bildge pumps - how many have them -

[Xpress_442]

I have a 1300 in the back of my 1756 next to the battery. Luckily I've only had to use it when the boat was beaches and a s&!@ storm decided to blow in before a fishing trip one morning. But it did get the water out surprisingly fast. I don't have a thru-hull on it just a loose hose because I use it to fill my live well also

 

[PSG-1]

If anyone is curious about whether or not they have an adequate system....here's how you find out.

Measure the length, width, and depth of the inside of your boat, then calculate cubic feet.

Then, determine the number of gallons per cubic ft. (I forget what it is) and multiply by the number you came up with from your boat's dimensions. This is the amount of gallons of water your boat could hold after being swamped.

Then determine your bilge pump's GPH (don't forget to account for pressure/volume loss from pumping head height....roughy 1 ft for a johnboat)

I've found that things that look good on paper don't always work in real life, and there's no way in hell I would depend on an electric motor to keep my boat afloat! Motors fail and batteries drain and die.

The best way to find out what your boat is going to do if swamped or the hull is breached is to try it out in real life.

Take your boat out to the shallows on a warm summer day when the water is warm and pull the plug, then if you want to check your bilge pump turn it on and see if it'll keep up with the water coming in... but a bilge pump should only be secondary to the correct amount of floatation foam in your boat.

I recommend pulling the plug in your boat and don't run the bilge, let the boat fill with water until it stops taking on water and see how much water your boat will take on until the foam takes over. If you think your boat is taking on too much water or your get scared you can abort the test and put the plug back in. Then run your bilge to empty the boat and take it home and figure out where and how you can add more floatation foam to your boat to keep it afloat correctly.

I figure most people won't do this because they don't trust their boat, and if you don't trust it now... how are you going to trust it in an emergency.

The smart folks will do this test on their boat because they'll want to know just exactly what will happen should an emergency ever arise.

I agree that nothing beats an actual test under real conditions, but let's face it, most of us don't want to intentionally water-log our boats, as that sometimes means wiring harnesses, control cables, etc, go underwater. Not to mention the battery possibly going under, then there's no way for the bilge to pump the water out, unless you've got a manual bailer.

Floatation foam, if installed correctly, and in the correct amounts, will indeed stop the boat from sinking if it is severely swamped, so, for those who have factory boats that are unmodified, and loaded in accordance with the capacity rating plate, you probably don't have anything to worry about.

For those who have modified boats where foam has been removed, it is wise to put foam back anywhere you possibly can, to at least equal the amount you removed, in order to have the same amount of buoyancy when swamped. There are some formulas to calculate how much foam you need.

With that said, intentionally swamping is risky enough with an outboard, but for those of us with inboards, no way we're going to try that...at least, I'm not. If someone else is willing to go try it with theirs, more power to 'em, let us know how it works out for ya.

 

[gillhunter]

This has been a very interesting thread. It's been my experience that bad things can happen real fast in the water. You don't' need a bilge pump or floatation foam or a PFD for that matter until you need it. My son-in-law and I were hit in my 16' deep v back in "05 in a sudden rain storm by a much larger boat that came around a point at WOT about 50' from shore. We were both ejected and rescued by people on shore. The boat looked like it was hit by a train, but still floated. It had all the factory foam in it. The other boat stopped but the folks made no attempt to help us. It was nice to know that we would have had something to crawl back into had it happened in the middle of the lake. My son-in-law was able to fire up the bilge pump and the motor and drive it to the landing and get it back on the trailer. The only thing we are able to salvage from the boat was the 50hp Johnson.

My current tin has all the factory foam and a bilge pump.

 

[spotco2]

I carry a red Solo cup in my small tins.

It's multipurpose.

Does that count?

Bass boat has automatic and manual plus a spare in the dry storage that can be clipped to a battery.

 

[user 7806]

I carry a 500 gph in one of my storage compartments along with an attached hose and a lighter plug for power. Used it a couple of times when I've done something stupid.

I also use it to fill and empty the live well

 

[MrSimon]

I arrived in Canada one year to find out that my boat was pretty much swiss cheese. It leaked terribly. I was able to flip the bilge on for about 10 minutes every hour to keep the boat from sinking. Without that little pump, our entire fishing trip would have been ruined.

I'm not really sure that a small and completely open tin needs an electric pump - but it just makes sense on just about everything else.

 

[rickybobbybend]

I carry a 500 gph in one of my storage compartments along with an attached hose and a lighter plug for power. Used it a couple of times when I've done something stupid.

I also use it to fill and empty the live well

Ditto. Plus I carry a manual pump for draining rain water.

 

[cole.manns]

I run my 12 footer in salt with no bilge pump. I usualy use a sponge to suck out all the water that finds its way in the boat. Im hopin to put one in in the next few months. No problems yet.

 

[wihil]

800gph in the rear on a float and toggle (because I don't trust the float). After reading this, kinda makes me want to pick up another 800 for spare in addition to the 5gal bucket I keep on board...

 

[PSG-1]

The bilge pump in my Triton went out yesterday....or at least I think it did, because it popped a fuse, then when I installed another, the pump ran for a second or two, and popped that fuse.

But since it's only a 500 GPH pump, and I know how slow that can be when it comes to getting water out of a swamped boat....I think when I get a new one, I'm going with at least 1000 GPH.

 

[CaseyP]

I have one for my 14 footer but it isn't installed yet.

 

[KevinWI]

Rained for 2 strait days this week while boat was parked on shore... 45 degrees out, was nice to walk out, flip the bilge. 1/2 hour later, boat was empty. No frozen hands bailing.

 

[PSG-1]

Update: I checked out the bilge pump in my Triton, and for some reason, it was working again, not blowing fuses. ???

Anyhow, I decided that based on the inside dimensions of my boat, its capacity being fully swamped is about 35 cubic feet of water...I forget what that amounts to in gallons, but needless to say, a 500 GPH just isn't enough.

So, I replaced it with a Rule 1100GPH, just like the one in the engine compartment of the jetboat. Now I feel a little better.....at least this pump has double the volume, which means getting water out of the boat twice as quick.

 

[Rich27028]

what size thruhull do you have for that 1100 gallon pump

both of my thruhulls are 3/4 in

 

[PSG-1]

what size thruhull do you have for that 1100 gallon pump

both of my thruhulls are 3/4 in

1 & 1/8" discharge hose and thru-hull fitting.

That's what allows it to have a higher flow than its similar size cousin, the 800 GPH rule with a 3/4 hose, the 1100 has a bigger diameter fitting, and I think the guts may be a little bigger, as well. But the beauty of the rule pumps is, the 350 GPH, the 500 GPH, the 800 GPH, and the 1100 GPH are all the same size, so, if you're tight on space, it's an easy switch.

When I put the thru hull fitting in there, I did not put it where the factory had the existing 3/4" fitting, as that was located under the transom corner brace, jammed right against the bottom side of the stern light assembly..... :roll: #-o What a bunch of doofuses!

So, instead, I took a hole saw, and went right through the transom, about an inch below the top edge. Probably better that way, anyhow, I've never been keen on side discharges for bilges on johnboats. At low speed with weight in the transom, it often puts the fitting at or below the waterline, which could let water flow into the boat.

With it mounted up high on the transom, that problem is eliminated.

 

[ste6168]

No pump in my tin, yet. My plan is to re-do ALL of the wiring in my boat this upcoming year, and I will incorporate one (probably a 500gph) then. My glass boat has three. 1100 gph in the bilge, 750 gph in the cabin, and a 500gph inside the fishbox on deck.