Cracks and broken welds in a quintrex? Unlikely you say?

[Chamelion]

Bought myself a 'new' boat recently - Quintrex dory 4.1WB MY2002... Completely ballsed up by not removing the bungs post test drive to make sure she was watertight. Have been playing around with her since trying to work out the source of the leak and after stripping her right down, floor out, the works I've found what I believe is the source.

Any guesses as to how much this is going to cost me to have fixed?































cheers

[Chamelion]

Note: Yes, I am playing a bit on the whole Quintrex poor QC thing... That said, I did see a bloke come into a boat dealership whilst I was there the other day. He had his brand new, two trip out bow rider (looked about 5.5m) in tow. It had a leak... Turned out there was a hole under the transom where a weld was VERY shoddily done. Can't believe that it got past final inspection, it stuck out like dogs balls.

[Richo1]

Find a good aluminum welder and it shouldn't be to costly.
Looks like its had a beating or just bad welds? My quintrex coped years of punishment and was good the day I sold it after 13years. Sounds like quintrex aren't the boats they used to be.

[Matt76]

Jeezus what dirty dog sold it to you like that without saying anything!!! Shouldnt be too hard a fix, just find your custom or plate boat manufacturer and give em a look.

[Fed]

I'd take to it with a bucket full of red hot soapy water, a dunny brush and a pressure cleaner.
Get it perfectly clean & dry then put it in the water without a floor in it & find the leak.
Watch it on the inside with a very bright torch right at the bung hole and when you see the first bit of water trace it back using a dry finger and the torch.
Once you find the leak you can get the skeg, seat supports & hull all welded at the same time.

[SunnyCoastMark]

The weld quality looks OK - can't see too much wrong with the chine(?) weld that is cracked.

Generally speaking - the main cause of welds being cracked in production tinnies like quintrex is that they are constantly used in conditions that they aren't really suited to. Quite often people just don't drive to suit the conditions.
Imagine still trying to do 20 knots in a 1.5m chop. - see it all the time.

I keep hearing that they are not as good as they used to be and don't really agree with that sentiment. It is more the fact that there are a lot more quintrex's out there, being used by a lot of inexperienced people - so the number of issues like this increases exponentially of course. (no, I don't work for quintrex).

Anyway - if you get on to a good welder who does good TIG work - shouldn't cost you more than a few hundred dollars if you strip everything out and refit yourself.

Mark

[tunaticer]

Not a hard job to fix.......but the seat mounts design is lousy to be honest, get them reinforced better and it will last well.
Be sure you take it to the guy that is doing the repairs with the floor out and inside the hull waterblasted so he can find and see any other problems as well. Looks to be 2 hours work there roughly so somewhere about the 120-180 buck mark would be market value depending on the repairers hourly rate. If you want the paint touched up, do that yourself to save some coin.

BTW, remove that plastic sleeve from the seat mount before you take it down, simple things like that can turn into 30 minute ordeals to remove if they are corroded or glued into place.....time is money and your time is much cheaper than the repairers.

[astro66]

Pretty easy fix....by the looks of it who ever sat in that seat was a fat prick ....the weight has snaped the weld on the rib and then the one on the seat fixing has let go and with the leverage of the seat pole pulling on it has bent the rib over 6mm ...that seat would have been on a big angle (looks like the front seat...)
See how the gusset that the seat pole is welded to doesnt join to anything....stops short of the rib.....hit the rib back into line weld it up then weld a plate from the rib to gusset that the seat pole is on so it stenghtens it a bit(movement back/forwards or it will crack again...piece of 80x40 angle)
The hull has cracked because the rib is not holding it in that spot....tig weld it on the outside and should be ok with the rib inside fixed(if you tig it you pretty much are just melting the ally back together mig adds more material =big fat ugly weld)
You put on weight ?

[Jarrah Jack]

Seems you can't take a trick Chamo. I agree with whats been said and things aren't as bad as they first appear. There are no cracks along the keel which I've found to my considerable cost is an indication of under engineering and not easily fixed.

Quintrex's are no where near as strong as the early one's. My '79 4.2 has had a hard life with no maintaince and is still very strong. The seat supports are not built like your's for a start and have lasted many a fat deckie.

Good luck with it.

[Owen]

Bit hard to blame quintrex on this one.
That boat's been flogged.
As stated above, some big bastard smashing through chop sitting down started it and it grew from there.
It'll repair OK and won't be too costly.
Get it spotless and hit it with a stainless brush before you take it to the welder.
If you have a die grinder, groove out the cracks too.
You'll be paying $90/hr or more, so any shit work you can do beforehand will save you money.


EDIT:

Is that a crack?
Bit more of a worry if there's one there.
Cracks are usually from flexing, so one in teh ccentre of the floor points to a badly positioned roller or some other issue.

[Salad Fingers]

Hard times Chamelion but I know how you feel.

Had a brand new stacer (made by the same mob really) crack similar to this within 12months of ownership.. from brand new! Had only been on one short dirt road and never been 'banged'. They're just poor quality boats in my opinion. Mine cracked directly through the keel weld instead of the chine though, but exactly the same thing happened, a 'rib' (if you could call it that..) let go and then yeah well, obviously that was too much for it.. Got it fixed three times - got rid of it after that.
IMO once they're at that stage I would get rid of it - it will just keep coming back no matter how good your welder is.

They're built to a price point that's for sure.

[kind_cir]

Did you run over a china man?

I have a feeling you'll get her fixed up and get many more years out of it.

[Chamelion]

Find a good aluminum welder and it shouldn't be to costly.
Looks like its had a beating or just bad welds? My quintrex coped years of punishment and was good the day I sold it after 13years. Sounds like quintrex aren't the boats they used to be.

I'm going with poor design in that area and a possible beating.

Jeezus what dirty dog sold it to you like that without saying anything!!! Shouldnt be too hard a fix, just find your custom or plate boat manufacturer and give em a look.

Let him know it had a leak post purchase.. reply was along the lines of 'I'd seen water in the hull, but nothing like the amount you are describing.'

I'd take to it with a bucket full of red hot soapy water, a dunny brush and a pressure cleaner.
Get it perfectly clean & dry then put it in the water without a floor in it & find the leak.
Watch it on the inside with a very bright torch right at the bung hole and when you see the first bit of water trace it back using a dry finger and the torch.
Once you find the leak you can get the skeg, seat supports & hull all welded at the same time.

Definitely contemplating this idea.. Even if just to make sure that the only leak is from the cracked weld and not elsewhere.

The weld quality looks OK - can't see too much wrong with the chine(?) weld that is cracked.

Generally speaking - the main cause of welds being cracked in production tinnies like quintrex is that they are constantly used in conditions that they aren't really suited to. Quite often people just don't drive to suit the conditions.
Imagine still trying to do 20 knots in a 1.5m chop. - see it all the time.

I keep hearing that they are not as good as they used to be and don't really agree with that sentiment. It is more the fact that there are a lot more quintrex's out there, being used by a lot of inexperienced people - so the number of issues like this increases exponentially of course. (no, I don't work for quintrex).

Anyway - if you get on to a good welder who does good TIG work - shouldn't cost you more than a few hundred dollars if you strip everything out and refit yourself.

Mark

Hoping not more than a few hundred.. Went kind of balls out on the purchase as it was. Took a risk in not leaving much post purchase repair wiggle room financially.

Not a hard job to fix.......but the seat mounts design is lousy to be honest, get them reinforced better and it will last well.
Be sure you take it to the guy that is doing the repairs with the floor out and inside the hull waterblasted so he can find and see any other problems as well. Looks to be 2 hours work there roughly so somewhere about the 120-180 buck mark would be market value depending on the repairers hourly rate. If you want the paint touched up, do that yourself to save some coin.

BTW, remove that plastic sleeve from the seat mount before you take it down, simple things like that can turn into 30 minute ordeals to remove if they are corroded or glued into place.....time is money and your time is much cheaper than the repairers.

Pretty easy fix....by the looks of it who ever sat in that seat was a fat prick ....the weight has snaped the weld on the rib and then the one on the seat fixing has let go and with the leverage of the seat pole pulling on it has bent the rib over 6mm ...that seat would have been on a big angle (looks like the front seat...)
See how the gusset that the seat pole is welded to doesnt join to anything....stops short of the rib.....hit the rib back into line weld it up then weld a plate from the rib to gusset that the seat pole is on so it stenghtens it a bit(movement back/forwards or it will crack again...piece of 80x40 angle)
The hull has cracked because the rib is not holding it in that spot....tig weld it on the outside and should be ok with the rib inside fixed(if you tig it you pretty much are just melting the ally back together mig adds more material =big fat ugly weld)
You put on weight ?

Interesting theory and it makes a bit of sense.. But whether the rib cracked first or the seat support I'll never know. Definitely will get it re-done stronger whilst it's being looked at.

Seems you can't take a trick Chamo. I agree with whats been said and things aren't as bad as they first appear. There are no cracks along the keel which I've found to my considerable cost is an indication of under engineering and not easily fixed.

Quintrex's are no where near as strong as the early one's. My '79 4.2 has had a hard life with no maintaince and is still very strong. The seat supports are not built like your's for a start and have lasted many a fat deckie.

Good luck with it.

Cheers

Bit hard to blame quintrex on this one.
That boat's been flogged.
As stated above, some big bastard smashing through chop sitting down started it and it grew from there.
It'll repair OK and won't be too costly.
Get it spotless and hit it with a stainless brush before you take it to the welder.
If you have a die grinder, groove out the cracks too.
You'll be paying $90/hr or more, so any shit work you can do beforehand will save you money.


EDIT:

Is that a crack?
Bit more of a worry if there's one there.
Cracks are usually from flexing, so one in teh ccentre of the floor points to a badly positioned roller or some other issue.

Cheers, only thing I'll really be able to do is get her nice and cleaned up.. Don't have the tools or know how to attempt anything else.

Fortunately that is not a crack. It's just a bit of dirt.

Whilst they're at it I'd like to look at getting the following done: Plate for bow mount welded on, reinforce the underside of the front casting deck (terrible design from factory resulting in a bowed main cross support) and some more support for the false floor. ie: see pic... At least down the middle where the black 'lines' are. Perhaps toward the outside where the blue is as well. Down the centreline the floor has a tendency to bow in quite a bit when standing on it, though there is no sign of damage on the underside of the floor itself.

[Chamelion]

Hard times Chamelion but I know how you feel.

Had a brand new stacer (made by the same mob really) crack similar to this within 12months of ownership.. from brand new! Had only been on one short dirt road and never been 'banged'. They're just poor quality boats in my opinion. Mine cracked directly through the keel weld instead of the chine though, but exactly the same thing happened, a 'rib' (if you could call it that..) let go and then yeah well, obviously that was too much for it.. Got it fixed three times - got rid of it after that.
IMO once they're at that stage I would get rid of it - it will just keep coming back no matter how good your welder is.

They're built to a price point that's for sure.

I hope that you're wrong... I was hoping to get many years out of this boat.

Did you run over a china man?

I have a feeling you'll get her fixed up and get many more years out of it.

I hope so. It would be a shame to have to make it 'someone elses problem'... Doesn't sit well with me but at the same time I can only afford to urinate a certain amount of money into the wind.

[astro66]

Can you take a pic of the welds on the ribs in the same point on the other side......
pic one ...you can see a line were it looks like the weld has been painted....
pic two ...you can see the splater from the mig....
pic three...you can see the broken rib and the next one up have big fat welds...far one is neater not as big ...
Cant really see well from those pics but looks like its been broken on those two ribs before....