Is this a livewell?

[gkosel]

I recently purchased a 17 1/2 bowrider that has a what I believe to be livewell in one of the storage areas in the bow of the boat.

There is a single drain that goes out of the boat. I believe that the drain is above the waterline from what I remember from the one time that I have had the boat in the water.

This doesn't really seem to be the way a livewell should be installed, since there doesn't appear to be a hole where fresh water can be pumped into the container from and there isn't an overflow drain.

I suppose that I could plug the hole in the well, and use it as a cooler.

Any ideas/thoughts would be appreciated on this.

Thanks,

 

[gkosel]

Re: Is this a livewell?

Here is the picture of the drain hole.

 

[Boatist]

Re: Is this a livewell?

Maybe it is an ice chest. They have no input hose, no recycle pump and no fill pump. Ice chest just has a drain hose to an above water drain. Some have a plug but most do not.

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: Is this a livewell?

you can use it as one. plug the drain. dip in a couple of buckets of water and use a cooler areator pump (available at walmart) when thru just pull the plug and wash down.

 

[gkosel]

Re: Is this a livewell?

I was kind of thinking that it could be used for either too. I have never had a boat with a livewell, so wasn't really sure how they worked.

Thanks for the answers.

It may be nice having the flexibility to use it as either.

 

[Gone]

Re: Is this a livewell?

Is there a livewell/aerator switch in the dash? If so, turn it on and see if water discharges into the tank. On mine, the water discharge nozzle and overflow vent aren't easily visible as they're molded into the side of the tank.

CD

 

[bomar76]

Re: Is this a livewell?

Older Baja bowriders (like the SunSoprt series) had a cooler space built into to bow...
since you didn't bother to mention what brand of boat it is, I'll take a wild stab at it....any chance it's one of those?

 

[gkosel]

Re: Is this a livewell?

The boat is a 1991 Thundercraft 177LS. It doesn't have a Livewell/Aerator swith on this dash, but it does have two accessory switches and a Courtesy Light Switch. From what I can tell none of these switches are hooked up to anything.

I am not sure how the switch panel is supposed to be wired but, it just appears that the accessory switches are piggybacked into the rest of the panel, but do not actually lead to any component. If anyone can provide any information about how the instrument panels are typically wired I would appreciate it. I realize this is a bit off topic, but thought I would ask anyway.

I have taken the back panel off that provides access to the outside of the tank, and I can see that there isn't any type of pump attached to the single drain to the well.

This being said, I am guessing that the main purpose it is to be used for is a cooler. The only thing is if it was meant to be a cooler, I would have thought that the tank would be insulated. It doesn't appear to be. It is simply a plastic tank with single drain on the bottom of the tank that flows through a hose directly out the hull of the boat.

Thanks for the responses. Any new info would also be appreciated.

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: Is this a livewell?

there are a lot of them like that, just put the beer in and lots of ice.

 

[SWalz]

Re: Is this a livewell?

Our 86ish WellCraft 17 Classic has the same setup with the cooler up front (it drain "internally" through the ski locker and into the bilge).

As for the switch panel, it's not uncommon for boats to come with a few empty switches. A friends pontoon boat had 2 open what we ran wire from the fuse block to power "fog" lights that we installed.