Pump Placement

[Wakeman22]

I am getting ready to install the ballast system and need a little advise. I am using 5 pumps. 3 will be off a 1 1/4" thru hull and 2 on a 1" thru hull. Both will be a manifold setup. This needs to be addressed si I can drill the holes in the bottom of my boat. Crap did I say hole in the bottom?

My question is if I need the room at what angle up can I go and still get them to prime? Meaning draft depth at the center of the bielge. I know that many have laid them flat with a little rise to help prime and clear air. I am wondering if I need the room and get them as close to the manifold if it would work with them vertical? Again this is draft dependent. Ideas?

Also what guage wire should I use runing from the switches to the pumps?

[skippabcool]

Also what guage wire should I use runing from the switches to the pumps?

Mike told me this

Wire - You will need some 12Ga to feed the B+ side of the switches and then 14ga to the pumps.

[chpthril]

On your Tige, the floor is just about the water line with no ballast. So, if the pumps are below the floor, they should be below the water line. To prevent priming issues, try and have the body of the pump at least even with or higher then the manifold, and with the outlet on the high side, not straight out or down.

I like to mock the manifold up and set it in the bilge for a test fit to check the clearance. If all looks good, I mark the bilge with a sharpie and then check to see that im drilling in a good place on the hull that I wont be on a trailer bunk or in line with the tri-ducer.

14ga wire is perfect for those pumps.

[Wakeman22]

Thanks Skip for the guage help. I thought that was correct. Mike told me but I could not find the email. I am also working on the wiring harness. I now need to find the right fitment for the pumps.

[IDBoating]

A few tips:

* It is the volute of the pump - the part of the pump that actually has water in it - that must be below the waterline. If absolutely necessary the pump motor can be above the waterline. However, in my personal humble opinion if you're that close you're too close. The deeper you can get the pump, relative to the waterline, the more hydrostatic pressure you'll have forcing water up into the pump body. That will make your system more reliable. Try really, really hard to keep the pump body as absolutely low as possible in the hull. By the time you add up the height of the thruhull threads and the valve, you will have already eaten up many precious inches of depth.

* Then, the more vertical you can keep your water flow from hull through pump, the better. Indeed, you should try to keep the hose coming off of the pump monotonically increasing in height (i.e. no dips, no downward flow) all the way to the top of the fat sac. This will help bubbles to work themselves out of the system. Keep in mind that every time you freshly drop your boat into the water, you're likely trapping air in the intake thruhulls - air that will need to work all the way through the pump and hoses to the fat sac. Sit in the boat and imagine yourself being an air bubble in each intake thruhull... do you have a consistent uphill path to the fat sac? If you do, you shouldn't ever have priming problems. If there are dips in the hose, if the pump output is angled anything but up, you (the bubble) could get stuck and now you're troubleshooting.

* When figuring out where to drill the holes in your hull (!!!), use two strong magnets to insure you are coordinated from the inside of the hull to the outside. Once you figure out where you think you want the holes on the inside, tape or have someone hold a magnet there and crawl under the boat to stick the other magnet on the opposite side. Better than any set of measurements, this absolutely guarantees that you know where you are. You can move the magnets around a bit and they'll follow each other, making it easy to change locations a bit here or there to fine tune things. Credit goes to Jason at WakeMakers for this clever trick. My wife found some super-powerful coin-shaped magnets at WalMart that worked like a charm.

Keep us posted, we love ballast install threads. Photos are a big plus.

[chpthril]

Try really, really hard to keep the pump body as absolutely low as possible in the hull.

Absolutely 100% true, when using individual thru-hulls. But when using the common manifold, the pumps need to be higher then the manifold, but below the water line, or air will be trapped in the manifold.

[Wakeman22]

I knew that everything needed to go uphill for air release. I also know the lower I can get the pumps the better. I read about the magnet trick in one of your other posts. I already new about that from working through walls in construction but thanks for the reminder.

The issue I am having is that I am not sure if I can get all 5 pumps laying down in the center bielge area so I was asking the question now before I come across the "the need to know" this weekend. That was why I asked about the depth of draft in that area in another thread. Never got an answer.

Of course I will post progress reports and I will now learn to post pics in the threads. I think I have passed ballast 101, planning your system. I now have to get through ballast 202, drilling holes in your boat and plumbing.

In what department at Walmart did she find the magnets? I guess I could use 2 old speaker magnets I have laying around. Thanks for the help. I would add smiles and peace signs but I still have no visible icons to use.

[Wakeman22]

Thanks for the depth of draft answer mike. Floor line.

[Wakeman22]

I install sprinkler systems and sometimes the manifolds are in tight places so mocking up is something I already planned on. Part of the whole planning stage.

[lancehon]

Sounds like quite the manifold project . Why 5 pumps? Dual fill for a surf sac?

[IDBoating]

Absolutely 100% true, when using individual thru-hulls. But when using the common manifold, the pumps need to be higher then the manifold, but below the water line, or air will be trapped in the manifold.

Agree, which would automatically occur if he followed my advice regarding a constant uphill flow from thruhull to fat sac. Imagining you're a bubble reveals little gotchas like that!

[Wakeman22]

Sounds like quite the manifold project . Why 5 pumps? Dual fill for a surf sac?

5 pumps needed for 5 sacks.

Intergrated bow sack
2 rear locker sacks
2 sacks under side seats

I did not go with the enzo sack to prevent sloshing of water if I partialy filled for wakeboarding. Was goiing to try and piggyback the side and rear sacks but decided that if it did not work that way I would be back in the bielge installing 2 more pumps and chose to do it while I was there.

[duffymahoney]

I personally like pump intakes on the transom. That way if you loose prime on aerators you just put the boat in reverse to prime them. The only issue is you can't fill while underway, which I don't do anyways. I have never had an issue with my customs and wakeboarding. I just fill till the finger is full then stop both.

[Wakeman22]

Duffy I considered the transom and know that backing can prime them. If I do not find enough room in the center I may go that route.

[laserfish]

If you do decide to go the transom route, Dogbert of old had a really good install thread with lots of pictures. I wonder what happened to him? Dogbert, you still out there?