My neigbor has a nice little go devil boat and Gator Tail motor on it. Both are about a year old purchased brand new. I am either seeing signs of corrosion or electrolysis on both.

That rig has not seen any salt or brackish water, and he does wash it down every so often. I am suspecting electrolysis.

What is the proper way to test for electrolysis, and how do you stop it? It seems like if the boat had a postive current on it wouldn't that cause a major short? Where/how does electrolysis occur?

check to see if has a direct Ground going to the boat instead of the battery. may have a chafed "hot" wire somewhere in the circuit that is making contact with the hull.

a quick fix may be to just install a battery disconnect switch of some sort. that way all current will be stopped when the boat is not in use!

He just called me from the marine supply store and is going the anode route.

get a volt meter and place one terminal on the neg batt side. Then take the pos to the hull if you are picking up any current something is hooked up wrong.

Electrolysis will cause aluminum to become brittle over time as well as the corrosion issue. Will take a little while for that to happen, might want to check for chafing on your lighting wires as well.

Carpet on the trailer bunks will also cause this

I've seen a lot of people around here that leave their boat over all the time run a direct ground through a round zinc bolted to the hull. They say it keeps it from corroding, but I dunno, I keep my sht in the yard.

so if im understanding right its better to run the ground to the battery?

I would, it's a lot less problems in my experience. Mine used to have everything grounded to the hull, and sht was always loose, I chased bad connections all the time.

I ground mine to the battery. Put a voltage meter on a bare spot on the hull and nothing.

My buddy that had the elec. problem just bought a Perko switch and when its not in use just turns it off. Checked the hull again with the meter and no more electrolysis. he was lucky to figure this out. In 6 months time this problem was starting to effect the hull.

Im no elecrical engineer but, your solenoid on your starter, voltage regulator and coil on your engine are all grounded to the block. The block is bolted to the frame which isn't isolated from one another. The whole engine is then bolted to the hull. Therefore the Negative battery terminal is grounded to the hull?

I believe a circuit breaker would help.

I have also read that the treated lumber will cause this.