$2.75 lifesaver...well, maybe

[Mello-Yello]

Just a little idea I thought I'd share. Probably nothing new to most, but if it helps one person than I did good.

When installing my 'auxillary' bilge pump (1,000gph) last night, I noted a caution label on it. "Do not let run dry as damage could be caused to the motor". This got me to thinking, "remember how many times you wondered what that humming noise was on your old boat? d'OH! I left the bilge pump on after that last downpour!".

Today I went to Englund's and picked up two little dash lights. $2.75 each, simple installation. Just run them in parallel with your power out to each pump. (I wouldn't recommend running them in series, if the bulb goes, so does the pump)

Nothing I would hate more than to need my bilge pumps turned on, only to find they are already on...what the??? Uh Oh!

:shocked:

M-Y

PS...After some careful consideration, I wired my new pump completely separate from the factory pump. Even the ground.

[Nofish]

M-Y,
Great suggestion...I myself have had a similar experiences with the "what the heck is that noise" experience. I just purchased and am planning to install a backup bilge pump as well and will take your advice of the lights. Thanks for the tip. Nofish

[Miss B Haven]

Another hmmm...not 2.75 but proly 27.50, wire in a high level alarm. A bilge pump float switch with light or audible (use the engine horn) set just above the normal turn on of the auto bilge pump. [img]graemlins/idea.gif[/img]
Much better than waiting till your tennis shoes are floating. :shocked:

Don't ask me how I know this! :depressed: [img]graemlins/eek13.gif[/img] :shocked:

[Mello-Yello]

Haha, I hear you Mel! I thought about that too, but w/my boat I'll know if I'm taking 'in' water as I can see my bilge. I only have one hole in my boat (for the drain plug) so barring some kind of catastrophic hull failure, my only concern was getting rid of water should I take a surprise wave or for getting rid of a few buckets of bloody wash down water. I almost installed a wash-down pump a few weeks ago but the guy pointed out that I'd have to punch another hole at the bottom of my transom to install it (or install a fresh water tank). I'm still kicking the idea around, but don't like the idea of deliberately putting another hole in the bottom of my boat.

My very first boat, a 15' miniature version of Gilligan's SS Minnow. Steal of a deal, or so I thought. Made of wood, half the hull coated w/fiberglass. Ugly as all he77. Maiden voyage I took her around a little local lake. At first the little 35hp Johnson pushed it up on plane pretty good. After a few minutes, it was as if the engine was losing power. The rear started lowering deeper, the nose raising. This was when I noticed some water at the rear of the boat. I stopped the boat, pulled up the floor-board behind my seat, and I kid you not, I could see the weeds in the bottom of the lake! There was a huge crack in hull (dry-rot) on the side that hadn't been glassed, duh. I gulped, took one look at the boat ramp a half-mile away, and punched it. By the time I got to the ramp, she was running pretty deep. I managed to get her on the trailer, all 50 some tons of her. Sure got some looks when I drug it to level ground. I'm still not sure why I bothered pulling the drain plug...

I coulda used a bilge alarm.

[Snapset]

Great idea, MY, and allow me please to re-emphasize, do not run the lights in series with your pump. If you do so, you will most certainly burn up your pump. See what happens is, those lights only allow a little electrical current to go through. Maybe one tenth at most of what a bilge pump would draw. That one tenth of normal current is not enough to turn the pump at the speed it needs to cool itself. In fact, probably not enough to turn it at all. Turns the little pump into a 100 percent efficient space heater, with no where for the heat to go but to burn up the insulation on the windings of the pump motor.

By parallel, I mean there should be no energy drawing device between the switch terminal and the pump and light. The ground should also go directly to the ground bus, cable, or battery terminal.

[Albacore Tuna Captain]

You can get no greater sinking feeling than to open up the bilge plates and see excess water! A high water bilge alarm is required on all COI vessels in each compartment where there is a through hull fitting. And I kid you not, a boat is only waiting to sink! The single most important piece of equipment on any boat, is the dewatering device. And the alarm helps you to get on with the task of pumping your bilge before it is too late. I was delivering a yacht from Portland to Newport several years ago. It was a beautiful day and when off of Depoe Bay, I noticed the electronics were going crazy. On inspection, found the water almost to the air intakes on the engines. The boat had only a single electric pump on a float switch that apparently could not keep up with the water coming in. [img]graemlins/1zhelp.gif[/img] And before we could get another gasoline powered pump going, (I always carry these on yacht deliveries) the water was over the deck level and the yacht sank. Morale of the story is that you want to know you are taking on water before it is too late! And the other thing I learned was that you can never have too many pumps. On the Blitz, I have mechanical driven pumps on both engines, one electric bilge pump on a float switch and two emergency bilge pumps. The emergency bilge pumps are the raw water cooling pumps. A knife and quick action and they become bilge pumps.

Do I worry about sinking? Not really. Am I prepared for the worst? You bet!!! So have a bilge alarm to let you know you have a problem and pumps to take care of the problem. And the pump capacity should be that which will take care of the worst catastrophic failure possible on your boat.