Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

I was backing up my boat on its trailer and you could hear water sloshing in the pontoons. There is a drain plug on the bottom rear of each pontoon. They don't look like theyve been opened before. Should I unscrew them and see if water drains out?
08 Bentley 204


Thanks!

Seems like that would be a sure way to find out.

Yep, then while you're at it, replace the plugs too, if they are plastic. These can sun rot pretty quickly, and may even let water in if they aren't in good shape. Not a bad idea to replace them with either stainless plugs, or just new plastic ones, and continue to replace at least every other year.

Ok, thanks. I had been reading alot about them being pressurized and all different thinigs so I wasn't sure. I know it sounded like a stupid question lol.

Where do you find stainless plugs. The ones in them are plastic and are very faded.

Thank you both for your help!

Should be able to find both the plastic, and the stainless @ a good hardware store. Not Home Depot, or Lowe's but the Ace or something like that, which carries more actual nuts & bolts. Our Ace's carry all sorts of stainless bolts and things here.

You can use the plastic and be fine. That is what I do, and I just purchase 4 of them, so that I have 2 extra, just in case. Then I replace them at least every other season, if not every season. Good insurance for a couple of bucks.

As for the presurization, if you do pressurize, don't exceed about 2-3 psi, or you can cause welds to break open. Also, you can just open the logs up in the morning, then close them back up. Once the temp rises in the afternoon, your toon will be naturally pressurized due to the increase in temperature. Always open them in the cooler weather though, and not the hotter weather, or you will be pulling a vacuum.

If there is a lot of water in the toons you might have a leak. Then you should do the pressurize thing and find the leak.

When you remove the plugs you may hear a woosh sound, maybe not. Most of those are atmospheric stuff or heat from the sun. The toons are not actually pressurize like say a rubber raft. Ace is a good place to look for replacements. Stainless may be okay but with the plastic you don't have to worry about any cross threading cause all you will loose is the price of the plastic plug. Might not hurt to locate some rector seal in the plumbing dept. It never actually dries and is used on pipe fitting to stop leaks. Actually have had better luck with that than the teflon plumbers tape. Lastly there are no stupid question here. Any more someone has an idea.
doc

One of them gave me the woosh and air came out....

the other not so good....water ran out of it for a good minute. I am going to replace the plugs and use plumbers tape for a good seal and see if it does it again this weekend. If it does, I'll be asking for some detailed help on how to pressure it up and find a leak.

Thanks!

If it only leaked water for a minute, then that really isn't that much water, and I would even go as far as saying that the plug being old, and not sealing properly, could have let that amount in over time. I would just replace the plugs like you said, and try to enjoy the weekend. Check the logs for water again on Tuesday.

I went to Ace Hardware, didn't really see any stainless steel things that were comperable to the plug I have. Is there a place to order new ones? Or were you meaning to buy a stainless bolt that is the same size as this plug and use it?

Thanks!

I bought mine from my local pontoon dealership.

I'm gonna pseudo hijack this thread, not to disregard Amos's question, but only because I have a couple of my own.
I too have water in one of my toons, unfortunately I don't have the plugs to get rid of the water. My plan is to drill a hole and to then have one of the following done;
a) weld the hole closed
or
b) drill the hole near the top side on the rear of the toon and then plug it.
either way I figured if I drilled the hole on the top side I could easily lift the bow and let the water drain to the rear and then syphon it out easily without drilling a hole below the water line.

What do you guys think the best option is?

Also, if anyone can assist me in finding those threads where it demonstrates the drilling and plugging I would appreciate it. I don't know if I'm using the incorrect keywords or what, but I've been having a hard time finding the demonstration thread that I know I've seen before.

Have you looked all the way down the tops of the toons. There may be a plug or 3 up there.
I did what you are talking about and made it big enough for 1/2" NPT so I could get a decent hose in there.
You will still need to put a plate up there to give the plug some meat to thread into. I used 1/4" aluminum, TIG welded in.

Greg,
The only plug we were able to locate was at the top in the middle of each toon, this seemed to be for air. What you did is exactly what I had in mind.

We were also able to locate a minor air leak neat one of the welds in the rear of the toon where the support bracket meets the toon.

I have plugs like that too and I was able to get a lot of water out from them but having them in the stern works a lot better. The cracks are usually where you found them. In the 25 years I have had this boat I have done the welding thing 3 times.