Hello all,

I own a new to me 03 procraft super pro 200, and I have a couple of things I can't quite figure out... hoping someone can help me.

1) The live wells fill with lake water even if I don't turn them on. I have noticed a manual lever down by my right foot that says FILL and EMPTY. If I put it on EMPTY, they only get a little water. If I leave it on fill, they fill up. But I was originally thinking you would have to turn on the live well pumps for this??

2) Every 10 minutes or so, regardless of the lever position, a pump will turn on and pump water out the right side of the boat. It will pump out for 10 to 20 seconds. Trying to identify what and why this water is being pumped out.

3) I end up with some water in the back of the boat where the batteries are. Not a ton, and it's not full, just some water along the back edge, sometimes up to 1/16 of inch deep right along the very back wall of the transom.

Any thoughts? I can't find a manual for this boat anywhere online, so I'm at a loss here.

Also, none of the gauges work. It does have a mercury smartcraft monitor, but I thought at least the fuel gauge should work.

Pump is likely auto bilge pump not related to live wells...... Most internal leaks can be traced to live well plumbing

So here's what I find interesting. If I turn on the bilge pump manually, the pumping "noise" is completely different. Also can't figure out why my livewells are filling at all when I have not asked them to

Most likely you have bad livewell valve it could be busted as well letting water in boat and livewell. And the bilge pump it could possibly have 2 I have a manual and another automatic one with built in float switch.

that's a very interesting point, I bet that's probably exactly what's going on. Seems like that stuff would be a real PIA to get to and fix.

it seems to me that it would be a very good idea for me to take the boat somewhere and have all of that checked, including both bilge pumps to make sure they are in working order. Maybe just go ahead and put in brand new ones as a preventative. Maybe while that's all open they could epoxy my transducer down there.

It appears to me that to even reach all that stuff on the bilge pump side that you would have to take out all of the batteries, oil reservoir to even get to it.

On the livewell side, I have no idea how you would even reach that stuff, the livewells are right behind the seats, but just in front of the fuel tank.

On mine, there is a plate that comes out of the battery compartment. You can access all the pumps and live well plumbing from there. Might be worth at least looking before you start paying labor. Sounds like you have a small leak, when it gets deep enough, the auto pump float kicks on. I have two valves for live wells, one switches the pump,from recirculate to pump,out, the other opens and closes the drain. Good luck.

on mine I put in on fill. then on turn the aerator to fill then switch to recirculate. mine has a timer on mine. I don't have a pump out. water pumping out check your live well pumps they might have leaks. filling the bottom of boat then the bilge pump come on if you have automatic one.

Ok so here's another question.

The plate mentioned to access the pumps and plumbing.. are you speaking of the thin hinged plate in front of the batteries almost near the fuel tank, or is there another plate under the batteries?

My boat is a Sprint, so probably not exactly like yours, but I bet there is access to what you are looking for, at least enough to see if there is obvious leakage. You can just fill the live well in the driveway with a garden hose and see what happens. My plate has screws, no hinges.

Update.

Filled the livewells with a garden hose, they lost about an inch of water of 3 hours, and all of it directly out of the drain hole in the back. That's not enough water to equal what I was experiencing.

So I plugged the live well drain with a thumb over plug, and went back to the lake.

My live wells stayed perfectly dry but water still in the boat. I'm talking like a gallon every 10 minutes.

My next suspect is the two live well intake tubes or the bulkhead fittings to them. So I'm going to remove the screens and plug those too. Will see what happens next. If water still enters, it has to either be a bulkhead fitting, a hole that's leaking or possibly the plug itself.

The last time I was on the lake the wind was like nil, and it was perfectly quiet. I could HEAR water "trickling" from somewhere. This sort of tells me the water is dripping down, not filling up. So if the plug where the problem, I would imagine your would not hear water trickling, it would fill from the bottom up. It's just gotta be some livewell plumbing issue. Since I don't use them anyway, I have no issue plugging them.

Also figured out why i don't have access to the bilge area.

originally my boat came with 3 batteries. previous owner installed a 36 volt trolling motor, adding a battery. The installer moved the oil reservoir right on top of the access plate, dead center on the transom.

I have an 05 super pro. Pro rafts are known for water coming over the back when slowin down.

UPDATE: Figured out when getting a new trailer built, that someone before me had screwed a screw through the bottom of the hull and into the bunk of the old trailer. Patched, no more leaking water.

Now you just have to worry about saturated foam.