Thru Hull Wrench Needed

[hinmo]

I am going to re-install my thru hulls for my cockpit drains and need a wrench or installation tool. Anyone in the Northeast have one I could borrow (I'll pay for shipping). Or, want to sell?

Thanks - JH

[Jim Walsh]

I’ve never had a “real” throughhull wrench. I just used a piece of flat bar stock of the appropriate size held with vice-grips. Here is another method. Most of us have old worn sockets which are happy to be given a new lease on life.

IMG_0566.jpeg

[Carl Thunberg]

I have one you can borrow. When and where do you need it? It's on my boat at the moment in mid-coast Maine. If you're planning to attend the NE Fleet winter meeting at Flanders, I could hand it to you in-person.

[keneasley]

When I installed 4 new thru-hulls this past Spring I used this wrench:
Buck Algonquin 3BTHW50150 Thru Hull Step Wrenches.
Amazon has it for $63 now and other online sources have it as low as $55.
I'd sell it to you but I plan to replace the final two thru-hulls soon.
My whole project to replace 4 thru-hulls and seacocks cost about $1K so I thought the extra 50 bucks was worth it.

It also made it easy to do the dry-fit without a helper - I tied some thin line to the step-wrench and was able to pull the thru-hull up into the hull from inside the boat.

When I removed the old thru-hulls I hammered in a chisel and used a large adjustable wrench and a 3 foot length of PVC pipe for leverage. You can see my write up of the whole process here:

viewtopic.php?t=38881

Note: I needed the extra long thru-hull (which Groco has) for the engine intake because the hull was pretty thick back there and I used a backing plate. You may have a similar situation back there with the cockpit drains.

[sgbernd]

The first time I took a some thru hulls out, I used a regular Craftsman wrench. Take a selection of different sizes of large wrenches, the kind with the the open end on one side and the 6 or 12 point circle on the the other. Try to insert the wrench length-wise into the thru hull. Find the one which is big enough to catch on the two rails inside the thru-hull yet fits into and out of the round part of the inside diameter. Then get a big crescent wrench or anything else for leverage, put it on the other end, and unscrew the thru hull. It works fine but is a bit clumsy.

The second time, I had purchased the Buck Alogonquin spud wrench but when I went to use it, the rails inside the Spartan thru-hulls were too thick to fit into the channel on the wrench so I had to revert back to the Craftsman wrench.

Later I had the channels in the spud wrench machined slightly wider so they now properly fit the Spartan thru hulls. I prefer the spud wrench as a better solution but the Craftsman wrench was suitable. Some folks here seem able to use the spud wrench with no problem so I presume either Spartan had different thickness rails on later production or my wrench was non-standard or defective. I mention this in case you decide to purchase the wrench and find it doesn't fit without modification.

-Steve

[John Ring]

I've been using an old radiator spud wrench on thru hulls for years. It works pretty well with a pipe wrench to apply the twist.
John Ring
CD36 Tiara