Thread: You got an Innie or an Outie?

T-handle outside and use WD40 on the threads occasionally because the stainless threads on the brass compression washer will corrode over time ... (or is it brass threads on a stainless compression washer ... ha) ...

Rickie

I have a 96 Tracker and the plug is on the outside. Years ago I pulled to a lake 100 miles away only to find the plastic plug had corroded. I have to drive another 50 miles to Bass Pro to find a brass male and female replacement. My prior boat was a Skeeter and it had a outside plug also.

Thanks guys.

Outside t-handle with a internal stainless steel wire retainer. Walmart has them for $2-3 year round.

Outside. Had a plug that you had to push the handle down. Went night fish in the summer and I was fishing out of the back of the boat, a run about. Well half way through the night got a leg cramp and stood up to stretch and decided to straddle the back seat. Foot got caught on the plug handle and it came loose and pulled out. A Chinese fire drill after that. Couldn't find the plug it rolled under the seat. Finally found the plug after about a foot of water in the boat. Didn't have a bilge pump at that time. Tried to do the, get the boat on plane and empty as much water as I could than reinstall the plug. Hands and knees in a 12 foot runabout and pitch dark and trying to reinstall plug while looking out for the 100 or so other boats. All the while one hand on the tiller and the other getting the plug back in. After that always on the outside.

I've had both inside and outside plugs. The smaller boats had access so we always put them on the inside. Get it up on plane, pull the plug to let water drain out. On my current boat, I couldn't get to the plug opening to insert a plug if I tried.

On my bigger fiberglass boats (25 foot), they had screw in brash plugs. Femail brass recepticle and a male brass plug. The male plug had an "O" ring on it that we changed out every year.

I always carry two plugs with me at all times. Put a little patrolium jelly on the rubber bushing from time to time but that is about it.

Outside

The only plug that can safely be run on the outside of the boat is a T handle. A lever plug is for inside a live well with a plug. In my younger, uneducated days, I ran a lever plug outside and saw nothing wrong with it. A mechanic looked at a problem I had once, saw that plug and asked if I did that all the time, and I said yes. He reached down and took it out, promptly threw it in the trash. Confused, I asked why. He said that under the right conditions, or inattention, the lever might be put in with the lever down and the water pressure could open it while under way. Made sense to me and I've used a T handle outside ever since. They never come loose unless you take em loose. Replace em when i see a dry rot crack.