Running,
Those wash down kits are not all that expensive. It all depends on which model you buy and, how it's made and what comes with it. The one you see, the blue coiled up model, came with the tube housing, the door, the coiled hose and, a nozzle. And, from Bennington, it was around $300 or so. Yeah, without a doubt, it was/is a bit pricey. But, if you buy a nut and bolt from Bennington, it's gonna cost you your first born. Here is a fairly similar kit:
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Now, here's the deal. As you can see, the kit(s), when purchased from NORMAL suppliers, Amazon, ebay etc. are not all that expensive. But, if you're not the handy type, installation can get the better side of your wallet if you go to your local Bennington dealer/service center. Not knowing some very important information about how things come apart on my boat, I simply contracted my local dealer to do the install. And, guess what, THEY SCREWED IT UP! When I got out on the water after having it installed, I turned on the pump, opened the wash down door, pulled out the blue coiled hose and, opened the nozzle, only to find that there was ZERO WATER emerging from the nozzle!!!!!!!! CRAP! Now what?
Well, since their work is warrantied, I contacted them and they were more than happy to setup another appointment to remedy the situation. But, here's a side note here. When we decided to have the toons polished, I had to figure out how to remove the side aluminum trim, that mates the bottom of the deck to the toons. There's about 21 bolts that hold that 25' piece to the boat sub frame. They're a bit of a pain to remove but, not insurmountable. I'm used to things being a pain in the ass. So, after all the bolts and nuts are removed, that entire piece of trim is removed so that the person doing the polishing, could go farther up on each toon and not take a chance on damaging the aluminum trim. But, in removing that trim, I found that I could access much of the under-floor plumbing and electrical.
Well, since we had these toons polished, I was not gonna take a chance on one of the boys at the Bennington service area goof any part of that polish job up so, I decided to remove those trim pieces once again, to see if I could figure out what the problem with the no-flow of water to my new wash down was. Well, it didn't take long to find the culprit. Those boys don't remove the trim when they do work. So, what they (the actual guy that did the wash down install) didn't know was, he looped and kinked the hose from the pump to the wash down, TWICE! So, when I found out that was the problem, I disconnected the flexible tubing from the new wash down and, removed much of it, back to where the problem(s) were and, straightened all that flex line out. I secured it with wire-ties to much of the cross members to keep things from etching while the boat is under way and, even while on the road being transported.
Once that was all done, I put the aluminum trim back and, we headed out to the water. Yahhhhhoooooo, I got a ton of water being shot out from both those wash downs. And, I didn't have to take it back down to the boys at Bennington. Yes, I know, they did the work in the first place and they should have been the ones to fix it. I don't disagree with that at all. But, again, I had/have polished toons and, did not want the potential for scratching them to take place, even though they owed me a repair. I got two problems taken care of by doing it myself, in way less time than it would take to take the boat down to them, have them goof around and figure out where the problem(s) were/are, then go pick the boat up.
Now, here's the intricacies of how things work. When our boat was new, it was built with a sink and spigot. To supply that system, there was a very small tank and tiny water pump, just below the sink. Well, when the previous owner wanted a rear wash down installed, he had the local dealer remove that water tank and tiny pump. Then, he had them install a much, much larger pump in the rear of the boat. They then did a water pickup tube down the back of the left toon, that's plumbed from there, to the water pump. Then, they installed and plumbed the rear wash down to that pump and, they ran a line to the existing spigot in the sink. All is well.
But, here we come and, we want a front wash down now. So, they Teed into the line coming off the output side of the pump and, ran a whole new line, under the deck but, not visible from the bottom of the boat, to the front section where, they went up through the deck, right next the front left seat. There, they installed the wash down and, hooked up the plumbing to it. I gotta say, without a doubt, that wash down is invaluable when it comes to keeping all that beach crap OUT OF THE BOAT.
Scott
. And since this is probably not a common option on used boats I'll get to order a new one. If I tell her about sunedog's foot bath tub she'll get cheap and won't let me buy a new boat.
www.worx.com
