My boat leaks electricity into the water.

My pontoon boat leaks electricity into the water ... I can feel it at the rear of the boat. The worse part is that it creates all this white corosion all over the toons and my Mercury outboard ... it's bad. I need to trace the leak down and fix it. Is there anyone that has experience to work on this in Havasu? Thanks , Mike K.

My pontoon boat leaks electricity into the water ... I can feel it at the rear of the boat. The worse part is that it creates all this white corosion all over the toons and my Mercury outboard ... it's bad. I need to trace the leak down and fix it. Is there anyone that has experience to work on this in Havasu? Thanks , Mike K.
Give Jim at Chongs Marine (928 855 2966) a try.....second generation shop owner here in Havasu...tell him Carey sent ya.....he's a great guy....

Thanks ... will do

Check your zincs. Make sure they are freshwater or saltwater, where ever you boat. The electrical charge is a natural phenomenon, that's why there are "zincs" on every boat made of metal, even Navy ships. Aluminum pontoons are not "correct" in terms of standard shipbuilding, since the aluminum will generate a charge, and give you the problem you are seeing. In salt, aluminum pontoons are used as paint punts, but really never leave harbor, or go fast enough to generate much of a charge.
Hope that helps.

You have a ground loop running thru the water from a trolling motor or accessory that is using another battery than the engines battery. You have to have the ground for both the battery's common.

Did you figure it out?

G Finch is close. The guy I bought the Pontoon from used it for fishing in saltwater ... he also put solar panels to keep the 3 batteries charged while he used the trolling motor ... I took off the solar panels thinking they were the problem ... nope ... there is also a bait tank pump and a depth finder sticking in the water ... so I called Jim at Chongs like Carey said ... he sounded like he knew what was going on ... I am going to see him on July 25 ... everyone said "ground" problems ... it seems so easy ...but with my luck ... especially with wiring ... I would start to go through it all ... and screw something up. I will get back to you about what the problem was once Jim fixes it.

about the zincs ...I know where they are and what they do ... but did you say ... that there are "freshwater" zincs? and "saltwater" zincs? Thanks, Mike

i would go fishing asap, a little shock will bring the fish right to the top. might need some zinc's too.

about the zincs ...I know where they are and what they do ... but did you say ... that there are "freshwater" zincs? and "saltwater" zincs? Thanks, Mike
Yes, there are. They would look the same to us, but they are made of different materials - one is actually made of zinc, and erodes as the boat moves through the water. The other is made of another metal, does the same thing in the other type of water. Unfortunately, I don't know which is which, and can't tell them apart by looking at them. My understanding is that you put on the correct type zincs for where you use the boat, and if you move to the other type water for a long period of time, then you'd swap zincs. If you were to take your boat from the lakes to say, the Delta for a week, you wouldn't have to swap for the short period of time. That said, if I knew I was taking the boat from the Delta out into the Bay, I'd probably put saltwater zincs on.