My 73 410 has suffered a failure of all 4 engine air intakes located on the teak toe rail. The flexible hose (looks like larger gas clothes dryer tube) has fallen off the attachment to the deck wood. Just enough old wood and a very rough Lake Erie ride caused them to lose the glue attachment the factory provided. A poor design likely to fail with time.
My question is what have any other owners done to reattach the flex hose? Maybe some sort of fabricated aluminum or stainless-steel fitting I can attach by removing the chrome air scoops.
My plan is to replace some rotted wood from under the deck then try to just glue the flex tube to it. Easy to do on the port side. Hidden from view on the starboard side by an interior facing wood wall panel. Any better ideas are welcome!
A bit more custom approach is to have custom fabricated hose flange mounts made.
Here's an example (sorry it's not on a commander)
It's a bit hard to see but if you zoom in you'll see the deck flange inside of this bilge vent. Below the visible deck flange is an aluminum tube that accepts a bilge vent hose
I like The Benson SA3 or SA4. May try that. Thanks for the tip. Looking around I didn't find them before. The hole through the deck and wood toe rail is elliptical in shape. I will likely line that with fiberglass cloth and resin then replace some wood underneath and use one of these round tube adapters.
Your custom approach photo didn't show up here. Could you please try that one again or email to be at brock71@rodrunner. I was thinking a custom approach would be required but perhaps it's too involved.
My error. I can see the custom approach. Will have to continue using the chrome scoops tha are factory installed. They are more rectangular on the base and tall. Thanks John
My son is in favor of a metal tube and a custom flange having the same size as the vent scoop base. Possible tube shape to more or less match the existing elliptical hole thru the deck. Possibly stainless-steel (elliptical) exhaust tube welded to a SS custom flat plate then screw the vent scoop to that. His approach is to be able to install from the topside to avoid taking down the starboard side interior wall panels. That would simplify the conversion / installation.
I don't have any dimensions of the hole or the vent scoop at home. The boat is shrink wrapped (no door) so I won't get those details until spring. Any members out there that have a boat similar to the '73 410 available and close by might have opportunity to take some photos and dimensions? That would be nice.
This is looking like a summer project, not spring, at this point.
Ofcourse working from above is always nice but it's very likely you may need to replace some of the wood structure on the underside of the side deck before you're able to install a vent tube.
The factory design unfortunately allowed water to easily get into the deck structure
My 73 410 has suffered a failure of all 4 engine air intakes located on the teak toe rail. The flexible hose (looks like larger gas clothes dryer tube) has fallen off the attachment to the deck wood. Just enough old wood and a very rough Lake Erie ride caused them to lose the glue attachment the factory provided. A poor design likely to fail with time.
My question is what have any other owners done to reattach the flex hose? Maybe some sort of fabricated aluminum or stainless-steel fitting I can attach by removing the chrome air scoops.
My plan is to replace some rotted wood from under the deck then try to just glue the flex tube to it. Easy to do on the port side. Hidden from view on the starboard side by an interior facing wood wall panel. Any better ideas are welcome!
Thanks,
John
Happy Thanksgiving all.
Hi John
Most common blowers use 3 or 4" hose.
Dryer exhaust hose works but there are purpose made hoses like this one from Trident https://tridentmarine.com/product/trident-polyduct-481/
A common way to a attach a blower hose is to use one of the beckson deck hose adapters
https://www.beckson.com/vent.html
Another nice way I've used to attach a blower hose is it glue in a length of fiberglass tube .
This method would allow you to use a hose clamp below deck to attach the hose
heres a link to centek
A bit more custom approach is to have custom fabricated hose flange mounts made.
Here's an example (sorry it's not on a commander)
It's a bit hard to see but if you zoom in you'll see the deck flange inside of this bilge vent. Below the visible deck flange is an aluminum tube that accepts a bilge vent hose
Hope this helps.
I like The Benson SA3 or SA4. May try that. Thanks for the tip. Looking around I didn't find them before. The hole through the deck and wood toe rail is elliptical in shape. I will likely line that with fiberglass cloth and resin then replace some wood underneath and use one of these round tube adapters.
Your custom approach photo didn't show up here. Could you please try that one again or email to be at brock71@rodrunner. I was thinking a custom approach would be required but perhaps it's too involved.
Thanks,
John
My error. I can see the custom approach. Will have to continue using the chrome scoops tha are factory installed. They are more rectangular on the base and tall. Thanks John
Regarding having custom fabricated flange tubes,
I am suggesting to still use your existing deck vents (as i did in the example photo)
Basically it would be an aluminum tube with a form fit flange that screws to your toe rail within the footprint of your vent .
My son is in favor of a metal tube and a custom flange having the same size as the vent scoop base. Possible tube shape to more or less match the existing elliptical hole thru the deck. Possibly stainless-steel (elliptical) exhaust tube welded to a SS custom flat plate then screw the vent scoop to that. His approach is to be able to install from the topside to avoid taking down the starboard side interior wall panels. That would simplify the conversion / installation.
I don't have any dimensions of the hole or the vent scoop at home. The boat is shrink wrapped (no door) so I won't get those details until spring. Any members out there that have a boat similar to the '73 410 available and close by might have opportunity to take some photos and dimensions? That would be nice.
This is looking like a summer project, not spring, at this point.
Ofcourse working from above is always nice but it's very likely you may need to replace some of the wood structure on the underside of the side deck before you're able to install a vent tube.
The factory design unfortunately allowed water to easily get into the deck structure