Hull cleaner with Oxalic acid. Will that clean the tubes and make them bright again?
2- Will it kill my Grass?
3- Will it harm the Aluminum?
Please answer all three questions if you can and thanks in advance.
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#2 August 31st, 2010, 08:47 AM
lakegeorge
Petty Officer 2nd Class
Join Date: Mar 2002
Location: Georgia
Posts: 163
Re: Cleaning pontoon tube questions
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You should get your toon manual from the builder and see what they recommend. Godfrey recommends that you NOT remove the oxidation in their manual. There must be a reason for this.
Alot of people use acid and sand their logs, The logs are only .080 thick and you don't want to be removing any of the Aluminum.
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#3 August 31st, 2010, 10:39 AM
EricJRW
Petty Officer 1st Class
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: Fort Worth, TX
Posts: 277
Re: Cleaning pontoon tube questions
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Don't have any answers, but there is a similar longer thread with much discussion (and opinion) on this subject:
http://forums.iboats.com/showthread....ighlight=shine
Oh, I do have an answer, sort of. One of the products used for pontoon cleaning is an air conditioner coil cleaner... It seems unlikely that it would kill the grass, since many A/C units are surrounded by grass.
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Boat 1: 1993 Lowe 185 Pontoon w/ 1993 Evinrude 50HP & a Volvo Penta QL 3 x 12.5 x 13 prop
Boat 2: 1986 Lowe 10' "Littlejon" w/ 1982 Suzuki DT2 (needed new condenser) & a 3 x 188 x 115 prop
Motor 3: 1951 Western Auto 6HP "Wizard" (made by Kiekhaefe) - Currently not running, maybe someday.
My first foray into boating, all acquired June 2009 (so yeah, I'm still learning).
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#4 August 31st, 2010, 11:05 AM
EGlideRider
Chief Petty Officer
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: Jensen Beach, Fl
Posts: 444
Re: Cleaning pontoon tube questions
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Quote:
Originally Posted by cbavier
I recently bought a used pontoon that has scummy tubes. I am asking for help from the experts. I have three questions.
1- I have Starbright Hull cleaner with Oxalic acid. Will that clean the tubes and make them bright again?
Yes but the brightness will likely last less than a season.
2- Will it kill my Grass?
Yes unless you spray lots of water on it afterwards.
3- Will it harm the Aluminum?
It is an etchent so it will remove a small amount of aluminum.
Please answer all three questions if you can and thanks in advance.
Good luck. I gave up many years ago on having shiny toons. I keep them clean and smooth but don't worry about them being shiny.
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#5 September 1st, 2010, 07:05 AM
Traceyh
Seaman
Join Date: Aug 2010
Posts: 61
Re: Cleaning pontoon tube questions
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I just bought a pontoon this year that had sat in the river water for who knows how long, and had stuff growing on the bottom of the toons and engine.
Each time I take it out, after it has soaked in the water for a couple hours, i use a scotch brite pad on it just to remove whatever the grown on stuff is... each week I do just a little more. I am not looking for shiny, just smooth and clean.
I dont want to remove any aluminum.
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#6 September 1st, 2010, 08:09 AM
cbavier
Lieutenant
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Roscommon, MI
Posts: 1,252
Re: Cleaning pontoon tube questions
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Traceyh
I just bought a pontoon this year that had sat in the river water for who knows how long, and had stuff growing on the bottom of the toons and engine.
Each time I take it out, after it has soaked in the water for a couple hours, i use a scotch brite pad on it just to remove whatever the grown on stuff is... each week I do just a little more. I am not looking for shiny, just smooth and clean.
I dont want to remove any aluminum.
Same here. I'm not looking for shiny just clean. Maybe shiny above water line??? I don't want to scare the fish away.
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#7 Today, 05:49 AM
2nd chance
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Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Elkhart In.
Posts: 16
Re: Cleaning pontoon tube questions
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I just pulled my pontoon out of the water , (there going to drop the water level by 5 ft for a month ) I had the green stuff caked on all over the toons ,
I used ! The works toilet bowl cleaner! 5 bottles on my 20 ft tubes
$1.00 a bottle at dollar tree then power washed sections a little at a time
the tubes came very very clean. do not do it on grass it will kill it .
Found that out the year I bought the boat it had 3 years of build up on toons. the works did a great job of cleaning them up ( had to use about 12 bottles but it worked) I highly recommend it.