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View Full Version : How to drain boat with no hills?



csm
10-01-2009, 10:18 PM
I live in a pretty flat area, and I'm tired of having extra water in my bilge, which eventually moves into the ski locker after a day on the lake. Pulling the plug and taking an additional 5 minutes on the ramp really isn't an option, and there are no steep hills that i could park on around the lake.

Does anyone do anything creative to do this? Is there a way to jack up the front of the trailer enough to drain the rest of the water out? A guy that works on Moombas said something about cinder blocks and 2x4's, but I couldn't really understand where he was going with that.... Any ideas?

jester
10-01-2009, 10:28 PM
shopvac. works great just have to take some extra time before you put it away for the night.

cab13367
10-01-2009, 11:04 PM
I live in a pretty flat area, and I'm tired of having extra water in my bilge, which eventually moves into the ski locker after a day on the lake. Pulling the plug and taking an additional 5 minutes on the ramp really isn't an option, and there are no steep hills that i could park on around the lake.

Does anyone do anything creative to do this? Is there a way to jack up the front of the trailer enough to drain the rest of the water out? A guy that works on Moombas said something about cinder blocks and 2x4's, but I couldn't really understand where he was going with that.... Any ideas?

One thing I've thought about but haven't tried is to put some car ramps under the rear tires of your tow vehicle and driving on top of them with your boat/trailer hooked up. That would elevate the tongue but don't know if high enough. Try at your own risk :)

you da man
10-02-2009, 12:04 AM
Just find a large building/warehouse or business that has loading docks and back down one of them when they are closed.

moombadaze
10-02-2009, 07:50 AM
2nd on the shop vac

yearround
10-02-2009, 10:27 AM
IMO and experince,
you will not find a driveway, ramp, steep enough to get all the water out of the bilge while hooked to the tow vehicle. i have a pretty steep driveway, i have put my truck in the garage with the boat on behind, still does not drain the water. i have driven 600 miles from CO to UT then up a steep unpaved mtn road to a cabin, going up the mtn road, water was draining!

i guess you could jack the from of the trailer up until the rear of the trailer hit the ground and maybe get the water to drain, but that is a pita, i tried that once, (the cinder blocks, 2x4's etc)

i put a plug in the ski locker to keep bilge water from getting in to the ski locker.

i use the shop vac to get the water out, i don't even bother to pull the plug, unless i have to for the mussell inspection

you da man
10-02-2009, 10:48 AM
I only had my XLV a few weeks. Where are you guys using the shop vac in the boat to draw out the water?

yearround
10-02-2009, 10:50 AM
i pull the water from under the V, and ski locker is any is in there

moombadaze
10-02-2009, 10:59 AM
one thing when doing the shop vac removal of water is it can get kinda heavy and akward to get the vac out of the boat. Try going to lowes or home depot and get a adapter to fit a short piece of garden hose to the end the vac hose, that way the vac can sit on the garage floor and still get the water out. May have to rig something up to make it all work but its worth it.

csm
10-02-2009, 11:33 AM
Good idea moombadaze... I've used the shopvac a couple of times, but it's such a hassle that I wanted a different method... I've brought my square sawhorses to set it on outside of the boat, but it's still a hassle. If I can find an attachment to allow the vac to sit on the floor, that's definitely the route I'll take.

sandm
10-02-2009, 11:58 AM
duct tape is your friend :)

squeeg333
10-02-2009, 12:07 PM
I'm another advocate for the shop vac. Easiest way I've found is to elevate the boat as well as you can with the trailer jack, and then suck the water out of the bilge thru either the enginer compartment, v-drive cover, or the ski locker (or a combination of all three). That'll get it all out.

yearround
10-02-2009, 01:25 PM
i have a 20 foot hose on my vac so it just sits on the floor, i can vac most of the boat from one spot. just remember to take the filter out of the vac before the water, it may get nasty if you forget this, then you woder where the dead fish is, and who was fishing anyway? and why is it in your garage?

jester
10-02-2009, 03:03 PM
I am the same as Yearround. You just go to home depot and get a longer hose and no issues.

SEARK
10-02-2009, 03:34 PM
I have a smaller shop vac that is easy to get in and out of the boat. works great for getting the water out and cleaning the carpet.

you da man
10-02-2009, 06:58 PM
The Lowes by my house had 6-gallon Shop Vac with accessories for $29. Hell, the longer hose was more than the Shop Vac but I didn't buy the extra hose yet. I have a storage unit for my boat so I'll just leave the vac there for after lake duty.

pmoomba
10-29-2009, 10:04 AM
I recently bought a used OBV and went straight to getting it winterized so it's ready for storage, but this means I can't test everything again. We had used the bilge on the test drive and appeared to be working. Now that we're at home and it's in the driveway before we bring it off to storage, I'm noticing that we're getting a decent amount of water in it during the rain.

We have a cover on it and not really sure where the water was getting in, but I'm also finding that the bilge isn't emptying the water that's in the ski locker. Our driveway is mostly flat (or if anything, slightly sloped forward towards the bow), but the water standing in the ski locker is still pushed back over the drain hole. I guess from past experience I would have expected at least some of this to bilge out.

From reading this thread it sounds like that might be normal, but is this something I should be concerned about? Any way I can expect to test the bilge without waiting until spring?

Forgot to mention that my drain plug is out if anybody was wondering.

Jeff W
10-29-2009, 01:14 PM
I recently bought a used OBV and went straight to getting it winterized so it's ready for storage, but this means I can't test everything again. We had used the bilge on the test drive and appeared to be working. Now that we're at home and it's in the driveway before we bring it off to storage, I'm noticing that we're getting a decent amount of water in it during the rain.

We have a cover on it and not really sure where the water was getting in, but I'm also finding that the bilge isn't emptying the water that's in the ski locker. Our driveway is mostly flat (or if anything, slightly sloped forward towards the bow), but the water standing in the ski locker is still pushed back over the drain hole. I guess from past experience I would have expected at least some of this to bilge out.

From reading this thread it sounds like that might be normal, but is this something I should be concerned about? Any way I can expect to test the bilge without waiting until spring?

Forgot to mention that my drain plug is out if anybody was wondering.

Totally normal. I had the same thing. I just winterized and stored last weekend and I used a shop vac to clean up what the bilge and gravity wouldn't.

mmandley
10-29-2009, 02:17 PM
As for rain gettin the cover it's possible it's runnng down the tower still a normal issue.

Two things you can do to test the bilage
1 dump a gallon of water into the engine bay or under the V drive where that pump is. If it's an automatic bilage then it will kick on.

2 just hit the dash switch and force it on and it will pump out the water even if it's below the float line

another thing you can do with a flat drive way is raise the bow up. It has to be higher then the center of the boat or water will collect in the ski area as it becomes the lowest point.

Use a pair of Jack stands and some blocks of wood, Jack the trailer up with the trailer Jack use the stands. Then place the wood blocks under the trailer stand and lift it higher then readjust the Jack stands.

I have an onclined driveway so all my water goes to the nose unless I park on the street or the garage. In the garage I tend to have water in the ski locker.

As for the shop vac I just saw on Overtons.com they have s 12v 15amp shop vac for like $30 ands it's a 1gal unit. I'm going to buy one for the boat because it's small and easy to handle in and out of the boat. Save my 6gal shop vac for regular tasks

brain_rinse
10-29-2009, 05:27 PM
I turn on the bilge pump (and ballast drains) one last time as the boat is being pulled up the boat ramp. I also have been keeping the ski locker door snapped open for the tow home (just a few miles) and usually have very little water in the bilge by the time I get home.

I also bought a plug for the ski locker that I plan to start using next year to prevent backwash from the bilge like others have mentioned.

brain_rinse
11-02-2009, 11:35 AM
I posted a couple of pictures of my ski locker plug in my mods thread (link in signature)