On Board Tools

[Trojan]

Well this ought to make you guys start thinking. What tools should you have on board? My wife says I have too many. I could probably pick up 5 knots if I would leave some behind. Like a few others on this forum. I do not like to limp home. I think I could rebuild the motors if I had the parts. What do you think? Bill

 

[Jackman]

I have a full mechanics set including all three ratchet sizes, hex set, full screw driver sets...diagnostic tools like an IR temp gun, timing gun, one of those computer boxes sears sells for diagnosing, multimeter.

Spare parts for carb, multiple spare filters for fuel and oil, extra ignition parts, spare modules for the distributors (pickup coils), spare belts, oil, tranny fluid, antifreeze, all kinds of nuts, bolts and fasteners, wire, spare hoses, 12v air pump to put air in the steering if needed, du ring colder months a jumper box for the battery, spare bulbs of all sorts, all kinds of cleaning products, waxes and lubricants.....on and on and on....

By the way the tool set is craftsman not the reall good stuff on account of corrosion...would rather ruin a craftsman than the other more expensive stuff.

 

[Nonchalant1]

I don't understand the concept of "too many tools onboard". Your wife just wouldn't understand.

I wouldn't tell mine she has too many curtains on board, or too much brie on board because I like to keep the crew happy.

When we went to Canada, she did bring a whole 10" wheel of her favorite brie and wine that we had to pay $78 in duty when we entered Canada.

Doug

 

[Genesis]

I have a FULL set of tools on board - including torque wrenches.

I can change anything I can physically pull and get to on the water if necessary. You only need to have something happen ONCE to appreciate this.

 

[Mike36c]

No matter what tool(s) are taken off you will need on the next trip Murphy loves boating as much as we do.....

 

[OldHatt45]

Tell the Admiral you'll match her tool for................(fill in the Blank)

PS: Let us know when you get out of the doghouse (lol)

OldHatt45

PPS: All the folks are right. Especially Mike36C
I'd rather leave a fishing rod home.

 

[ADaily3224]

Well, I'm guilty of having way to much. I have big plastic bins in the aft lazerette, engine room, outboard of the engines, it's ridiculous. I was looking for a clamp or a hose or something and came across two new GM 454 impellers, a electronic ignition module, and some plugs and points. My boat has diesels, great. I seem to have accumulated in a nice neat fashion more stuff than any one should have on board. I'm going to clean it out now that I read this. I'm going to try and get by with a basic tool kit for awhile.

A number of years ago I purchased a 1973 - 38 Hatteras with JT671-N's. The previous owner cruised the boat in South America for a while. Every conceivable part was on board including a full set of injectors, special tools, air conditioning parts, gauges, F-12, insane. Everything was cataloged and labeled. I gave it all to the new owner, I had no place to put it.

Anyway it's food for thought.
Tony D

 

[Liquid Asset]

Tell her if you stop carrying the tools, then Murphy will start driving your boat and he is a horible captain. He breaks everything.

Realistically, you need to have the tools, You will need them once and they will be well worth it when you do! I have more tools in the boat than I do in my garage. (I have a lot of tools in my garage)

 

[Akyla]

Greetings fellow tool addicts;

I don't go crazy and just keep the basic hand tools on board and some things specialized for my engines. That said, my on board tool box weighs about 40 pounds! But I only have the one box and just a few spares stashed on board for things I know might go wrong; lots of extra belts, impellers and hoses as that is the stuff that bites you most often. I don't carry all of my spares like alternators and starters as I only make day trips from the same marina and my house is just a few miles off...

Several of my divers have told me that one reason they like going out with me is that I have always been able to "McGyver" a solution to any problem that came up and get us home (except for my last breakdown when the crankshaft broke in two, I limped in that time).

As for the corrosion, I no longer wipe all the grease off and then they don't rust as quickly.

 

[Trojan]

Well now I don't feel so bad. I like being prepaired. I guess I could remove the sanders and the the paint supplys. I keep a complete set of craftsman tools on board. I also have 2 set of parishable parts for the Detroits. Plus a large catch of nuts, bolts and screws. I just wanted to be sure that I was not alone in this matter. There have been times during a long stop over or rain that I did some odd jobs on the boat just for something to do. When you live and cruise for 6 months on the boat a man needs his tools. I did get even with her this fall. When She cleaned out the pantry. It compleatly filled My Chrysler Town & Country van. I blammed the slow speed on the weight of her excess food storage and junk. The best part is. She agreed with me. Bill

 

[67hat34c]

when we bought ours 2 yrs ago the prior owner had some misc tools but had a huge store of spare parts, some over kill such as 2 brand new alternators, 15 belts, 2 sets of spark plugs multi other parts, turns out most of the stuff such as thermostats (10 of them) were used so i tossed all the used stuff, why install a used part. Every drawer and locker was full, no room for anything, it was a mess.

we now cary a large plastic parts box that is loaded with multi sizes of stainless hardware, an electrical box with assorted fittings and tools. engine tools, shaft tools, prop puller etc. planning on making tool and parts box' for each need. such as engine, dont need stuff for 2 so just make one box with water pump impellor, belts, ignition moduel, coil, spark plugs, thermostat and gaskets. include the tools needed. generator will have its own box. sea strainers will have spare parts box as will racors.

drawers in v bunk are filled with manuels etc

closet in the head is filled with cleaning stuff along with antifreeze, oil, trans fluid, steering fluid, etc.

I think that a good idea would be to cary basic stuff for every day running but if going on a trip then load the heavy stuff such as spare props and bigger tools. The big stuff can be kept in ready made box's at home and loaded for a trip when needed.

 

[Tom Ipock]

You have to draw the line somewhere. My theory is that as long as you are in the US, you can have anything you need shipped to you in a day. So big heavy items such as spare shafts, wheel pullers, spare wheels, huge pipe wrenches, large pumps etc. are left in my storage room. If we go to Bahamas etc., then I load the boat down with everything I have, cause there are few tools there to borrow.
What was even worse for me was that I was cruising local waters of NC & SC for the summer weekends, and I found that every cabinet and locker I had was full of cleaning, sanding, varnishing supplies, and I had most of my tools from home on the boat. When the final straw was thrown, I hauled an 8' UHAUL type trailer full of "stuff" from the boat to my storage building. I have never regreted it as now I actually have "storage space" on the boat.
Tom

 

[Nonchalant1]

Oh yeah, don't forget the extra 9/16 wrenches! Anybody that works on Detroits needs a few excellent 9/16 wrenches, like a 9/16 combo open end with box end ratcheting wrench, which has saved me from cursing many times. DD loves 9/16 for some reason. Can't be 1/2 inch bolts and nuts, gott'a be 9/16 for some reason.

Also nice to know that almost every 9/16 bolt spec is 30-35 ft. lbs. torque.

 

[jim rosenthal]

I am as bad as anyone here, I suspect: most of my tools are on the boat. When I have to do something at home (work on house, cars or motorcycles), I have to borrow tools from the boat. This past year I was able to thin the on-board tool herd a bit: I took all the finishing supplies such as sandpaper, varnish, thinner etc off the boat. For one thing, it's all flammable. (we'll ignore for the moment the 250 gallons of diesel fuel that she carries ). Second, cosmetic issues never kept anyone from getting home. I carry a lot of tools, pumps, impellers, gaskets, belts, thermostats. Also sheets of gasket material and several kinds of RTV. Lots of bulbs, fuses. Lots of electrical spares. A few things you all may find helpful: a metal mirror on a stalk for saying hello to the wrench I just dropped that slid under one of the engines, AND a grabber with little claws on the end worked by a button on the other end to get the wrench out of there. I've used that more times than I can count. Lots of different kinds of greases- antiseize, Teflon gel, WD40, Corrosion block. Wood blocks in various sizes for beating on things. Pieces of carpet for putting down tools on. And a CLOTH painters drop cloth!- this is invaluable if you value your carpet and floor at anything. Shrink tubing in lots of sizes. Small wet-dry vac, a Stinger, near-worthless piece of crap, unfortunately it refuses to break so I keep using it. Lots of hose clamps. All new- I throw out used ones.
At one time I had thirty or so pieces of hose in various sizes- couldn't bring myself to throw it out. Now it's in the garage- well at least it isn't costing me $$ to haul it around.
Torquewrench? don't have one of those. Santa, are you listening?

 

[Jackman]

Out of all my tools and parts listed....the most valuable item is a "free" magnet that is attached to an extendible pointer like tool that collapses and fits in my pocket. My Dad got it free from his boss, one of those items they give customers with advertisement on it. I have used this thing so many times to get things out from under the engines, on the engines where my fingers can't get, in the bilge and believe it or not....I pulled a very expensive hole saw attachment for a drill out of the "drink" when I dropped it. The water was 6ft deep at my slip si O had to attach a string but I got it! That darn tool must have weighed a pound or 2!

 

[spartonboat1]

Re: On Board Tools/ Home Boy vs. Water Boy

One practice I have stopped is the transport of tools from home to the boat. I have been acquiring an inventory of tools at the boat or in the deck box, such that I seldom bring tools from home. I keep the better set of tools at the boat, since the two sets of tools often mirror each other.

This is both much better logistically, plus eliminates the chance of leaving a tool at home, that will of course be drastically in need.

P.s., once I decided to adopt this practice, I first went to Sears. Aside, why the other post concern for good ole Craftsman, not sure...they always replace any broken/abused tools no questions asked. I bought the largest ratchet set carrying case they had (12/4, 3/8, 1/2 drives, plus metric and american sizes) and began to fill it. Bought so many bits and pieces that hit the limit at the checkout terminal for parts counts. Had to total up and start another scanning list.

Over all the years, the most common items breaking have been belts, water pumps, and alternators. On the boat I did have a water pump impeller go bad.

Over the years, I have been moving some of the tools (and supplies) off the boat, such as sanders, sanding and paint supplies, and extra oil and coolant. Frankly, for a major failure, I will wind up calling a tech to drive/fly in anyway. So I am trying to limit how many really heavy duty tools I carry.

In a perfect world, it would be nice to have a fully configured tool room aboard, such as on the 60'+ trawlers. But 43' is limiting.

I will post a site from Yachtforum on the new MegaYacht concept of the "shadow" boat...fer cryin' out loud, some shadow boats can run up to 120' and carry every repair item under the sun!

 

[Jackman]

Concerning the Craftsman comment I made...

All I can say is that the tools I've bought from them in the past aren't made near as good as the tools I buy from them today. I've broken countless ratchets and stripped many sockets ect. The first two times I tried to take the rachets back to get another they gave me this crap about getting a rebuild kit for the ratchets (conatined a bazillion small pieces!). I no longer return them...just throw them out when they go bad since they aren't replaced. I buy Snap-On for the garage when working on the cars. The craftsman goes to the boat because I don't care if it falls in the water or gets rusty. Would be a sin for snap-on tools to have that happen to them.

Just my opinion. That's all.

 

[Eufaula]

I carry the fragile spares per se like belts, module, spare coil and impeller and fuel filters, anodes I always keep more than a set. Then a set of rachets and sockets pluse combination wrench up to 1 inche is enough. As for liquid in a container 5gls of lube oil and hyd oil. I would rather be comfortable to move around my engine room during a break-down vis having to move lots and lots of stuff out of the way to get to a leak or??? James

 

[rangerscott275]

I am considering building a sort-of custom tool box underneath the botom bunk of the v berth. There aren't any systems located under there in my 53 so I have alot of space. I was thinking that I would cut a false bottom into the wood that now supports the bottom bunk mattress, hinge it, and put some form of opening device on (to hold bed bottom and foam cushion in air as I dig for tools). There is a lot of space under there and I could probably build a very usable tool chest in there. One prob is having weight of tools in bow. do you think this will create any kind of performance issue? I figure there shouldn't be more than 150 - 200 lbs of tools going in there if I put a full set of hand tools and select power tools in there.

 

[Nonchalant1]

I am considering building a sort-of custom tool box underneath the botom bunk of the v berth. There aren't any systems located under there in my 53 so I have alot of space. I was thinking that I would cut a false bottom into the wood that now supports the bottom bunk mattress, hinge it, and put some form of opening device on (to hold bed bottom and foam cushion in air as I dig for tools). There is a lot of space under there and I could probably build a very usable tool chest in there. One prob is having weight of tools in bow. do you think this will create any kind of performance issue? I figure there shouldn't be more than 150 - 200 lbs of tools going in there if I put a full set of hand tools and select power tools in there.

My 53MY already has a hatch cut in the lower bunk's bedboard at the front. I keep stuff like the prop removal tools, etc. up there (heavy). There are also 2 very large drawers under the bottom bunk, effectively utilizing much of the space. If yours doesn't have them, I'd suggest adding drawers there because they're so much easier to use. I thought all 53MYs had those drawers.

Re: weight in the bow - previous posts have indicated an improvement in planing performance from adding weight in the bow. These boats were made to carry 1,000 lbs of chain in the chain locker if you want.

Doug Shuman