Live well question.

[bigstick56]

I recently bought a new Alumacraft dominator, 175 sport. Absolutly love the boat, layout, everything...awesome boat. I have however found one little pet peeve that I was considering doing something about, There are 2 live wells one in the front and one in the back, they both run on the same pump and timer. I was wondering if it is possible / practicle to run the live wells seperatly so I could utilize the large front live well as dry storage when not holding fish. I would like to be able to run just the front or just the back, not both at pthe same time as it is set up now. How would one go about doing this? Thanks for any responses.

[RebelSS]

Sure. An inline toggle switch... front, back , off installed between the two on the hot wires. Make sure to properly ground it. That's what I did on mine. (Different boat)

[Moose-Hunter]

Don't you have valves that close off the water flow to each individual live well?

This thread is quite relevant to my interests.

[bigstick56]

Ok, here is my situation again. Might not have exactly said what I wanted to. I have a switch on my dash, I press it up and it manually fills both livewells at the same time. I press it down it puts both livewell on a timer at the same time. There is only 1 pump for bpoth live wells. Is there some way of adding a pump and another switch so I would be able to controll each one seperatly? Thanks

[TooTallTom]

If both livewells are filled from the same pump, simply adding a switch to the electrical system won't help you out any. You'll have to change the water flow manually with a water-shutoff valve somewhere between the pump and each individual livewell, as one of the other responders mentioned.

It might be more convenient (from a use standpoint) to add another pump with its own circuit/ switch/ timer, and plumb the wells separately. Obviously, this is a pretty big hassle, but you'd have a little redundancy, which is nice if you have to have at least one livewell.

[Moose-Hunter]

Ok, here is my situation again. Might not have exactly said what I wanted to. I have a switch on my dash, I press it up and it manually fills both livewells at the same time. I press it down it puts both livewell on a timer at the same time. There is only 1 pump for bpoth live wells. Is there some way of adding a pump and another switch so I would be able to controll each one seperatly? Thanks

You betcha!! Got it now. You want to have each live well on it's own circuit.

Sounds like you're going to need a plumbing and wiring diagram for your boat from the fine folks in St. Peter. They're get folks to work with on "projects" like this...

Another thing to think about (As Tom touched on) is plumbing. Somewhere there is a "Y" connection in the intake tubing (post pump) for your livewells. Running two pumps (one for each well) is going to require additional/modification to these lines as well as the addition pump and extra wiring.

There could be a way to just alter the water flow from your single pump. Such as a 3 way directional valve. This way you could use the one pump but select from bow, stern or both wells for manual and timed filling...

Just thinking out loud I guess...

[SpecialK]

Dan nailed it. You need to move "Y" junction in front (to the inlet side) of the original pump and then add a pump to the other line that goes to the front (or rear) livewell. Add another switch and label it all up.

Sounds easy but I don't know what it looks like under your floor

[TooTallTom]

Something else that might work is just installing two on/off valves, one inside each livewell, just before the water discharge. Then you'd open up the livewell and either turn the valve on or off based on whether you wanted water in that livewell.

Obviously, you're going to fill both sets of pipes with water in this scenario, which might present a problem to the pump motor. I have no idea if it actually will, I'm just mentioning it as a possibility.

[rmb]

you can just close off the spray bar in either well when you don't want to to fill that well with water. to stop the flow in either spray bar just turn the knob on the end of the bar. it's not a switch in the dash but it takes just a couple of seconds to do. the only real reason to add additional plumbing and switches would be if you wanted the two wells to be on seperate timers.

other wise open the spray bar in the well you want to fill and leave the other closed. we do it all the time in our trophy and use the front well as a cooler.

[bigstick56]

Thanks alot, I knew there was some kind of easy way around this, I guess I never really looked at the spray bar in the live well. Thanks alot...

[PTocko]

Yep, just close the spray bar. Very easy and works. I often use my front live well as a cooler. Good Luck, Paul