Ranger Maiden Voyage, not so good

[Christopher Laurencio]

Took the Ranger out on Saturday with the wife and kids to an electric only lake. After about an hour I told my wife to open the batt campartment to be sure everything was ok. I asked her if she noticed any water, she said yes just a little. I thought maybe some residual water settled in the bildge. Ran both bidge pumps and only the lower pumped water for about 5 seconds. An half hour later I told her to run pumps, again another 5 seconds of water came out!.



At that point I was getting sick to my stomach at this!.



After pupming out every half hour for the morning we went home and I filled the bilge with water. Almost instantly water started dripping at a fast rate out of the flange or fitting around the drain plug, some even came out of the plug itself, this is the crew in type plug?. I filled the bildge to the point that the auto float came on the higher pump. I drained and then filled the livewells and they did not leak or lose water.



So I called the Ranger dealer and he said, "this is not common, but beleives I found the problem being the seal around the fitting is bad."



Have any of you guys ever heard of this happening?



I was kinda happy when I found the drain plug leaking, but I am still cautiosly optomistic that I found the problem.



CJL

 

[Christopher Laurencio]

On a good note,



I love the boat, it comes off the trailer great, and even better it can be floated on the trailer with ease. It fits like a glove on the trailer so it can only go on one way. It fishes great, very stable and does not get pushed around in the wind at all.

 

[Bill McElroy]

CJL....relax...nothing to get an ulcer over........a little silicone caulk bead around the fitting will end all worries!!

 

[Christopher Laurencio]

Mac, Ulcer!, that's what my wife said, she told me I am not going to live long if I keep it up.



I calmed down after seeing the water leak out around the flange/fitting, We went back that afternoon and fished some more, my wife :wub:, caught the first Bass out of our Ranger. Which was preety cool.



Thanks,



Other than the water issue, I can honestly say I love the boat and have not used the motor yet! LOL, it's a great fishing platform.



Got another question, but I will start another post since it's a different subject.



CJL

 

[Christopher Laurencio]

LOL @ Pat.



Wish you guys were with me on Saturday!



I checked every inch of that boat before I bought it and not one scratch under the hull or pad, I was thinking "maybe there's a hole where the bunks rest."



The guy who owned the boat before me said, he never took the plug out! never.

Maybe I damaged the seal when I took the plug out? It took a lttle effort to get the plug to unscrew.

 

[JR F]

HA HA HA........You will like It......Nice boat......JR

 

[Rob LaMoy]

Dude....have a coffee a marlboro and RELAX!



Like Mac said, put some high grade silicone caulk around it. You can even remove the entire bilge plug assembly for peace of mind if you want. Then caulk it generously and put it back in. Then just put a little bit of teflon plumbing tape around the threads of the bilge plug and screw it back in. Problem solved.



Trust me, there are a LOT worse ways to have a boat leak.



I just found out why my engine was dogging on me last weekend. When I went to launch it this week, the cowling was loose, the WHOLE thing. Turns out that when I hit a wave last Saturday, and launched her a little bit, I broke the cast aluminum engine flange bracket inside that holds the cowling steady. It was thus torquing and pinching off the exhaust pipe (only rubber) and that's why it was dogging. Not a biggie, but a $75 part and I wasn't able to hit the water this weekend.



Now if you had that leak and couldn't find it, say it wasn't the bilge plug, or the livewell system....THEN you'd have a real problem.



Don't sweat the small stuff dude.

 

[Bill McElroy]

LMAO @ Rob,....."Launched her a little bit"....Johnny F'n Quest!!



So tell me Rob,.....did you see any new chit from 10feet above sea level!???:wacko:

 

[Christopher Laurencio]

I know, I know, it just gave me an useasy feeling about the whole buying deal after I seen that.



So you never take your plug out?

 

[TrepMan]

Chris - I'll take Rob and Mac's suggestion one further, just so you are done with it. Call Ranger and ask they where to get a full replacement plug assembly (or if you can tell by the plug/assembly). Unscrew/unrivit the old housing out, clean the remaining hole and let it dry. Buy a small tube of 3M marine sealent and put the new assembly in - let it cure 24-48 hours and you are DONE for ever! I had to do that to my tracker this spring, I had be boat get beached during a heavy chop day when we were at the beach, and the bottom of the plastic housing/assembly wore compeletly away. No problems now mate!



Good luck and enjoy the Ranger!

 

[Rob LaMoy]

I take my plug out every time I trailer it CJ, in case of rain. But I also don't have any leaks.



Mac,

Ya know how it is....you're clipping along at about 50-55, a good "cruising" speed, during practice and you're looking at shorelines, etc. Then out of nowhere is this rogue series of yacht wakes that are about 4' high and space just right so the first one preps ya just so to LAUNCH off of the second one. I've been there before, but this is the highest I've had the old Ranger out of the water, and like I expected, she held like the brick $#!+house she is! LOL



My rig was at a 45 degree angle facing skyward and I DID see something....my life flash before my eyes! LOL Naaaa, I've done that before.



But at that angle, my prop still being the lowest point was still at least 3 feet out of the water. When it came down, I thought for SURE I must have broken something. I checked the usual suspects, ya know, motor mounts, battery tiedowns, corners for gel cracks. I found nothing. Of course I never checked the engine COWLING! LOL There was a sailboat about 100 yards away that say it happen and they all sat there with their jaws dropped. It was AWESOME when I landed, just waved and kept right on truckin!

 

[Christopher Laurencio]

When I spoke to my nearest Ranger dealer service department he suggested I buy a new plug assembly for $6.50. This guy who runs the service dept. is great, second time he has helped me and he called me back on Saturday @ 2:00 pm, the shop was already closed.



CJL

 

[Christopher Laurencio]

Trep, The older trackers had a plastic housing for the plug? My 2004 was all alum.

 

[Pat Goff]

Be sure and properly seal everything when you pull it out.

 

[TrepMan]

Chris - Yes mine was Plastic, had to drill out the rivits and then used SS screws back in. I think when they changed to all welded and made it all aluminium transom.

 

[Staci Matheis]

ROFL @ this thread!!!!!

:lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol:

 

[Rich Stern]

Chris, in the old days when ships would shoot 12 pound canon balls through each other's hulls, the captain didn't start worrying until the water in his hull was over the head of the carpenter (at which point it became difficult for the carpenter to plug the holes).



Enjoy the boat!

 

[Jeffrey Durham]

U crazy Rich.:wacko: Thats funny, I dont care who you are.

 

[Rob LaMoy]

Hey, that gives me an idea for jetski deterrent!

 

[Christopher Laurencio]

Update, The boat no longer takes on water!