A penny for your thoughts……on bilge pumps.

[BruddahMidds]

I sometimes have issues with water coming into the bilge and I suspect it’s coming in through the bilge pump outlet hole in the transom. I am guessing there is no check valve and no automatic pump out function in the pump. It might only be a quart or two or maybe as much as a gallon and it doesn’t seem to do it all the time. I pull the plug to check each time I come off of the lake. The boat is a 2017 Tracker PT 190 with a 115 four stroke. Also an 8 ft Talon and an extra battery for the Ultera trolling motor I installed. I am also 275 lbs so when I stand on the back casting deck the back is riding low. It could also come large wakes on the lake from other boating traffic, coming in while backing up, or the wake catching up as I come off plane. Whatever it might be, I added these PVC vent extenders to the bilge outlet, lower, and live well outlet upper, to hopefully rectify the water in the bilge and water mysteriously coming into the live well. You can see the lake film water line is definitely at the bilge hole. What do you think? Is this a viable solution?



17DF77CC-19D2-4D6A-B5CB-BB1CA504F229.jpeg

[ranger372xt]

Anything is worth a try and it's your boat. Be aware in timber or you could break those extenders off otherwise let us know if it works for you.

[Slicefixer]

I had a VERY similar issue.....mine was the Livewell inlet.....very very slow leak..... jacked up the bow......filled the transom up......it was obvious......repaired it.....dry as a bone now.

[BassmanZF6]

If I leave my livewell filling up too long in my tracker 175 it will overflow into the bilge quicker then it goes out. I just turn the bilge pump on to pump it out every once in awhile, an auto bilge switch would work good.

[Pilgrim]

http://www.bbcboards.net/showthread....ighlight=water

Alot of info in Tracker forum

[basscat21]

Check each pump, they may have a crack in the housing. Little water sitting in the pump and so freezing temps, could crack the housing. Tough to see while in the bilge.

[BruddahMidds]

Check each pump, they may have a crack in the housing. Little water sitting in the pump and so freezing temps, could crack the housing. Tough to see while in the bilge.

Since I sometimes have water in the live well as well the bilge I may have two cracked pumps causing the water to get past the check valves?

[BruddahMidds]

Well the snorkels seem to work well for not allowing water in themselves but there was still water getting in somewhere as I pumped it out on a couple of different occasions. I also discovered the live well was almost totally full which I haven’t used in quite some time and I drained it the last time I saw it had water in it. I pumped out all I could and continued with my fishing experience. After running around to a couple of spots I once again had to pump some water out of the bilge as well as the live well had taken on another couple of gallons of water. I have now siliconed the gap created between the upper gunnel section of the boat and lower hull section. I noticed a lot of water being deflected up against the gunnels when I was on plane and lowered the trim to make a turn through a bend in the river. If water is getting in through there then the silicone should resolve that issue but what could be going on with the live well? Was 2017 a bad year for Trackers? Do they normally seal the joint between these two sections? Is there anyone out there that knows how these are put together?

[e-tec]

Water also gets in around the grommet for the cables at the edge of the splash well. It is not a 100% seal.

[fish365]

I had a VERY similar issue.....mine was the Livewell inlet.....very very slow leak..... jacked up the bow......filled the transom up......it was obvious......repaired it.....dry as a bone now.

^^^Check this first. Had the same issue. Live in NE Tennessee and fish all winter. The housing for the livewell pump had spider web cracks in it in mine. Checked mine by leaving tie downs attached and backed down ramp far enough for livewell inlet to be under water. Looked in back battery compartment and could see the water leaking from the housing.

[BruddahMidds]

Here’s a follow up…. I went out on Monday and went through my normal fishing routine and on at least three occasions I turned the bilge pump on and got water out, usually after driving from one spot to the next so sealing the exposed lip under the gunnel apparently had no effect. The good news is there does not seem to be any new water in the live well so that water may have been coming in at the outlet for the live well tank so maybe the snorkel worked there. I’m going to set up my GoPro to monitor the back of the boat while underway at speed and see if there is ny thing to be seen there. I will inspect the live well pump and check for leaks.

[BigDave65]

My 96 Stratos normally gets a minimal amount of water in the bilge. Suddenly I started getting quite a bit. Turned out a hose clamp had broken on an inlet hose and was allowing water in.

[AndrewM-Fishing]

Pull out all the hoses then pull all the through hull fittings. Clean the fittings and through hull ports of any silicone. Reinstall everything with new silicone and clamps.

[BruddahMidds]

Can the fuel tank be removed to ease getting to all the clamps and fittings?

[wareagle24]

Have you checked for cracked welds on the hull? Pretty common on these boats.