Some of you may remember the problems I had getting consistent water pressure. I fixed (rigged!!) it last year, but now want to do it right. I'm trying to figure out the best way to go.

I run a 30' twin-step hull cat with twin HP-500's. It has transom mount pick-ups, but they do not extend far enough down. I can easily install deeper pick-ups in the existing locations, but with the transom pick-ups and nose cones on the lower units, I cannot trim fully down since the drive could hit the pick-up if the steering wheel is turned slightly either way. A bad situation waiting to happen!

That made me wonder about thru hull pick-ups. With a stepped hull cat where would I mount them? How deep do they ussually extend below the bottom?

I've considered low water pick-ups on the drives, but the current nose cones were installed by the previous owner and do not have pick-ups built in. Can they be modified or can they be changed?

Any ideas or experience would be appreciated.

Here's a few pic's of my transom that shows how it is currently set up.

Thanks, Jeff

Pic # 2

Last one!

Steve - Sent you a reply but your box is full. I'll add that to my post!

Thanks again, Jeff

Jeff,

I've heard that thruhulls near the back of the FIRST step work well. The thruhulls I speak of have a pickup that screws up and down to adjust depth of pickup.

Also hear about guys adding pickups to their TABS.

General consensus is that transom mounts on a step boat tend to pick up "lather" instead of water.

Cones on your drives should be removeable with some surface heat and a big hammer, but it depends on where your pickup holes are in your castings as to whether you can get them opened back up properly. Knocking off the old ones and adding new ones with LW pickupw should work, though, by using a crossover hose like the O/B add-on kits do.

Many Eliminators have thru hulls that are 6" to 12" from the notch. Your boat builder should be able to tell you where to put them if you want to go through the hull.

The pickup you have ,have to many sharp bends in them.The best way to do new pickup without spending to much money would be to put new pickups in same location ,but have made with a full ark in the pickups no sharp turns. You will gain water pressure and if your sea strainer has a pop off to let the air out of the strainer your water pressure will go way up. One 90 in line before sea strainer, I seen 6 lbs less water pressure, at gauge in dash. Also pickups right in front of the drives are taking at least 3 to 4 MPH away from your top speed.

Thanks Mike, RB, Rick!

Anyone else have any experience with this?

Jeff

On KWB's Tiger I know that he had his pick ups up high like that and was complaining of low water preasure. They notched the bottom of the hull up a little to make a nice slope into the water pick up and that he said worked very well.

Jon