Leaking 95' Ranger 491V

[wmitch2]

Check the live well plumbing. Could be a bad hose near the valve that would allow water to enter the bilge when running. Try putting your switch to recirc and see if it changes anything. Could also be the flapper in the valve which would create a siphon when on plane. Also, with the boat on the trailer, You could close the bilge drain, then put the live well on Recirc and then use a hose and fill the livewells with water. you'll need to remove whatever there is so you can see the bottom of the bilge. If the live wells drain put the back of the boat, then you have a bad flapper. If water drains into the bilge, you have a bad hose.

[alli ss]

I have also seen on the rangers with the built in setback the hose between the top and bottom of the splashwell gets old and cracks. When getting on plane it floods it with water. Also the water pressure hose going in there to the sending unit from the motor gets cracked. You can see both of these from the access hatch on top of the splashwell

[ParDeus]

Are you sure it’s not leaking when idling along? A significant amount of water can accumulate in the bilge before the bilge pump will kick on [manual or automatic]. At idle or at rest, this water evenly disperses along the inside bottom of the hull. Several gallons of water won’t reach the level of the bilge pump intake if it is dispersed over the entire length of the boat. But when you get on plane, all of this water rushes to the stern, with the effect of raising the water level to where it *will* pump out with the bilge pump. It’s easy and fairly quick to test whether this scenario is in fact happening. Drain the boat completely before putting it into the water, take your 4 people and idle around, then pull back onto the trailer and pull the drain plug again. Water or no water accumulated?

I've done exactly that. Fished an area with my ol lady and folks, trolling motor only. No water. Pulled the boat, went to a different ramp, ran the big motor for 1/2 mile on plane, bam 2 or 3 gallons. Again, 2 people it never leaks a drop no matter what. I'm a religious "bilge watcher" as I only have a manual bilge pump at the moment. I'm also VERY careful coming down off plane, and I never get water in the splashwell.

I figure it's gotta be something with the livewells. These boats don't have recirc, just fill and empty. Maybe when the boat is lower to the water line, it allows something in the livewell to overflow, leak etc. The back side of the bilge/transom stays dry, the water seems to come from up front. Bow eye is above the water line, no holes in the boat, so... My next step is to block off the livewells, but it may be a while until I have 3 brave souls willing to climb aboard again.

[Highcentered]

Id bet its a rubrail leak and id bet again that its where the top cap meets the transom on the back of the boat somewhere most likely right in the middle under the motor.

Friend of mine nearly sunk his old Hydrasports because of this. They had to rescue him, his wife (then girlfriend), and another guy off an island on Ouachita in the middle of the night (night fishing).

[Matt_Fisherman]

I fixed my leak. I noticed the black sealant under my rub rail was separated from the fiberglass so I put some really good clear sealant on it all the way around the boat. Next time I went out tubing with everyone the leak was gone.

[ParDeus]

Coming back to update this for any future queries... I found my issue as well.

The very top of my livewells have a small cut out/hole where the rear seat base was installed. Very top of the livewells towards the rear. Must've been something Ranger wasn't too worried about, you can tell it's been like that since new. So, with the weight of 4 people, the boat sat low enough to let the water slosh over when accelerating.