Near miss

[Rich Stern]

My boat has a couple of Mayfair modular pumps for bilge and livewell. The livewell pump assembly is an inline affair, mounted directly to the thru-hull fitting, unsupported by anything other than the plastic pipe coming from the fitting. Bad idea.



Was setting up the ski pylon on Saturday, and realized I was hearing the bilge pump running. Opened the hatch, sure enough, there's the livewell pump, lying there, broken clean off the thrull hull pipe. Water pouring in. Yikes!



Anyway, a cork stopped the problem before the water got too high. But it reminded me that plastic through hulls, particularly ones poorly supported, need to be examined for problems every so often. It's the only thing between the lake and the inside of the boat.



Gonna redo it a bit differently this time around, with hoses and clamps, and the pump mounted to the hull.



Inspect your thru-hull fittings next time you are doing some maintenance.

 

[JD Johnson]

That could have been a damp situation there if you hadn't caught it Rich. It could've given new meaning to 'fish and swim'

Could tip for everyone.

jdj

 

[TOMMY RICH]

Had the same problem on my 94 Pro Team...two livewells that year and the front come thru the side just like yours but I plugged mine with my sock because I didn't have anything else:lol:

 

[Rich Stern]

I guess "put a sock in it" works, too.

 

[Bryan McDonough]

Actually all plastic fittings r a bad idea. I had a pump break that was mounted under the drivers seat. Kept hearing water running, and we had not boated any keepers yet so I told my non boater to turn the livewells off. This was 7:30 am during a tournament.



He said there not on. Right about then the auto bio sonix unit, aka bilge pump, took off and ran for about 5 minutes.



The only thing I could find to prevent us from making the slow run back to the ramp was a 4inch mad mann craw worm. Stuffed in the side of the aerator pump and it lasted all day. I Even took 2nd that day on a club tournament.

 

[Mike Newman]

I am on my third pump already on my 2003 PT175 with similar leaking stories. I finally switched to a softer hose on the outlet so that I would not have to over tighten to seal. I think it was either cracking at install or the plastic was cracking over time under the constant pressure of the hose clamp. I have looked at the housings and they do not have any extra plastic in the walls I am sure to save a $. the only good news is after the third one I can swap them pretty quickly now except that I always end up with a couple of good scratches and scarred knuckles. I hate it when companies skimp on something that can be a a serious failure on the water. All of the modern quality philosophies and processes are there to prevent this exact type of "catastrophic" failure for the customer. I am genrally very happy with my Tracker, but goes to show that they still have plenty of room for improvement.

 

[Rich Stern]

BMCD, that bilge needs a few tie wraps. This is how your boat's wiring is supposed to look.

 

[Marty Klein]

Geez Rich--the Lexington didn't have that much wiring!

 

[Bryan McDonough]

Yeah, but you can see it. Its is really a mes if you don't look at it.



I'm sure thats what the delarship though too.