Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

Hey guys, I have a couple of questions that I can only term as stupid questions, but none the less I don't know the answers so I would love to hear from some of you guys with pontoon experience under your belt. The first is on engine break in. I recently purchased a 20' Bennington fishing barge with a 75 hp yamaha 4 stroke. I keep getting conflicting reports on "how" to break it in. I know there's a manual on the boat, but the boats in storeage with the cover on it so right now it's not around. My son said when he bought his 115 yamaha he was told to not go over half throttle for the first 2 hours, then from 2 to ten hours he could run it up to 3/4 throttle, but not to leave it there, to vary the speeds, after ten hours, let her rip... Your thoughts on this... and the other question I have almost embarasses me to ask, but then again, never owned a boat before so here goes.... how to you operate the bilge on the boat? Theres a switch on the dash, and I'm assuming flipping that swith will start to fill the live well, but does it automatically shut off or do you have to watch it and shut it off before it fills too much, then how do you drain it. Sorry for asking such novice questions, but hey, if you don't know, the only way to find out is to ask. Thanks in advance for your help.

Roland

This is from Yamaha's outboard online manuals Link Here: http://www.yamaha-motor.com/outboard/se ... s=outboard But I think break in suggestions remain the same for all at least 4 stroke motors.
As for the live well, most will have a overflow tube and the pump remains running with the excess running out through the tube. When done my tube at least pulls out at the bottom and the live well drains out. Note: when running at speed at least on mine, due to design pump can be water starved and I usually turn it off until I slow down.

NO idea on the engine, I purchased used, so I didn't worry about it.

As for the bilge, mine does not have an overflow, and must be watched. I found this out by hitting the lake around midnight once last year, after having a few beverages

I hit the bilge pump button on accident, trying to find the lights, and never turned it off. After about 5 minutes, I noticed the floor of the toon was soaked, and seemed to be coming from our trash can (livewell). Opened her up, and yep, beer bottles were a floatin. No overflow on mine, just a drain in the bottom to let the water out.

Welcome aboard!!

No question too stupid here

Mine just as drain like gxp's.

it will fill and fill if I didn't watch it.

Your overflow should be a piece of PVC tubing that fits in the drain hole. For keeping fish you put the tube in and water fills to overflow. To drain just pull tube.

holy crap....

that makes a lot of sense....

I haven't actually used it for fishing and was going to get a stopper for the drain, but now I know...

The pvc is the overflow and the stopper more or less.

thanks LR

Check it out

http://www.tackletogo.com/thmaovdrtu15.html

http://www.iboats.com/T-H-Overflow-Drai ... w_id.40117

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayI ... 0346742762

LR rocks

I had no clue...

You know whats coming




















































DUMBASS

Notice how those little guys all look the same way at the same time. How'd you do that LR?

looneytoons wrote:Notice how those little guys all look the same way at the same time. How'd you do that LR?

It's called timing my dear

Hey guys, thanks for the respose. I really appreciate it. I'm going to down load the manual with the link that was provided for the yamaha web site. I've got less than 2 hours on the motor and it's never been over 1/2 throttle so I'm good there.. as for the bilge pump question, I looked in the live well and yes, there is a piece of pvc sticking up. so that leads me to a follow up question. I believe there is a 2 position switch on the console for the bilge.. manual and auto, I'd assume the auto shuts the bilge off at overflow. since the pvc tube is also the drain, do you just grab the tube and pull it straight up or are they normally threaded and have to twist /turn to drain?

Roland

Welcome to the forums/loony bin
One thing you need to remember: I am the only sane one here. These boneheads have been here ever since they installed high speed internet in the psych rehab wards. None of them actually own a boat and most can't even get into the water because of the meds they have to take (they can drown because they'll just swim in circles ).

Repeat is one of the worst. He's never been right ever since his head injury while playing high school football. Some guy named Favre knocked the crap out of him and he's like rainman now...........just repeating "Favre.......Favre"......... Kind of like "Wapner.....Wapner".

Anyway, a livewell and bilge are two different things. A livewell is what I think you're talking about and most boats and toons set up for fishing will have one or two.

A bilge is area is where water that leaks in goes to the bottom of the hull and most of the time you'll have a pump that is either automatic or manual......or both.... will kick on and pump out any accumulated water. Most all v-hull boats have bilge pumps and toons don't, except for maybe tri-toons where they may have a bilge pump in the center toon.

BTW, don't listen to Lakerunner either. He's stoned most of the time. He has medical marijuana permits from six states, so he's a train wreak.

One way is constant on, the other should be timed on and off.

Update on Livewell drain.

LR you are a son of a bitch

I popped the top off the toon viewtopic.php?f=10&t=4474 really gave it a once over and what did I find but a piece of pvc tubing under stern seat. And damn my luck if it didn't fit right in the LIVEWELL DRAIN. It gets even better the top of the tubing is an inch or so from the top of the tank, so I think the water will drain right out before it overflows. Just thought I would let you know in case you were to stupid to figure it out for the year and a half you've had your toon.

if you use it for bait your bait will go out the overflow too I put a cap on the top of the pvc and drilled small holes around the cap works for me