Does your Toon “leak”?
 

Just launched this week, and every year I think about this: after launching there is some air that escapes from the pontoons. This usually continues for several minutes until the boat settles. I can hear and see air bubbles as escaping the pontoons. The boats sits level and is not low in the water. When I pull the boat in the fall I have never seen any water leak out. I always assumed this is normal and it probably due to pressure differential.
Does your toon do the same?

Thx, Bill

Where do you see the air and bubbles coming from? If it is on the top, might not be not a problem. If it is on the bottom it could be a problem. I have had pontoon boats and don't remember any air escaping when they were launched.

The bubbles come from beneath the waterline (obviously) or I could not see/hear them. AFAIK they are near the weld lines. I sealed all the welds with flex-seal but I could still hear some “bubbles” when i launched this week. It only goes on for a few minutes, so if there is a “leak” it likely is not letting much in.
Considering how these toons are built, I am guessing this is fairly common, but not everyone is as anal as I (engineer…).

Again, when I pulled the boat last fall, there was no sign of any water leaking back out, no sloshing, and the boat was not unreasonably heavy to winch on the trailer. I am thinking it may be the pressure differential forcing out some air when the toons are partially submerged (Boyle’s law).

I’ll throw this out to the crowd: when you launch this year, if it is a quiet area, pay attention and see if you can hear/see any bubbles.

Thx, Bill

Many years ago I had an older pontoon boat that leaked. I made up a fitting that went into the drain plug and put about 3 pounds of air in them. It was easy to find the leaks with a soapy water spray. I marked them and took it to a welder. If you try it I wouldn't put much more than 3 or 4 pounds of air in them. The results could get ugly.

I had one a while back that had a leak. When we pulled it out of the water you could hear the sloshing inside the tube. It did have a list to it in the slip. It was under warranty and was taken care of.