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I own a North River where everything is grounded to a negative bus bar then grounded to the hull. The ground wire is a 10 gauge wire fused to 1 amp. First off I need to say I am not an aluminum boat wiring expert by any means, I just lurk around here to learn best practices to help me keep my alumi...

Using the silver silver chloride meter you can answer ALL your questions about if the engine needs to be grounded or not in your case. As far as other metal boats there is no question the engine/s need to be grounded to the hull using a cable as large or larger than the negative battery cable. Good...

I'm not suggesting it has to be done, I'd characterize it as "can't hurt". More important IMO is insuring that the boat hull is adequately protected with the right type of sacrificial anodes that are properly installed. If the kicker has solid continuity to the hull in that case then all ...

You don't want the hull acting as the negative side of a circuit for a 12v device (a pump with no ground wire for instance). That is entirely different than "bonding" Ok, So I get the impression you are suggesting that I do as Protroll advises and run a wire between kicker and hull, and a...

I've search the website for an answer to this question but I can't seem come up with much so I thought I'd ask. My kicker motor has no battery charging or electric start capabilities. I checked the kicker motor with an ohm meter and there's no continuity between the engine block of the kicker and th...

MT you'll likely not get the results you want from welding heavily corroded areas, best to just clean up, grind or sand out what you can, treat with your truck acid and call it good. Thanks for the reply, How aggressive should I be with my sanding? Should I sand until all pits are gone? I'm guessti...

Ok, I think I have now developed a good game plan to get this corrosion under control. I'm planning to start sanding corroded areas with 80 grit, then finish up with 120 grit. After sanding is done I got some strong aluminum acid from my commercial truck washer friend to etch the bilge area.If any a...

Kmorin,

I was looking at sand paper at my hardware store and they all claim to have a "zinc stearate coating" on the aluminum oxide sanding disk, if I was to use these would I be getting into a dissimilar metal corrosion situation (zinc on sandpaper and aluminum boat)?

I'd say etching the bilge including what looks like the two box beam covers which appear to have intact mill scale(?) would be a good step. Cheers, Kevin Morin Kenai, AK After reading other threads on this forum concerning dealing with corrosion I'm a bit confused; if acid washing removes corrosion...

kmorin wrote:Mtb55, that is the color band shift at the top of the girders? a C was bent and replated over the the tops- then stitched to the sides of the original verticals of the box beams?

Cheers,
Kevin Morin
Kenai, AK

Yes to all.

Since the two box beams seem welded to the hull bottom panel (? verify?) but are not sealed, holes shown in most photos, there is a reasonable assumption that those voids, unless they're limbered to the bilge so they could drain- are the real risk to your hull's integrity. I'd plan to air test them...

Mtb55, I'm not trying to cast aspersions on your painter, or his work. But if the work was not up to good practices isn't there a good potential that the preparation work was substandard? If that's true, the mill scale may have not been removed prior to painting, and the mill scale under the paint ...

Mtb55, not positive from the pictures, but I looked at the Photobucket Album and wondered- was/is the boat coated with Zolatone paint? Lots of flecks of darker colors don't seem to make sense if the boat is not coated? But, you didn't mention it so I thought I'd ask to better understand the colorat...

Hi guys I am relatively new to aluminum boat ownership so I've been lurking around this forum for the last few weeks trying to educate myself on proper maintenance procedures to make my boat last a long time. After reading about the importance of maintaining your bilge I decided to pull my floorboar...