Did you verify your question? I am staying in a wet slip on Labor Day and was wondering the same questions.
I have a 2018 Max, I rented a slip overnight for the first time last week and I was paranoid so I put a hose into the bilge and verified the pump did turn on with the batteries switch off. Didn’t matter too much, when I arrived in the morning and looked below deck there was practically no water which was a relief as we seem to accumulate a decent amount during a day on the water.
You do not have to flood your boat with water. There is a knob that you rotate and it simulates the float being in the up position. Just turn your perko switch off, then rotate the knob and your should hear and feel it kick on.
yep, like Holdmybeer said, just manually turn it on by rotating the knob and you will hear the motor start up.
Am I the only one intrigued here about only having a cup of water in your bilge every time you go out? We probably gain 2 gallons or so everytime we go out from peoples getting in and out dripping wet, filling bags with a tsunami pump ect. Usually the water is at or just below the top of the T bilge plug handle lol.
More to the point, we wet slip for week at a time twice a summer and I never bother turning the batteries off. Unless you are parking jaming hard on the stereo with the engine off for a good portion of the day I would not worry about batteries. For reference we run 2 deep cycle AGMs and 1 Sarting AGM and the switch generally always stays on "ALL"
I end up with the water in my bilge being about half way up the t handle at the midship point too. Probably a gallon or so when I drain it on my lift, which is slightly tilted back. It's very rarely enough for the bilge pump to pick it up even when I manually turn it on. We are pretty good about getting people to take off their jacket and drain it a bit while still on the swim platform though.
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The only reason I had a scare was the fuse was blown on mine while at Norris and we had a 1.5hr monsoon come through. I waited until the rain was a sprinkle and ran down to find the bottom of the V-drive was in the water. Nothing bad, but I had to turn the batteries back on and manually run the bilge. Found the fuse later one and replaced it. Been working fine ever since. I assume the fuse blew before I bought the boat, since I cleaned some garbage out of the strainer when doing maintenance.
I get the same about of water in mine also. Mostly from kids jumping off the back or burping bags. Nothing major unless I turn too sharp and take a roller. Been known to happen sometimes.