PSG-1
Seaman
- Joined
- Jul 17, 2011
- Messages
- 50
Re: Jet Jon... Good Idea? or Blasphemy?
I run a Yamaha XL1200 pump in my boat, and if you've watched my videos, you can see the conditions I operate in....oyster rocks, mud, underwater vegetation, sand, etc. As long as you're on plane when you cross shallow water, you won't pick up anything except what's on the top 2 inches of the water.
I only need about 1- 1 1/2 feet of water to take off, and only need a distance of about 50 feet to do it.
As long as I don't try to idle around in shallow water, particularly in neutral or reverse (really bad for churning bottom) my engine never ingests junk. But just in case it did, I have an inline water strainer between the pump and the engine, as well as a water pressure gauge at the console, I can instantly see a drop in cooling system pressure and fix the problem BEFORE an overheat occurs.
And to deal with the problem of weeds clogging the intake grate.....that issue has been taken care of, too....by fabricating a swing-down grate made from stainless flat bar, it uses a push-pull cable to lower the grate for clearing weeds.
Will the XL1200 pump ingest river gravel? No. Not without chewing the impeller to pieces.
That's a job for an Aqua Jet pump, and those are usually turned by much larger engines, at a bare minimum, you'd need something like the FXHO/MR-1 engine I'm running in my boat.
But again, if you know how to run the boat, and you don't try to dredge with it, stay on plane when crossing shoals, and only back it down to an idle when you're over water at least 1-2 feet deep, you'll never have any problems.
I run a Yamaha XL1200 pump in my boat, and if you've watched my videos, you can see the conditions I operate in....oyster rocks, mud, underwater vegetation, sand, etc. As long as you're on plane when you cross shallow water, you won't pick up anything except what's on the top 2 inches of the water.
I only need about 1- 1 1/2 feet of water to take off, and only need a distance of about 50 feet to do it.
As long as I don't try to idle around in shallow water, particularly in neutral or reverse (really bad for churning bottom) my engine never ingests junk. But just in case it did, I have an inline water strainer between the pump and the engine, as well as a water pressure gauge at the console, I can instantly see a drop in cooling system pressure and fix the problem BEFORE an overheat occurs.
And to deal with the problem of weeds clogging the intake grate.....that issue has been taken care of, too....by fabricating a swing-down grate made from stainless flat bar, it uses a push-pull cable to lower the grate for clearing weeds.
Will the XL1200 pump ingest river gravel? No. Not without chewing the impeller to pieces.
That's a job for an Aqua Jet pump, and those are usually turned by much larger engines, at a bare minimum, you'd need something like the FXHO/MR-1 engine I'm running in my boat.
But again, if you know how to run the boat, and you don't try to dredge with it, stay on plane when crossing shoals, and only back it down to an idle when you're over water at least 1-2 feet deep, you'll never have any problems.