Installing a live well pump (basspirator)

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cybereyes

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So how does this thing work exactly? From what I can tell from the instructions I have to drill a hole through the transom where I mount the pump and then run tubing all the way to the front of the boat where my live well is. Geez. Anyway, how does the water get out? Does it just start flowing in once the boat is in the water or does the pump have to bring it in, otherwise serving as a block to the water? What if the pump goes out, will water come in then? Why can't I just mount it toward the bottom of the boat on the side near where my live well is located so that I don't have to use so much tubing?
 
cybereyes said:
So how does this thing work exactly?
The pump pumps lake water into your livewell. There is an electric motor with a small impeller on th end. The impeller sits inside a cavity. When the motor is on, it pumps water, when stopped it acts like a plug. If you submerged teh pump to several atmospheric pressures than the water pressure would exceed the resistance of the motor and water would flow throught he pump.



cybereyes said:
Anyway, how does the water get out?
You have to install a drain hose, and an overflow hose. The drain hose can be the same diameter as the livewell pump hose, provided you have an overflow hose. The overflow hose should be 1 1/8"-1 1/4" internal diameter. Your overflow can be drained out the side of the boat above the water line. If you put it below the water line your hose will fill to water level.

You can run one drain hose that servew both purposes, drians the livewell at the end of the day, and is tied into the overflow vent.

cybereyes said:
Why can't I just mount it toward the bottom of the boat on the side near where my live well is located so that I don't have to use so much tubing?

You could, however when the boat is under way the water will be forced into the livewell and you can't control how much water gets in, until you stop the boat.

There are kits for numberous ways to install a livewell. Everything from one pump with a hose attached. Drop the pump into the lake and put the hose into the livewell. Turn the pump off when full. To empty reverse the process. Put the pump in the livewell and the hose over the side of the boat, turn the pump on until the livewell is empty. The only rpoblem with this system is all the slim from the fish could plug up your pump.

There is a website that shows you how it all works, however I dont have it handy at the momoent. Maybe someone else can post the link up?
 
Hmm will this is very helpful, thanks a lot. I wasn't aware that it needed an overflow or a drain hose. I wonder if this kit comes with those hoses etc. Does the same pump pump out the water through the drain/overflow, or do I need another pump? Do I have to drill another hole into the livewell for this drain? Im reading what instructions came with the basspirator and it does talk about an overflow, but I'm not sure if it came with it or not, and it doesn't mention if I have to drill a seperate hole in the livewell for the drain hose. As I'm typing this it sounds like I would need three holes actually, one for the drain which would be at the bottom of the livewell, and one for the over flow which would be at the top of the live well. Am I thinking about that right?
 
So this is what I think I am going to do. I'm going to cut three holes into the livewell. One near the top for the pump which is going to go to the back of the boat at the transom, the other near the top on the other side which is going to be an overflow and will lead to the side of the boat above the water line, the third will be toward the bottom and will lead back to the transom as well with a plug in it to remove when I pull the boat out of the water. How does this sound?
 
sounds perfect to me . I have an overflow system with my livewell I built . I don't have a drain though, I use a pump to pump it out and it serves as a recirc pump also .

P1010007-1.jpg



P1010011-1.jpg
 
If the bottom of your tank winds up above water level, you can use it for your overflow and your drain. I'm not sure what all plumbing came with your unit but the factory livewell in my boat is plumbed up that way. There is a hole in the center of the bottom that is plumbed to a hole in the side of the boat, above the water line. There is a pvc stand pipe that screws into that hole that serves as the overflow. Unscrew the pipe when you are finished fishing and all of the water drains out whether the boat is on the trailer or sitting in the water.
 
Hmm, I think I like the idea of the pump to pump it out. That way maybe I could use the same line as my overflow and it would just spit all the water out the hole in the side. I will toss that idea around.
 
Question for you. When do you plan on emptying the livewell? While your still on the water, or after you have trailered the boat and emptied the fish? If you wait until your on the trialer a simple drain hose is all you need. Pull the plug and let it drain. IF you use a pump to drain it while on the trialer you have to turn the pump off when empty, with a drain hose you can leave it unplugged all the way home.
 
A plug would probably be the cheapest route since I don't plan on emptying it until I'm out of the water, but I also bought this switch panel a while back that I'm going to put into the deck somewhere, and it has a bilge pump switch on it which I didn't have. Well now I do lol. It was only like 20 bucks anyway.
 
So it looks like my overflow hose will be going to a hole thats a little higher than the livewell is, because I was afraid that where I was going to put it would be too close to the water line. Is this going to cause a flow problem? It will also be T'ed into a tube that runs from the bottom of the livewell which is connected to my bilge pump. Will this cause it to run back onto itself. I don't know anymore, this stupid livewell has me perplexed. I really don't want to run a hose all the way back to the back of the boat again for a drain etc, it is going to be hard enough running the first hose for the aerator pump, plus I was afraid that water would come in that way too even with a stand up tube.
 
your overflow need to be below the exit point of the live well if it is above the topp it will not drain..
 
I have attempted to illustrate the overflow/standpipe setup. The filler pipe fills the l/w until the water gets high enough to spill into the top of your overflow tube. Your filler pipe inlet needs to be above the top of your overflow pipe. The water runs out the bottom of the l/w and through the side of your boat. The water level inside the l/w will drain down to whatever the lake level is if you remove the overflow pipe. The hole through the side of my boat is exactly level with the water line, so the entire l/w will drain if I pull the tube.
 

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Im not trying to steal this thread or anything, but i am looking to do this set up in my livewell since i have the threaded hole in the bottom.

My question is does there have to be a tube coming out of the bottom of the threaded hole, or can that hole be used as the drain. It is in the bottom of my boat, i was wanting to screw a pipe into it, and pump water into it up to the level of the pipe, then let it drain out the pipe and out of the boat through the hole in the bottom. Will that work?
 
It should be fine but your drain hole needs to be sized so that it will gravity drain at the same rate that the pump is filling the livewell. Mine has a sort of regulator cap that screws into the pipe where the water enters to cut the flow down and aerate the water.
 
I understand how the stand up pipe works, but I don't think the way your pic is illustrated, that it would work for me. First off I don't know for sure where the water line will be since I have never had THIS boat in the water before, and I have added a lot of weight to it. Secondly, I know for sure that the bottom of my livewell will be below the water line, meaning if I take a tube staight out from that, there will be a hole in the boat for overflow that will be below the water line. The only other way I could think to do it would make the hose go up hill, which isn't an issue when I'm draining because I have it all connected to a bilge pump. I have tried to illustrate my concerns below.

Boat1.jpg


Boat2.jpg


The first picture is how I think it would work if I took the hose straight out from the overflow. If its below the water line, then I assume I will have an issue.

The second picture is the only way I know to fix it, which would mean any overflow would have to be forced up hill a bit. The draining again wouldn't be a problem because of the pump. What should I do? Or what are my other options?
 
Even if the hole for your overflow is beneath the waterline, the water will only rise up in the overflow tube to the level of the lake.

Even if you have the tube removed, it will only fill your livewell to the level of the lake.

In other words, it won't sink your boat.
 
Unless the level of the lake is above the top of the livewell? For all I know it is. Even if it isn't, how is water suppose to "overflow" if the overflow hole is below the water line? It does help to know that the overflow can be below the water line. I wasn't aware of that.

This gives you an idea of how my livewell sets.It is basically at the same level as the 2nd bench seat that is built into the boat. The livewell was placed directly in front of the bench seat, and the cooler was placed behind it.

DSC02113.jpg
 
I can't see hosted images at work so I will have to reply in regards to your pictures later tonight.

If your overflow is below the waterline, your livewell will drain down to the waterline.. making an overflow unnecessary.

If your lake level is higher than your livewell.. then you have problems. If that is the case, you are going to have problems regardless. You will sink your boat simply from hooking up the fill pump.
 
I guess that just shows how much I know. I would have thought that the livewell would fill up until I turned off the pump which is pumping water in, or the water level rose to the overflow point and flowed out the boat again. I was under the impression that the pump bringing the water in would restrict the flow of water when it was not on. Meaning the entire livewell could be below the water level and I could pump in 1 gallon of water and quit if I chose to do so. I guess I don't , or didn't understand that the livewell had to be above the water level, and I didn't take that into consideration when I started modding this boat. The livewell itself is sitting on a floor I made, which brings its height up to the level of the bench seat. I won't really know though until I get it in the water about where the water level will rise to. I don't like what your saying though. considering what If I fish all the time and then one day load an extra person on board and there goes the boat. Or something as simple as catching a big catfish and there goes the boat.
 

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