Thread: Dual Livewell Setup on a ProCraft Fish/Ski

My dad just bought a 1992 Procraft 180V fish and ski boat. It has dual livewells in the aft deck, one on each side. The transom has a screened livewell pump fill/ intake, livewell drain, plug hole and livewell overflow drain which all look factory and I don't see where any additional fittings may have been. The livewell fill pump is currently not wired up but it appears it feed the spray bar for both livewells. The spray bars have 1/4 turn valves on them to open/close them. The livewll drains are plumbed together and lead to the through transom drain which has a basic mechanical open/close valve controlled near the motor controls. The overflow is also plumbed together. The switch panel on the console has a switch which has "Livewell 1" in the up position and "livewell 2" down and middle position of off I guess. There is also a similar livewell switch on the panel at the bow by the bow trim switch. I'm not sure how well that explains it all but that's about all I know about it after some investigating. I am not familiar at all with livewell systems in boats. I've only ever had the basic single livewells which used a removable standpipe as the over flow/drain and didnt have a recirculate option....so I apologize for my ignorance here.

I can tell that the mechanical drain on this boat needs replaced as it leaks in the closed position. May change out the fill pump as well just to be safe. This boat isn't going to be used much for fishing so we aren't real concerned about getting it set up all fancy or to spend too much on it. The livewell will likely only see crappie, bluegill, and white bass meaning really only one livewell is probably necessary 90% of the time. For this setup, would we simply turn off the spray bar of the livewell we dont plan on using and put a plug in the drain? Right now you can fill up one with a hose and it fills the other through the drain but I wasnt sure if there is typically a check valve on each separate drain in order to keep that from happening. Since we will probably be replacing the mechanical drain with a new Flow-rite one I would like to replace with the 3 position one which has a 3rd barb on it for the livewell pump which allows the fill pump to double as a recirculating pump. I also saw where there is a model that will mix 50/50 fresh water with recirculated water when off plane and will automatically do recirculate only on plane. Really the system components I can see make sense to me and seems fairly straightforward, its the switches I don't really understand I guess.

Originally Posted by scout-j-m

My dad just bought a 1992 Procraft 180V fish and ski boat. It has dual livewells in the aft deck, one on each side. The transom has a screened livewell pump fill/ intake, livewell drain, plug hole and livewell overflow drain which all look factory and I don't see where any additional fittings may have been. The livewell fill pump is currently not wired up but it appears it feed the spray bar for both livewells. The spray bars have 1/4 turn valves on them to open/close them. The livewll drains are plumbed together and lead to the through transom drain which has a basic mechanical open/close valve controlled near the motor controls. The overflow is also plumbed together. The switch panel on the console has a switch which has "Livewell 1" in the up position and "livewell 2" down and middle position of off I guess. There is also a similar livewell switch on the panel at the bow by the bow trim switch. I'm not sure how well that explains it all but that's about all I know about it after some investigating. I am not familiar at all with livewell systems in boats. I've only ever had the basic single livewells which used a removable standpipe as the over flow/drain and didnt have a recirculate option....so I apologize for my ignorance here.

I can tell that the mechanical drain on this boat needs replaced as it leaks in the closed position. May change out the fill pump as well just to be safe. This boat isn't going to be used much for fishing so we aren't real concerned about getting it set up all fancy or to spend too much on it. The livewell will likely only see crappie, bluegill, and white bass meaning really only one livewell is probably necessary 90% of the time. For this setup, would we simply turn off the spray bar of the livewell we dont plan on using and put a plug in the drain? Right now you can fill up one with a hose and it fills the other through the drain but I wasnt sure if there is typically a check valve on each separate drain in order to keep that from happening. Since we will probably be replacing the mechanical drain with a new Flow-rite one I would like to replace with the 3 position one which has a 3rd barb on it for the livewell pump which allows the fill pump to double as a recirculating pump. I also saw where there is a model that will mix 50/50 fresh water with recirculated water when off plane and will automatically do recirculate only on plane. Really the system components I can see make sense to me and seems fairly straightforward, its the switches I don't really understand I guess.

I would venture to guess that position 1 on that switch is constant, and the other is (or was) a timed mode where the pump will cycle automatically.

If there is not an extra hole in the transom or either of the two livewells, there was no second pump. They fill together and drain together unless you've got the valves arranged otherwise.

Some boats do have a recirculate option, or a livewell pump out feature, but that doesn't sound like your situation.