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.

Sounds like it had 2 pumps at one time. The Stratos I had was configured that way. Had a pump for each livewell.

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Originally Posted by DockShootinJack

Sounds like it had 2 pumps at one time. The Stratos I had was configured that way. Had a pump for each livewell.

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Did it have two separate drains as well and did the pumps share a the through transom intake or did they each have their own?

It had seperate intakes and separate overflows.
What makes me say two pumps is the seperate switching. I had 2 switches that were auto off manual switches

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Originally Posted by DockShootinJack

It had seperate intakes and separate overflows.
What makes me say two pumps is the seperate switching. I had 2 switches that were auto off manual switches

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I'll have to do some digging into the switches and where they lead to. On top of the livewell 1 & 2 switches it has another switch which controls manual and auto function too.

In that case I would think that it switch on the console will be livewell 1, both, or livewell 2. .



Livewells tend to be the thing that gets butchered on boats. My current boat has the stand pipe configuration on the livewell. First trip out I caught a fish threw it in the livewell and turned it on. About 20 minutes later I noticed the back if the boat was low. I flipped the bilge pump on and the livewell off. Side note the bilge pump discharge line was full of dirt dauber nest and wouldn't punp out until cleared. Back to the livewell part that created the mess. Previous owner had replaced the pump with a higher flow rate pump. Bigger is better right. The new pump producted more water than the stand pipe could remove. Overflowing the livewell and flooding the bilge of the boat. I had to place a vavle in the line to throttle the pump output to what the drain pipe would handle.

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Originally Posted by DockShootinJack

In that case I would think that it switch on the console will be livewell 1, both, or livewell 2. .



Livewells tend to be the thing that gets butchered on boats. My current boat has the stand pipe configuration on the livewell. First trip out I caught a fish threw it in the livewell and turned it on. About 20 minutes later I noticed the back if the boat was low. I flipped the bilge pump on and the livewell off. Side note the bilge pump discharge line was full of dirt dauber nest and wouldn't punp out until cleared. Back to the livewell part that created the mess. Previous owner had replaced the pump with a higher flow rate pump. Bigger is better right. The new pump producted more water than the stand pipe could remove. Overflowing the livewell and flooding the bilge of the boat. I had to place a vavle in the line to throttle the pump output to what the drain pipe would handle.

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Haha. I had the exact same problem in my last boat but my bilge didnt work at all. Kinda stupid looking back that I didnt just replace it for $30 but I would pull the plug and run up on plane if I ever got water in it.

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Originally Posted by DockShootinJack

In that case I would think that it switch on the console will be livewell 1, both, or livewell 2. .



Livewells tend to be the thing that gets butchered on boats. My current boat has the stand pipe configuration on the livewell. First trip out I caught a fish threw it in the livewell and turned it on. About 20 minutes later I noticed the back if the boat was low. I flipped the bilge pump on and the livewell off. Side note the bilge pump discharge line was full of dirt dauber nest and wouldn't punp out until cleared. Back to the livewell part that created the mess. Previous owner had replaced the pump with a higher flow rate pump. Bigger is better right. The new pump producted more water than the stand pipe could remove. Overflowing the livewell and flooding the bilge of the boat. I had to place a vavle in the line to throttle the pump output to what the drain pipe would handle.

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Haha. I had the exact same problem in my last boat but my bilge didnt work at all. Kinda stupid looking back that I didnt just replace it for $30 but I would pull the plug and run up on plane if I ever got water in it.

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Originally Posted by scout-j-m

Haha. I had the exact same problem in my last boat but my bilge didnt work at all. Kinda stupid looking back that I didnt just replace it for $30 but I would pull the plug and run up on plane if I ever got water in it.

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Hard to pull the plug on most boats these days

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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.

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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.

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Originally Posted by Atimm693

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.

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Thanks for the reply.

I think sometime this week we are going to dive into the electrical and try to trace all the wiring in the bilge area to see what is what at the console and then remove look at the livewell plumbing under the deck. Luckily on this boat there is an access panel behind the middle bench seat that gives easy access to the plumbing that would otherwise be blocked off by the fuel tank.

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Originally Posted by scout-j-m

Thanks for the reply.

I think sometime this week we are going to dive into the electrical and try to trace all the wiring in the bilge area to see what is what at the console and then remove look at the livewell plumbing under the deck. Luckily on this boat there is an access panel behind the middle bench seat that gives easy access to the plumbing that would otherwise be blocked off by the fuel tank.

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That is a good feature

One other random/unrelated question... On my last boat with a built in fuel tank I was able to somewhat see through the poly tank to see the fuel level. It both helped me fill it correctly and estimate the oil to add. This tank is 25 gallons and someone had previously used a sharpie to mark lines on it every 6 gallons. I added a premixed 5 gal jug of gas to the tank and the gauge moved slightly less than 1/4 of a tank so it seem to be working ok I guess but I've never liked relying on those. Do people usually just rely on the gauge to estimate how much gas it will take, add the oil and fill until the pump kicks off? I guess once you fill it up a handful of times, you get familiar with estimating what the fill capacity is in relation to the gauge reading, just wasn't sure. My first impression was the tank needs one of those external pieces of clear tubing that shows the fuel level like what we use on metal water tanks to show the fill level lol.

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Originally Posted by scout-j-m

One other random/unrelated question... On my last boat with a built in fuel tank I was able to somewhat see through the poly tank to see the fuel level. It both helped me fill it correctly and estimate the oil to add. This tank is 25 gallons and someone had previously used a sharpie to mark lines on it every 6 gallons. I added a premixed 5 gal jug of gas to the tank and the gauge moved slightly less than 1/4 of a tank so it seem to be working ok I guess but I've never liked relying on those. Do people usually just rely on the gauge to estimate how much gas it will take, add the oil and fill until the pump kicks off? I guess once you fill it up a handful of times, you get familiar with estimating what the fill capacity is in relation to the gauge reading, just wasn't sure. My first impression was the tank needs one of those external pieces of clear tubing that shows the fuel level like what we use on metal water tanks to show the fill level lol.

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I always used the gas pump and one of these bottles to measure oil when I used to premix. Fill till the pump kicks off, note how much gas it took, measure the right amount of oil, and dump it in. I don't think it makes a whole lot of difference whether you put the oil in first or last. I did it this way for years, gas and oil mix readily.

Verify your identity

I usually haul gas home to put in the boat. I don't take it to the station had someone run into the motor years ago. That was enough to break me

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Originally Posted by DockShootinJack

I usually haul gas home to put in the boat. I don't take it to the station had someone run into the motor years ago. That was enough to break me

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Ouch! I'm getting to the point where I may make a fuel tank out of an old 55 gallon fuel drum to keep at home and use for refueling things like this. Getting tired of messing with jugs at home between my mower, atv, utv, boats, and chainsaws. At the moment dont have a great place for it as I'd prefer not to keep it in my shop but hopefully in next year or 2 going to build a large 3 sided pole barn for hay and could weld a rack for it to set it on in there.

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Originally Posted by Atimm693

I always used the gas pump and one of these bottles to measure oil when I used to premix. Fill till the pump kicks off, note how much gas it took, measure the right amount of oil, and dump it in. I don't think it makes a whole lot of difference whether you put the oil in first or last. I did it this way for years, gas and oil mix readily.

Verify your identity

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I would always estimate the required gas using the gauge, add that amount of oil, and then after it kicked off I would fill up the oil measuring container with what else was needed and add a few oz of gas from the pump and add that. The gas in the oil bottle helped clean it out and I like to think it helped it mix better in the tank (likely false though lol).

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Originally Posted by scout-j-m

Ouch! I'm getting to the point where I may make a fuel tank out of an old 55 gallon fuel drum to keep at home and use for refueling things like this. Getting tired of messing with jugs at home between my mower, atv, utv, boats, and chainsaws. At the moment dont have a great place for it as I'd prefer not to keep it in my shop but hopefully in next year or 2 going to build a large 3 sided pole barn for hay and could weld a rack for it to set it on in there.

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For no more than I use in the weed eaters, blower, and chainsaws I buy the gallons of true fuel. One last me all year and is supposed to be shelf stable for a couple of years.

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Originally Posted by DockShootinJack

For no more than I use in the weed eaters, blower, and chainsaws I buy the gallons of true fuel. One last me all year and is supposed to be shelf stable for a couple of years.

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I could get away with that for weedeater and blower too. Probably only use 2 gal of gas in both over the course of the year....but I roll through the fuel on the chainsaw lol.

Only when I have a tree fall. I try to only crank the saws to let them run

I used to keep a gallon of oil and a glass measuring cup. If I added 7 gallons it would be 7 times 4oz or almost 2 cups

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