$10 DIY Porta Potti

Every pontoon boat needs a potti for those "emergencies".  I mean, who wants to pull up the anchor and go back to shore just to find a bathroom?  I'm talking about "#2" emergencies here.  For #1 emergencies just pee over the side of the boat.  Or jump in the lake.  Anyone that asks to go back to shore to pee doesn't get to go on a second trip on my boat.

Here's a simple one I made from a 10-gallon bucket. The bucket cost $3.  Make two cuts as shown.  You want to cut the top off close to the ridge (the top section is the ring at the far right in the pic below).  Then cut another 2 inches off the top of the pail (see the middle ring in the picture).  You can throw this middle ring away.  The reason you need to cut this out is so the first ring will fit over the bottom portion of the pail (left in the picture).  The bucket has a gradual taper, so you need to take a small section out, otherwise the top won't slide over the bottom section.

Next, I glued a $7 toilet seat to the top section of the bucket.  I drilled holes in the seat, and used dowels to make "pins" to help hold the glue.  Flip the top ring over and you will see little chambers that give strength to the pail.  I filled these chambers with silicone caulk, then pressed the seat in place and let it dry.  The little pieces of blue tape were to help me know which sections to fill up with caulk.

Last, put a bag in the bottom section, then set the seat on top.  Your weight on the seat holds the bag in place.  You are now ready to "go".

 

Note that you can buy "sani-bags" which have a powder that soaks up liquids.  When done, tie off the bag and throw it in a dumpster back at the dock.

It helps if your boat has a changing room with a curtain.  Otherwise, make everyone get in the lake first!

Avoid a Dead Battery

I highly recommend having a second battery on your boat.  Then you won’t worry about running the battery down from playing the stereo all day at the beach or cove and the motor not starting when you are ready to go home.

The easiest way to prevent a dead battery is to have one battery to start the motor, and a second battery for the lights, stereo, etc (everything else except the motor).  The problem with two separate circuits is only the starting battery gets recharged by the motor.  The other continues to drain until its either dead, or you take it home and recharge it.

This is where the “Automatic Charging Relay” comes in.  It’s also known as a “Battery Combiner”.  This nifty little device is about the size of a coffee cup.  How it works is very simple.  Whenever the motor is running, it combines both circuits so charging current from the motor recharges BOTH batteries at the same time.  Then, when you shut off the motor, the Charging Relay or Battery Combiner senses the loss of charging current (technically, it senses the small drop in voltage) and separates the two circuits again, leaving the “house” battery isolated from the “starting” battery.  This keeps the starting battery fresh to start the motor when you are ready to leave.

The reason I like this setup is it’s a “wire it and forget it” solution.  It has worked problem free for me for several years now.  The best thing is I don't have to worry about the motor not starting at the end of the day.
 

I use the Blue Sea SI-ACR Automatic Charging Relay.  See photo below.

Below is a picture with the cover off.  Note the two large terminal posts marked A and B.  You connect the A terminal to the + terminal on the starting battery, and the B terminal to the + terminal on the house battery (the one that runs the stereo and everything else).  You connect the - terminals of each battery to each other (not through this relay, just ground both batteries).  You add a small wire to the ground terminal shown on the charging relay through a 15A fuse to one of the negative terminals on the batteries.  This is only used to make sure the internal relay operates.  Again, both negative terminals of both batteries need to be connected to each other.  And that's it!  The other two connection tabs are for extra features explained in the instructions.  You just bolt this somewhere to your boat near the batteries and wire it up.  Use heavy gauge wire for the A and B terminal posts.  This relay can handle up to 120 Amps.  They have a couple models and you want the one rated for more amperage than your boat motor alternator can output.  

Now you have one less thing to worry about while enjoying a relaxing day on the lake!
 

By the way, they sell kits that include a manual switch.  In my simple setup, I decided I didn't need the switch.  The switch can add another $40-$50.  And, adding a switch puts more holes in your boat!

Noodle Rack

Noodles are pretty much required gear on a pontoon boat.  Everyone loves floating with them in the water.  Or smacking each other with them.  Or blowing water through them like a fountain...

The bad thing is they are lightweight, bulky and they blow around easily.  They take up a lot of room inside a boat.  Especially when you have a dozen of them.  They are literally worse than herding cats.  Cats would at least stay on the boat. 

We used to put a strap around the whole group of them (the noodles, not the cats).  But that really only worked after everyone was done using them.  Practically speaking, if a kid can't turn off a light switch, would you expect him to strap in a noodle?  You get what I'm saying.  Noodles are such a great toy to have on a boat.  You HAVE to have some.  But they are a royal pain to keep organized. 

Then I came up with the idea for a noodle rack.  The noodle rack is barely visible in the photo below, but the impact is clearly visible.  A nice neat set of noodles!  The red strap at the top is just used once we are underway to keep the wind from blowing them around.  When we're anchored, the strap comes off, and kids can pull noodles off the rack, or put them back, as much as they desire. 

The series of photos below show how I made the rack.  I used 1/2 inch PVC.  The first photo shows a piece of 1/2 inch PVC with an end cap glued to it.  The PVC pipe fits loosely in the noodle, but the cap is snug.  Its the cap that actually holds the noodle in place.   

  

The picture below is the base of the noodle rack.  I used 90 degree elbows and 3-way tees.  And of course short sections of 1/2 inch pipe to hold everything together.  I think the whole thing cost less than $15 from Menards.  The back two holes are for PVC pipe that I zip tied to the fence on our boat.  The front two holes I ended up facing towards each other with a small section of pipe between them.  This was used as a place to put your foot to help hold the rack in place when you pulled a noodle off.  If you look closely at the photo at the bottom of the page, you will see what I mean.

 

The next photo shows the legs of the rack.  These are where the noodles slide on.  Note the long one in the back.  This is one of the two I used to zip tie it to the boat.  At the time I took this photo, I didn't have enough PVC pipe to put the second one on in the back row.  You can see the empty elbow if you look closely.

And, here's the finished product with noodles all herded neatly in place:

 

I painted the noodle rack black and zip-tied it to the fence and railing of our boat near the back of the boat.  Now when the kids are done, they just slide the noodle on the rack as they walk by.  It takes a little training, because it is slightly more difficult than a light switch, but they catch on pretty quickly. 

When we are all done swimming for the day, we put a strap on the top half of the noodles and wrap it around the Bimini leg so they don't blow over in the wind.

When it was all done, I filled it with sand (for weight) and painted it black.  Here's a photo of it installed on our boat. You can see the foot rest at the bottom.  You step on this to keep it from moving as you pull a noodle off.  You can also see the black pipe that runs up behind the noodles to the top edge of the boat railing.  That's where its zip tied to the boat.
 

Extended Aft Deck

Here's what the extended aft deck looks like on our boat.  This was a GREAT option for us.  It provides extra space to fish from (standing or sitting with your feet in the water).  It allows more room for people climbing out of the water to stand and "drip dry" for a few extra seconds.  Our boat has the tow bar, which is connected to the motor pod.  Because we have the extended aft deck option, we often will tie our tube off to the front of the tow bar, and store it standing on its side when not using it.  It also "drip dries" from that position too.  The extended deck is also a place some people will stand to talk to those sitting in the lounger.  I've seen some others mount a grill in this space on the port side of the boat.

The extended deck was an extra cost, but it was money well spent!

What is Prop Rattle?

Prop rattle is the noise from a prop rattling.  Okay, Mr. Obvious, what does that mean and is it harmful to my boat?  First, no, it is not harmful.  But it can be loud and annoying.  It happens at idle speed when the boat is in gear.  It sounds like something is VERY wrong with the motor.  Which, by the way, is a great source of material to freak out first-timers on your boat.  Especially your daughter's boyfriends.  "Hear that?  Uh-oh, sounds like something is wrong with the motor.  We might not make it back to the dock.  Anyone know how to use an oar?  Anyone bring an oar???"  The blank stares you get are just priceless...

Prop rattle only happens at idle while the motor is in gear.  Only stainless steel props will rattle.  Aluminum props won't.  This is because the stainless props are very hard and brittle, while the aluminum is soft.  This is one of the disadvantages of stainless steel.  But, it can be fixed easy enough. 

Why does the hardness of the prop matter?  Well, a motor gets it's power from the explosions that occur inside each cylinder.  These explosions are not continuous, but rather sequential, meaning one cylinder fires, then the next, then the next, and so on.  This happens so fast that a motor normally seems smooth and continuous.  But it's really not.  If you were to slow it WAY down, you would be able to hear each individual bang of the cylinders as they fire.  It would sound like a hammer hitting a nail over and over.  At idle speed, this can be slow enough for a hard stainless prop to "feel" each "bang, bang, bang" of the cylinders firing off.  This is what causes it to make a "rattling" sound.  As soon as you speed the motor up a little, it goes away because the inertia of the prop catches up and it runs smoothly and no longer reacts to each "bang" of the cylinders.

How do you fix this?  There are special hub kits like the Mercury Flo Torq IV hub shown above.  These hubs are slightly "soft" and absorb the shock between the prop and the shaft at low idle speeds.  This shock absorption will prevent the prop from rattling.  

Another option to fix this is to cake the marine grease between the black delrin sleeve and the inside of the prop.  This has worked fairly well for me.  It quiets the rattle by ~90%.  Since the amount of grease needed to do this costs about 10 cents (vs $100 for a new hub) it is worth a try.  Just cake it around the outside of the black delrin sleeve shown in the photo below, and coat the inside surface of the prop where the delrin sleeve will touch the prop.  The sleeve goes between the shaft and the prop, so caking it with grease absorbs most of the shock.  You can still hear the rattle, but it is MUCH muted, and not nearly as annoying.  For 10 cents worth of grease, it works for me.

 

By the way, Mercury's Flow Torq hub kits are "breakaway" hubs.  I think Yamaha makes a similar hub called SDS (if I have that right).  The purpose is if you hit something hard with your prop, the hub will break before your lower unit gears break.  The hub sleeve that breaks is a $50 part.  Your lower unit is a $1500 part.  Which would you rather have break?  Get a breakaway hub for your boat.

 

The Wrong Prop can Wreck Your Motor!

You need to have the correct prop to prevent unnecessary wear and tear on your motor.  More specifically, you want a prop that keep your motor from “lugging”.

Fortunately there is a simple test you can do to see if your props is sized correctly.You will need to perform this test with your boat because even if two boats have the exact same boat/hull/motor combination, they could require different props.  This is because the prop size also depends on how much weight you carry, such as passeng

ers, coolers, anchors, fuel, etc.  

How you normally use your boat factors into the equation.  For example, do you mostly go fishing by yourself (which would be a lightly loaded boat)?  Or do you usually fill your boat to capacity with people (which would be a heavily loaded boat)?  The prop you need for each of these two situations could be different, even though you have the same boat/motor!  But, you of course don’t want to change props every time you use your boat, so what you want to do is split the difference.  You want to lean towards how you normally use the boat, and select the best prop for that situation.  For example, if testing (I'll describe testing in a minute) shows that you need a 13 inch prop when your boat is heavily loaded, but a 15 inch when lightly loaded, and you run your boat in each of these situations about 50% of the time, then you might want to buy a 14 inch prop to split the difference.  If you normally run a heavily loaded boat, and only go out occasionally by yourself, then you might want the 13 inch prop since that is the best choice for your situation most of the time.  If you fish alone normally, and occasionaly take out a bunch of people, then you may want the 15 inch prop.  The point here is you want to get the prop that is optimized for how you normally use your boat.

This is why it is often said “selecting the right prop is an art, not a science”.  As I mentioned, there is a simple test you can do to make sure you DON’T have a prop that will damage your motor.

Here’s what you need to do.  You need to take your boat out on the lake, loaded like you normally would use it.  Warm up the motor and then do a full speed run trying to hit your max speed.  Note the max RPMs at WOT (Wide Open Throttle).  Now go back and check what the motor manufacturer recommends for the RPM range for your motor at WOT.  Every motor, regardless of how it is used, will have a range specified.  This range can be found in your manual, or online, or it might even be stamped on the motor.  You want a prop that will allow your motor to run within this range at WOT.


 
If your test shows you are running too low on RPMs, then you are lugging your motor and you NEED to get a new prop.  If you are running too high on RPMs, you might be bumping against the rev limiter on the motor and leaving some extra speed and power “on the table” that you could be making better use of with the right prop.  NOTE: If you sometimes have a heavy boat (lots of people), and sometimes have a light boat (just you), you should run the test under both conditions and compare with the manufacturer's range.

So what exactly is lugging an engine?  If you’ve ever driven a stick shift car in 4^th gear when you should have been in 2^nd gear, you were lugging the motor.  You were putting too much stress on the motor for the RPMs you were running at.  You probably felt the car shake.  The motor might have sounded funny too.  Maybe it stalled on you.  All of those are bad for a car motor.  It causes it to wear out quicker.  The problem with a boat motor is it is much harder (perhaps impossible) to know you are lugging it because it’s much harder to hear or feel it on a boat.  If you do this occasionally on a car, its no big deal.  Just try not to do it next time.  But since a boat doesn't have a transmission and is always locked into one gear ratio, if you have the wrong prop, you are lugging the motor every time you use it, and you may not even realize it.  THAT IS BAD FOR YOUR MOTOR!

So how would the number of passengers on a boat affect the RPM test?  Actually, it’s not just the passengers, it’s really about the total weight.  There’s no quicker way to load down a boat than to fill it with people, but you also want to consider coolers, live wells, anchors, and anything else.  The more weight on the boat, the slower the RPMs will be at WOT compared to the same boat lightly loaded with just you on it.  A heavy boat could require that you drop down to a lower pitched prop. 

For example, lets say when you have 12 people on your boat, your RPMs at WOT is 6000 RPMs.  When it’s just you on the boat, you hit 6400 RPMs at WOT.  If the manufacturer says the motor should run between 6000-6400 RPMs at WOT, then your prop is perfectly “dialed in” and you can rest easy that you are not causing unnecessary wear and tear on your motor. 

So, what should you do if you performed the tests with a heavy and lightly loaded boat, and you find you are outside the RPM range?  You will probably need to change props because the idea here is to select a prop that allows your actual RPM range to match what the manufacturer recommends.

If your RPMs are too low, then you have too high of a pitch, and you will need get a prop with a lower pitch.  Conversely, if your RPMs are too high, then you need more pitch.  The rule of thumb is that 1 inch of prop change will change your RPMs by roughly 200 RPMs.  That's up or down.  Use this rule to help guess how much pitch change you will need. For example, if you are running a 15 inch prop and running 400 RPMs too low, you would next want to try a 13 inch pitch, which should add roughly 400 RPMs (or 200 RPMs per inch of pitch). 

What if you want your boat to go as fast as possible?  What if you want the quickest hole shot (acceleration)?   What if you want the best fuel efficiency when cruising?  These are all valid priorities and there are different props to choose from that will optimize each of these.  That’s a whole different topic, but I will say this:  Regardless of whether you are looking for top speed, or acceleration, or fuel efficiency, you ALWAYS want to have your motor running in the RPM range the manufacturer recommends, at WOT.  If you aren’t, you have the wrong prop and are causing unnecessary damage to your motor.

One last comment.  What if you are running both under and over the manufacturer's range?  This is probably a rare scenario, but let’s say your recommended motor range is 6000-6400, and you are running 6500 RPMs (over revving) with a light boat and 5800 (under range) with a heavy boat.  Both are outside the range.  What should you do?  I would lower the pitch an inch so the bottom number comes up into the recommended range (in other words, make the 5800 come up to 6000).  The downside is this will cause your upper number to go even higher.  But remember, the goal here is to not lug your motor.  You want to make sure you are never "below" the low number of the range.  If for some strange reason that causes you to go over the top of the range with a light boat, then I would just make a mental note and watch your RPMs whenever you go WOT when you are out alone, and back off on the throttle a little when you need to so you don’t go past the upper RPM limit.  The rev limiter on the motor will remind you if you forget!  This might be a pain, but in my opinion, this is the best trade off to make sure you are not lugging the motor.

Wecome Aboard!

Welcome Aboard!

My wife and I bought a pontoon boat in 2011.  We take the boat out between 30-40 days per summer.  It's been so much fun for my wife and I, and our two kids who are now both teenagers.  And all our friends who come with us.  We've had so many fun memories out on the water.  I wouldn't trade the memories we've created for anything!
 

Even before we purchased our boat, I was an active member in an online boating forum.  At first, it was to seek out information to help make the right boat choice for us.  Now, nearly 5 years later, I have several thousand posts to my name on that forum, and I enjoy reading and contributing to it almost daily.  I recently decided to start my own blog so I wouldn't be at the mercy of the forum and possibly lose all the content I've written about if the forum suddenly disappeared some day.

I've been on the water with our boat nearly 150 times since we purchased it in late 2011.  During the summer months, I'm always out on the water.  I spend nearly all my vacation time out on the boat.  The joke at work is "If the sun's out, Dan's out" which means if it's a nice day, I'm leaving the office at noon for a day on the lake.  In the winter, I read all I can about boating.  Boating is one of my favorite things to do.  I'm borderline addicted.  When I retire (in about 20 years) I hope to buy a house on a lake with a boat dock, and spend as much time as possible out on the water.  I wonder if we'll still have this same boat...

My hope for this blog is to write about the stuff we've done and the things I've learned, and hopefully help others enjoy their boat.  Maybe help others avoid the costly mistakes I've made or heard others talk about.  And maybe even encourage someone to go out and buy their first boat.

Our boat is a black 2012 Bennington Marine 24SSL tritoon.  We must have looked at more than 100 boats when we first started looking.  When my wife saw this layout, she said "That's it!".  She loved the double-wide rear-facing lounger which I call the "snuggle seat".  I think the kids like it more than she does.  It's the most used seat on the boat.

We originally bought this boat with a 115 HP motor, but ended up trading that in for a new Mercury 150 Fourstroke.  The 115 was a little sluggish when tubing.  The 150 does all we need it to.  I'll tell that story in another blog post so hopefully someone else doesn't make that costly mistake.

Speaking of future topics, I'll jot a few down here as a reminder to myself:

• Tubing, skiing and kneeboarding behind a tri-toon.
• Funny things that have happened on our boat.  
• Props and why the wrong one can ruin your motor.
• Lifting strakes and why you want them.
• Polishing pontoons and Sharkhide
• Experiences with various coolers and grills
• Dual batteries and automatic charging relays
• Boating gear we like and don't like.
• Beaching
• Anchoring
• Docking and why "propwalk" is your best friend!
• Dealing with the wind
• Dealing with pontoon leaks
• Spare equipment you need to have on board
• Winterizing a motor
• Trailering safely
• Things to be aware of when boating with kids
• Fun things to do on the boat with kids and adults
• The one kids drink that won't stain seats!

I'm sure I'll think of more.  For now, welcome aboard and I hope you find something useful here.