Check your bunks

Was doing a little boat maintenance this weekend and noticed some of the carpet a little loose from one of the bunks. After looking a little closer the bunk is in rough shape. Wood is starting to rot and the end is broken some. My trailer is only 4 years old and is always stored in my garage and still the bunk is going to pot rather soon. I'll know when I take them off but they appear to be treated lumber but not 100% sure. Bought new lumber, stainless steel lags, stainless steel staples and bunk carpet ready to make some new ones this weekend. Just keep an eye on yours before they rot completely away.

Hockey 86 I've done changed my one time. Put treated lumber on mine.


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those composite decking boards work too

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Originally Posted by gobbler

those composite decking boards work too

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That's what I will put on mine when the need arrives.

Hunter and I were talking about this over the winter. Why Tracker does not use treated lumber is beyond me.

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Originally Posted by REDBOAT

Hunter and I were talking about this over the winter. Why Tracker does not use treated lumber is beyond me.

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a dollar saved is a dollar earned ((cheap))

I'll be interested to see if it's treated or not when I take it off but from the looks of it I have my doubts. Tracker, like any other company would too, has cut a few corners but I had a couple fixed for free and without much hassle when I first boat the boat. To name a couple, the locks they put on all the compartments were absolutely worthless. All of the mechanism was plastic. You could put the key in, lock it, then with minimal turning pressure on the handle it would pop right open. I was actually able to track down a person at the Tracker factory and they sent me all new locks with metal mechanisms. Still not the greatest but much much better. I also had a problem with the push to turn on convenience lights staying on and would not go off killing my battery. They sent me all new and improved ones. I was pretty happy with customer service. Just wish they would've spent an extra $10 and put on treated wood bunks. Gonna cost me $75 to fix a problem that shouldn't have happened for several more years. I guess you look at it from their prospective, $10 per boat with 5,000 boats made in a year equals a cool $50,000 in the bank. Makes a nice bonus for some executive.

It's not treated. We had to replace the bunk boards on Charles' Targa a couple of months ago. They were completely rotten. He was just a few weeks from potential serious damage to his boat. I asked the Tracker guy at BassPro about the bunk boards and he thought they were treated. No way--just that cheap Canadian pine that rots very easily. The boards are treated now, but a serious lack of proper trailer building by Tracker. If anyone finds a good place to complain, please let us know.

They aren't the only ones. My boat is a Princecraft, made north of the border. It came with white pine bunks and were a odd size, either 4 1/2" or 5" wide board.

IMO people should steer clear of tracker boats period. There are better boats to be bought, about the same price range, and you can get more boat for the $$$.

I'm pretty happy with my Tracker and I think it was reasonably priced. When I started the process I looked at several different types. The Lund was a few thousand more and I wasn't totally sold on the Wellcraft and others.

I replaced the bunks on my tracker after 13 years of use. The reason the bunks aren't made of pressure treated wood is that the chemicals used to pressure treat the wood will leach out and cause corrosion on the aluminum. That's what the good folks at tracker told me. Take it for what its worth.

bought a 2011 Lowes pontoon and after putting it in water for season noticed one of the bunks was totally mush and will have to be replaced. Oh well something that will take care of this summer.

If the whole corrosion thing is true then I wonder if it's still a problem since they changed the chemicals that are used to make pressure treated lumber. Not the same process anymore.

Ok. After reading a few articles on the web everyone is saying to avoid pressure treated against bare aluminum. One guy even stated that local building codes have gone against allowing aluminum flashing at decks for this reason. Looks like I will be getting some of the composite deck boards and going that direction.

This is from one of the articles:
"The aluminum flashing corrodes because of contact to wet, pressure-treated lumber. The chemical used to treat the wood is chromate copper arsenate (CCA). The copper in the chemical reacts with the aluminum in a galvanic reaction that corrodes the aluminum. The corrosion is accelerated in the presence of moisture. When the deck boards are laid tight, water is trapped on the flashing and the area rarely dries out. CCA treated lumber production was phased out in 2003-2004, primarily because of the arsenic in the chemical. The chemicals used in newer treated lumber are even higher in copper and because of the likelihood of more aggressive corrosion, aluminum is not recommended for flashing in contact with pressure-treated lumber. Currently copper, stainless steel, or non-metallic flashings are recommended to prevent galvanic corrosion."

https://donan.com/knowledge-base/art...ed-wood-decks/

The chemicals used in treated wood are harmful to aluminum

Got my bunks ready to go. Next trip to the lake I'll drop the old ones and put these on. Ended up getting the best grade pine 2x10's that Home Depot had. The 2x10's seemed to be the only board I could find with virtually no knots. Ripped them down to 2x6's, waterproofed them and put on the new carpet. Used all stainless steel staples and they are looking pretty decent. Time will tell how long they will last.
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