Bilge Pump

[limbhook]

I have never had to use the bilge pump on my boat, is there a way to check/test the pump to know if it does indeed work. The pump was new with the rig when i bought it in 2000.

[Crappiekiller3]

There's a couple ways of checking it.
I open my rear compartment and have a friend hit the switch
if you hear it, it's probably working.
The other way is to fill yourbilge with water and check it.
They are pretty foolproof acually, although I did wear one out.
I guess I'm not happy unless I'm fishing in 3ft breakers(ha ha).

[robbor]

It depends if you have a float switch, normal bilge or automatic bilge. If you have a normal bilge and float switch you will have to make sure your bilge is on and then lift the float manually. If you have an auto bilge it will automatically trip on every 5 min to check and see if their is a load to keep pumping. I would never intentionally fill my boat with water to test, but i get way to much water in it so i know it works:p. For the first time ever i pulled the drain plug on my friends boat while we were running to see if it really would suck water out and it did, he forgot to put the drain plug in when we launched. I bought an old riveted boat and periodically would pop a rivet and that bilge really would come in handy. You know you got a leak when hear the water full up to the bottom of your floor on a v hull, on the bright side it did help us to troll slower.

[limbhook]

Thanks for the info i think i will flip the switch on the pump and listen to see if i hear it running, i don't think i want to fill my bilge up. I am kinda strange when it comes to getting water in my boat, even if it is rain water.

Had a aluminum boat several years ago and got caught out in a rain storm with lighting and fog and rain, my boat got pretty full of water and all i had to bail it out was a small can, then i got hung up on a stump and took me several minutes to get off that thing, the whole ordeal kinda wigged me out. Since then i have been a bit gun shy about water getting in the boat.