Vibrating deck plates

[Bewildered]

It's one of those jobs I've been putting off for ages, I have steel deck plates and they vibrate when the engine is running. Very annoying when running the engine to charge batteries, not so bad when cruising.

Today I finally got around to sorting it out. The plates sit on steel u shaped supports that also act as rain gullies. I cut up sections of an old hose pipe and cut slits along them with a Stanley knife, slipped them over each side of the u tube gullies and replaced the plate.

To be honest I wasn't really expecting much of a difference, I couldn't have been more wrong; wish I had done this last year I wouldn't then have had to put up with the noise all winter. It seems that most of the annoying noise was in fact vibration.

if you have metal deck lates that vibrate, I recommend you do this; just make sure the hose pipe doesn't block the gullies.

 

[cereal tiller]

1 hour ago, Bewildered said:

It's one of those jobs I've been putting off for ages, I have steel deck plates and they vibrate when the engine is running. Very annoying when running the engine to charge batteries, not so bad when cruising.

Today I finally got around to sorting it out. The plates sit on steel u shaped supports that also act as rain gullies. I cut up sections of an old hose pipe and cut slits along them with a Stanley knife, slipped them over each side of the u tube gullies and replaced the plate.

To be honest I wasn't really expecting much of a difference, I couldn't have been more wrong; wish I had done this last year I wouldn't then have had to put up with the noise all winter. It seems that most of the annoying noise was in fact vibration.

if you have metal deck lates that vibrate, I recommend you do this; just make sure the hose pipe doesn't block the gullies.

 

Good that the Garden hose worked,was it the ordinary PVC Hose?I would have opted for Thin Walled Rubber

CT

[Bewildered]

It was ordinary PVC hose, it's what I already had, I wasn't going to buy a hose just to cut up

[Jess--]

my deck has 2 panels, the first one covers the engine and is wood / aluminium with loads of soundproofing, this one stays nice and quiet.

the 2nd one is hinged and gives access to the weed hatch, made out a single 6mm steel plate it used to rattle like mad at certain revs, my solution was a couple of squares of weed hatch tape which are enough to lift it clear of the drainage channel it normally rests / rattles on

[Opener]

"..sections of old hosepipe.." - don't want to pour cold water on your solution but it may be a temporary effect.  I did the same a good while ago using hose - green ribbed on the outside and black on the inside.  Fairly rigid with a bit of residual curve from being on a reel.

Over a period the sections seemed to become harder (perhaps a function of the age of the pipe) and the also started sticking (temporarily) to the underside of the hatches. So, when I opened the hatches the hose sections fell off and ended up under the engine (sod's law!!).  I've given up on them for the time being - interested to know what kind of hose you used and how successful it remains.

I like Jess--'s solution - I think I've got some left from my weed hatch relined. 

[Jess--]

12 hours ago, Opener said:

I like Jess--'s solution - I think I've got some left from my weed hatch relined. 

I think my solution would only be temporary with a deck plate that is stood on for long periods, In my case the plate that rattles is rarely trodden on for any length of time (it's right at the back and well within the tiller arc)

[dor]

My previous boat had similar U-shaped deck plate supports.  I used some Clear plastic tubing, smaller diameter than hose, which I happened to have, again very successfully. 

[adrianh]

I  used  U shape rubber extrusion on the edges of the steel for a few years, this created a problem. I found that when the steel channels contained to much water ( heavy rain etc ) capillary action took the water up and over and the engine bay then had water dripping in.

In the end had to remove the rubber and just use self adhesive rubber strip material on the back of the deck to achieve the same

 

[blackrose]

You could always stick some thick rubber strips onto the underside of the deckboards with Stixall. You might have to get inside and get a friend to put the deckboards down so you can mark the positions of the channels from the inside with a marker pen. 

Key the area with a bit of sandpaper and clean the steel and the rubber with white spirit before applying the Stixall.