Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

A friend bought a brand new tracker 22 party barge for a lake lot she recently purchased. The boat is a new concurrent 2015 with a 60hp Bigfoot. My brother picked it up yesterday and took it to our local lake for the shake down cruise. I met up with my boat and everything was good until we loaded up the new toon. Apparently tracker didn't pressure test this log lol. A perfect dimple where the wire left the puddle of weld. Bass pro already picked it up and fixed it. Being deliver again tomorrow. Just funny that they didn't catch it at the factory. My boat had a couple after we added the strakes but we found them with soapy water and a pressure test.[img][/img]

Good catch. I'd hate to see what would have happened if he docked it for the season. Had MANY problems after buying my camper new in 2013. It was so bad they had to take it back to the plant to fix. I think it was made at 4:30PM on a Friday!

Iv'e heard of at least 10 people with brand new one's having the exact same issue, Imagine how many are out there.

Im new here and dont know much about the whole pontooning. The marina where I am going to store my not yet deliveried Sylvan said to stay away from Sun Tracker. They have had several come in with weld cracks. Two different people said the same thing at different times. Its good to hear Bass Pro has good customer service.
Take that info for what its worth. Im sure many here have never had an issue.

It could happen to any brand pontoon. Unfortunately a couple of brands have more problems than others. Tell me they're all created equal.

Gr8Ful1...

Not all Bass Pro locations are created equal. If buying a Sun Tracker, I would use a Sun Tracker Dealer as opposed to Bass Pro. Our local Bass Pro has suck a$$ customer service but the local dealer does a good job.

Our brand new 2017 Starcraft had a pinhole leak in an end cap weld on one tube.....neighbor had same issue with same rig. Warranty repaired, but I was not happy with the issue. Apparently the tubes are minimally pressurized at the factory, and I assume, tested for leaks. But, I find it unusual that the only way to pressurize the tube is via the drain plug at the bottom of the tube....there is no schrader valve that I can find. So, when the plug was removed to weld the pin hole, any pressure in the tank escaped, and there was no way to re-pressurize the tube. Do other brands have schrader valves for pressurizing the tubes ?

Regards
Gemstone

They re pressurize themselves, Forest river might be the only current brand with a schrader valve. Not positive though.

[quote="ron nh"]They re pressurize themselves, Forest river might be the only current brand with a schrader valve. Not positive though.[/quote]

All the forest river brands do I believe, my Berkshire has Schrader valves for inflation

The Upper Chesapeake Bay is a torture test for new pontoons. I've seen bad welds on several brands out here. G3 dealer has a ton back for repairs, another it's fixing Benningtons. Guy in my marina paid 65k for his, same thing with bad welds. This boat is in a lift, never kept in the water. Bentley, even more. My 2013 Party Barge had a pinhole leak, wouldn't let water in but was bubbling. Tracker sent me to a local welder fixed under it's lifetime warranty, no issues since. Tracker now has a 10 year warranty on everything but the logs/decks and lifetime on logs/deck. They've been around forever, unlike some of the so called "premium" brands that have gone bankrupt.

A few marinas sell high end brands because they make huge profits on markup. They hate Tracker because of the low profit margin. In the end, they all have the same issue, but I'd be pissed if I paid 65k for a 'toon and less pissed if I paid 25k, lol.

This is my second Tracker. Zero issues with the first and one issue with the second, both used in both fresh, salt and brackish water.

And yes, some Bass Pro Shops SUCK. Always go to a private dealer. The Bass Pro in Hanover, MD is godawful.

Yeah, but dont ya know, it's only tracker.

A Schraeder valve is a waste of time. When they're pressurized for test purposes, you're just talking about 4-5 lbs. of pressure--about the same that comes out of a hair dryer.

It doesn't take much air pressure to find a leak with a sponge and some soapy water.

[quote="ralph"]Good catch. I'd hate to see what would have happened if he docked it for the season. Had MANY problems after buying my camper new in 2013. It was so bad they had to take it back to the plant to fix. I think it was made at 4:30PM on a Friday![/quote]






I saw a Youtube video of the Jayco plant, they make like 70 trailers a day. We bought a custom built Idletime that took 4 days to build. Quality is perfect

[quote="boocat"]Yeah, but dont ya know, it's only tracker.[/quote]


Please explain your remark, are you bullshitting or what? You don't tell us what kind of boat you have so if you're trying to run down Trackers cause they are cheaper don't go there. Not everyone can afford the high-end boats and some that can don't

Proud owner of a new 18 Bass Buggy.. ( and successfully pulled by a ford) I have yet to find all my TRACKER problems, guess I'm not looking hard enough. The way the guys act over on the fishing forum, sounds like they all rather drink bleach than own or be seen on a tracker. And when it was announced that Bass Pro was going to donate a bunch of boats for the Harvey rescues I just knew people would drown by the thousands because they were being rescued by a TRACKER.. OMG.