1987 Cheetah 196 Fish and Ski Rebuild Project and Pictures

[GT1000000]

Re: 1987 Cheetah 196 Fish and Ski Rebuild Project and Pictures

Thanks for the info, swire...that really clears up a lot...

I now understand the whole deal...especially the recovery costs...wow...

Best regards,
GT1M

 

[glnbnz]

Re: 1987 Cheetah 196 Fish and Ski Rebuild Project and Pictures

So sorry to hear and see about this. I am glad that your floatation worked.


Hope things get better and you are back out on the water soon!!

 

[Greg Mrozinski]

Re: 1987 Cheetah 196 Fish and Ski Rebuild Project and Pictures

Swire,

What a bummer. I am glad you didn't loose the boat and that everyone is safe and sound. Hopefully the clean up itn't too bad either. Take care.

 

[swire]

Re: 1987 Cheetah 196 Fish and Ski Rebuild Project and Pictures

I'm still working on the updated bilge system. I'm taking my time and making sure I do everything right. I have the pumps in place, two new water outlets installed, all the hoses ran and clamped, and half the wiring is done.

The system has two 500 gph Rule pumps hooked up together to an automatic float switch. There is also a manual switch on the helm for the pumps. Connected to the float switch is also an LED light that will be mounted on the helm control panel. The LED light will give me a visual indication of when the bilge runs and for how long. That will indicate if the boat is taking on more water than usual. They make bilge pump counters but since my boat typically doesn't stay on the water I don't need that level of detail. Even if boat pumps fail the LED light will be triggered and will alert me that the automatic float switch is triggered.

I have installed a secondary system as well. This one is a 2,000 gph Rule pump connected to a separate automatic float switch and wired on a completely separate circuit. This pump also has a manual switch at the helm. In addition to that I have wired in a 108 db alarm to the automatic float switch. If the boat some how ends up with 6 inches of water in it the secondary float switch will trigger and the alarm will make it very obvious that something is very wrong.

I'm also rewiring the float switches. Initially I had the float switch wired into my main fuse panel. However, if the master switch ever got turned off or the main breaker for the master fuse box tripped the pumps would not run. So the automatic float switches for the two pump circuits are getting rewired with inline fuses and connected straight to the battery.

Reading on the pumps the 500 gph pumps will really operate as 350 gph pumps given the 2 1/2 feet of bilge hose and 16 inch rise in the hose. That gives me 700 gph which will easily take care of any normal water that gets in the boat. However, if I forget the plug the boat will gain water at the rate of 1164 gph to 1668 gph as it sinks. The twin 500s will not be able to keep up with this but once the 2,000 gph kicks in the system should be able to handle it. I plan on testing this out for real once I get the wiring finished.

I will post pictures of the update bilge system once I am done.

 

[swire]

Re: 1987 Cheetah 196 Fish and Ski Rebuild Project and Pictures

I have my updated bilge system in place and the gas tank put back in place. The new system is exactly what I described. It consists of 2 separate circuits. The primary bilge system uses a Rule Super Switch automatic float switch which is connected to two 500gph Rule bilge pumps. The circuit is also connected to an LED light that I wired into the helm. When the float switch is active the light on the helm will turn on. This will give me a visual indication of the switch being tripped. The second circuit also uses a Rule Super Switch float switch connected to a 2,000gph pump sitting up out of the bilge area. I also have a 108db two tone alarm connected to that float switch. It isn't too loud but loud enough to command attention. Both circuits also have separate manual switches at the helm.

I ran through my test of pulling the plug and see if the pumps could keep up. As expected the twin 500gph pumps made a great effort but were not enough to keep up with the rising water. If I replaced the 500gph pumps with the 800gph pumps it would be very close. At this point I have no plans on making that upgrade. With the twin pumps running it took about 5 minutes for the water level to get 6 inches deep and trigger the secondary system. When that float switch was tripped the alarm sounded and the large pump kicked out a massive amount of water. Once the switch turned off it took about a minute and a half for it to be triggered again. So even if I forget to put the plug in my boat will stay afloat, at least until the batteries run out. The alarm and 3 streams of water shooting out the back should be enough to get the attention of anyone near the boat.

Here is a picture of the bilge system. I have video of it in action but need to process it first. I can also pull some pictures off of the video. That will have to happen later.

 

[swire]

Re: 1987 Cheetah 196 Fish and Ski Rebuild Project and Pictures

Well the weather is starting to warm up here and I'm getting my boat back out. I've had two additional problems due to the sinking in September. The LED lights around my boat partially shorted out. I lost the red color all the way around and one of the soldered connections must have apart/corroded and the lights only turned on across the back of the boat on the starboard side. So I get to replace the LED lights. The worst part is soldering all the tiny wires. The other problem is the aerator pump for my bait tank failed. That involves pulling out my gas tank again to get to the pump.

One other issue has to do with the shop that I used to fabricate the ladder on the back of the boat. I asked him if he sealed up all screw holes and he claimed he did. Last time I had the boat out I noticed the new bilge system kicking on often. So I checked and sure enough there is a constant stream of water coming in through the ladder screws. That is the last time I use that shop for anything.

March in Kentucky usually goes from cold, to sunny and 60s, to cold. You never know what you will get. Last weekend it was mid-60s. Despite someone stealing the gas out of my boat and the aerator pump failing killing most of my bait, I still made a good trip out of it.

 

[swire]

Re: 1987 Cheetah 196 Fish and Ski Rebuild Project and Pictures

Just an update for anyone interested. I have finally had 2 trips to the lake where I had no residual problems from the boat becoming partially submerged. Most the problems results from wire connections that were powered while under water. My advice for anyone that experiences that type of situation is to replace all connectors and splices because they will eventually fail.

The other month I was getting ready to put out right before dark. I had the boat launched, top up, gear stowed, and then decided to put my lights in even though there probably 30 minutes of day light left. My anchor light would not come one. I checked wiring, bulbs, and switches but found no problems. As a last resort I got a screw driver and removed the entire anchor light socket. When I did I found one of the wires dangling. The anchor light was on when the boat was submerged and that was enough to corrode a factory installed wire in the socket.

The boat is pretty much back to pre-submersion condition now. I still have additional work to do on the boat such as securing the bow cushions and I want to rewire some of the connections to my main battery so that I don't have 10 different wires to connect every time I remove the battery. The bait tank still needs a bit of work. I added a valve in the re-circulation hose so that I could re-circulate or empty the bait tank. The cable control for that needs to be connected.

I'm hoping for a nice long fall where I can get out do some more striper fishing.

 

[GT1000000]

Re: 1987 Cheetah 196 Fish and Ski Rebuild Project and Pictures

Very glad to hear the submersion problems are slowly getting taken care and things are getting back to normal...
The 2000GPH pump looks like a great back-up idea.
I had missed the pics of the nice fish you caught, sweet!
Hope to see some more "having fun and fishing" pics next time...
Best regards,
Gus