www.iFourWinns.com

The drain at the bottom of my in-floor ski locker on my 2006 240 Horizon is not draining. I called the service dept of my Four Winns dealer. The dealer says the 240 has a problem with the gas tank sliding forward and blocking the drain. I am scheduled to bring it in on Monday. They say it is about 3 hours of labor to take up the floor board to repair, $300 estimate to fix.
Has anyone had this problem?

Search this board....this isnt anything new for that model of boat. Good luck though!

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Current Boat:
2004 Sea Ray 320 Sundancer "Nauti Luvin'"

Previous Boats:
1999 298 Vista "Seas The Day"
2008 H200SS "Nauti Luv"
2006 Tahoe Q4

I am having the same problem with my sl262. I am going to see about doing it myself tomorrow.

I recall someone posting some pix of the brackets that they used to secure the plastic tank...it seems that they pulled away from the area of the stringer that they are screwed into...and allowed the tank to shift...so you might want to get the gas level in the tank as low as possible first if you want to try shifting the tank yourself and then re-securing it...the brackets in the pix did not look all that secure to me...
The older FWs like mine had an aluminum tank instead of the plastic ones and those come with four mounting tabs that are welded to the tank and then screwed to the stringers which is very strong...

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88 Four Winns 200 Horizon
4.3 OMC Cobra-4bbl
2002 Walker Bay 10/2012 Suzuki 2.5
2008 Walker Bay 8

1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4.0/Selectrac
2007 Jeep Grand Cherokee 5.7 Hemi/Quadradrive II

Several people on here have mentioned this problem. There are a few threads on it as well. Requires re-bracketing/re-bracing of the tank.

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Paul
2007 Four Winns Horizon 220
Mercruiser 350 Mag MPI w/ Bravo III Drive
2004 Ford Explorer Limited (V8-AWD)
Pomme de Terre Lake (Southwest Missouri)

You stated that the plastic tanks brackets pulled away form the stringer, But your aluminum brackets are welded to tank & secured to stringers. What makes the plastic tank brackets pull out of the stringers vs welded to tank on the aluminum tanks?? Is that because the plastic tanks are heavier? the stringers should be the same whether they have plastic or aluminum tanks?? Strange that when the went to plastic they started having this problem.I haven't seen the pics, just curiuos about this problem. How about the H190?

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2008 H190 Blue W/Red accents 4.3L Merc
2015 Tacoma Access Cab Super White 4x4 TRD Sport
2014 HD FXDC Black Stage 1 Mods V&H Bolt Ons,Naked VO2 AC & FP3.
2011 Polaris 500HO RED]
Life Long Boston Bruin Fan 2011 Stanley Cup Champs!!
#736

From what I recall the plastic tanks have depressions molded into them and the metal brackets fit into these depressions and are then screwed into the stringer or bulkhead. The issue appears to be that the screws do not always hold well in a composite (non wood) stringer. The older FWs had wood stringers and aluminum tanks with welded on tabs and the tabs are screwed into the wood stringers...and even though wood can rot one advantage is that it holds fasteners better than a foam cored stringer...some composites do hold fasteners well but I'm not familiar with what FW is using now...

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88 Four Winns 200 Horizon
4.3 OMC Cobra-4bbl
2002 Walker Bay 10/2012 Suzuki 2.5
2008 Walker Bay 8

1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4.0/Selectrac
2007 Jeep Grand Cherokee 5.7 Hemi/Quadradrive II

I must admt I am not a great fan of putting screws into composites, especially for heavily stressed or critical items. It's much better to incorporate a captive threaded insert of some type and use a machine screw. It's just cheaper to put screws directly into the composite, that's why they do it that way.

Graham

I have used threaded inserts for wood applications when I installed the rear seats in my old Horizon...I got these from West Marine....they are a barrel shaped insert with wood screw threads on the outside and machine screw threads on the inside...once it's installed in plywood the seats can be easily removed without stripping out the plywood as would happen just using wood screws...I bet there are some designed to be used in composites...the issue is cost...the ones I used were expensive but well worth it...unfortuantely even good builders cut corners...

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88 Four Winns 200 Horizon
4.3 OMC Cobra-4bbl
2002 Walker Bay 10/2012 Suzuki 2.5
2008 Walker Bay 8

1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4.0/Selectrac
2007 Jeep Grand Cherokee 5.7 Hemi/Quadradrive II

I would use "delrons" they use then in helicopter completions. Drill out the honeycomb or composite area, insert delron fill W/metalset. Use an hardware the delron ain't pulling out before it rips away the host metarial. It's FAA approved for interior completions.Works in those aspects works for me & all the stuff is available to me for ??????!!

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2008 H190 Blue W/Red accents 4.3L Merc
2015 Tacoma Access Cab Super White 4x4 TRD Sport
2014 HD FXDC Black Stage 1 Mods V&H Bolt Ons,Naked VO2 AC & FP3.
2011 Polaris 500HO RED]
Life Long Boston Bruin Fan 2011 Stanley Cup Champs!!
#736