Bilge Pumps

[BoHawg]

Well fellers last night while I was trying to gator hunt in a friggin' mini-tropical storm, my bilge pump went out. Needless to say, it made for an interesting little adventure.

I've seen high capacity bilge pumps at West Marine, I think they were like 2000 gpm. My question is, what is the best one to buy and are they efficient? Also, I think they make ones that are more powerful than the 2000 gpm, don't they?

 

[Airboatcapt2]

We use Rule 2000 GPH Bilge Pumps in all the New Boats.
There are many smaller and a few larger but the Rule 2000 Bilge seems to be great for us.
Good Luck.
Faron

 

[mwood7800]

I am on my 3rd yr with a rule 3700, I have launched with both plugs out and it more than keeps me afloat, I also have a bilge alarm but I do a lot of deep water..

 

[Olf Art]

Bo, you might want to consider running two of them. One on each side.
They don't weigh much and both of them surely wouldn't go out at the same time.

I like the big gph sizes. If you need one you don't want to be foolin around with a smaller pump.

 

[SwampMatt]

Don't forget that the 2000 gph rating is with little or no head.

Watch your plumbing. No restricting pipes, or tight corners. Intricare routing of the pipes can cause further head loss.

And there is a little chrome outlet that looks absolutely fantastic, shoots your wash out down the side of the hull. But that beauty alone would probably cut that 2000 number to 1600 in reality.

Like the space shuttle - a redundant system is worth it on bilge pumps. Why buy one when you could get two?

matt

 

[Anonymous]

I have two 1500 gpm pumps.

I mounted them outside the stringers, should have put them inside.

I used 1" vinyl tubing and used sweeping bends back over the transom.

Later, I may add through-hull exits to reduce the distance the water has to travel up.

As of yet, I haven't truly needed them except once when parked on the hill in a bad rain storm, but man, did they shoot out two big streams!

 

[Ruagatr]

I run two Rule 2000 pumps and a Surebail automatic float. the Rule float is junk---the Surebail is completely epoxied and works forever. So I can manually turn my pumps on or they automatically go on. Works great.