Water Strainer/Filter

[mmandley]

I was thinking and wanted to get some feed back.

I have a water strainer on the intake of my manifold for the GIII system, im planning on going 2 Rule 1800 pumps and hook one to each side of the Irritol pumps and manifolds.

Problem: I don't want to buy a second strainer, I was thinking i would take the strainer off my ballast system and plumb it to the Engine intake that way it has a strainer on it. I see this as a more important option as i would rather filter my engine intake to keep debris out of my impeller.

I don't exactly want stuff in my ballast system eighter but i can replace those valves and such a lot easier then my engine. On a side not i generally only run on lakes 60 to 200ft deep and most are all fresh clean water, very little weeds or debris normally.

[JesseC]

The only issue I have had with stuff in the ballast is that I sucked a small stick through the system and burned up an evac pump. Only killed 1 in 5 years and I still do not have a strainer.

[moombadaze]

Had a strainer on the ballast system for the 1st year, when I pulled it off there was nothing in it, and we have shallow lakes 5-15 maybe 20' deep in spots

[Razzman]

Yeah i can't figure why they'd put one on the ballast but not the raw water intake.

Mike the problem i see is the diameter of the raw water intake which is 1 1/4" i think? If so isn't the ballast strainer smaller? If so you'd have a water restriction and potential heating issues.

[squeeg333]

I second what Razz said, Mike. I am putting a fresh water strainer on the water intake first thing this year, once I get the boat out of storage. I purchased the fresh water strainer from skidim, and it's a LOT bigger than the one for the ballast system. It's bigger for good and obvious reasons though - namely the amount of water you'll be pulling thru it.

I'd say just drop the strainer on the ballast, and invest in a strainer on your fresh water intake. I think you hit it right, it's cheap insurance on keeping debris out of the eingine, and especially out of the transmission cooler. That's where I found some stuff this year, and figured a fresh water strainer was cheap insurance.

I'm like you though, run in deeper water, and it's usually super clean. I think the gunk that was in the tranny cooler was from the previous owner down in OK, but, you never know. Found a piece of the impellar too, so, I guess there's another bonus!

[Razzman]

Just for the record it seem that Skidim has the best prices period on the strainer, i'll be ordering one from them. Shoulda done it when i ordered an impleller last week ... DOH!