MC Prostar 205V custom ballast install

[Okie Boarder]

Going for the full squirt out the side look?

[JRW160]

Just curious as to how you reinforced your engine wall dividers. I'm seriously considering replacing the stock hard tanks with 750s.

[P hat in Cincy]

OB...yep! Visual feedback when they are empty vs. sound and having to check. Simers will do a better job of completely emptying, but aerators will be less power draw and not worries if left on with no water running thru them.

[P hat in Cincy]

As mentioned in a previous post, I decided to add aerator pumps to empty all the bags. I bought 5 Johnson 1000gph pumps. 1 for each rear bag (2), 1 for the center, and 2 for each leg of the integrated bow sac.

The biggest PITA was running the new wiring and hooking it up to the switches (tight working space). Everything else was pretty much grunt work.

A couple things I needed to do:
1) Put check valves on both empty lines of the integrated bow sac to get the best drainage.
2) Order a new center Fly High sac to get a drain port at the bottom of the bag.
3) (Unrelated to this mod) Remove the quick disconnect fittings from the rear bags as I was getting quite a bit of leakage.

Pros of the system:
1) Simers no longer need to be reversed to fill and drain since they are fill only.
2) Everything drains out the sides and gives visual indicators of sacs being empty.
3) Less power draw when all pumps are running at the same time.
4) Less concern of leaving pumps running and burning out.

Cons of MY (current) system:
1) Install isn't the cleanest (right now).
2) Lost automatic air venting on center (easy manual venting) and rear sacs (not really an issue as normally never completely full). With that said, since the aerators use the original vent lines, overfilling should still push thru the aerator pumps and out the sides.
3) Aerators won't suck the sacs dry like impeller pumps.

Tricks of the system:
1) Since aerators won't suck the bags dry like impellar pumps. I finish emptying as the boat is loading on the trailer and being pulled up the ramp.
2) Garden hose rubber o-rings can be stretched over the pumps and line connections to get a better seal against leakage (Teflon tape is also suggested).

Here are some (bad) pictures:

[P hat in Cincy]

Finishing up with some pix. Again, sorry for picture quality.

[P hat in Cincy]

Water tested the system yesterday and everything worked great! All 4 empty pumps can run at the same time with very little draw on the sytem. No need to have the boat running...like the Simers.

All last year I had some water in my bilge. I traced it to the rear bags, specifically the quick-connect fittings. I switched them out using hard connections and it took care of the problem.

This project is done!

[P hat in Cincy]

FYI...selling the boat in this thread. The add can be found in the classified section.

End of an era...