Sea Strainer Vyper or Avenger
 

Has anyone experience with installing sea strainers on either a vyper or avenger ?

Factory did mine maybe you can see it tucked up in there.

sea strainers
 

Factory did mine also. They are located at each corner tucked up close to the bulk head at the front of the motors. Under the trim pumps but mounted close to the sides of the boat. Not real easy to get to. They are Livorsi units.

Looks these are on the Avenger correct ? Mine will be on my Vyper and looks like i can mount them on the floor of the bilge in front of the motors. Hopefully this will help with all the sand in our area and not wide out impellors as fast.

The pic is from a Vyper - 2002.

This is stbd side. Look close, strainer is under trim pumps on the ledge, but attached to bulkhead.

sea strainers
 

I have seem them mounted to the side of the stringer that runs between the motors, just in fromt of the motors.

Thats what i had figured to be the best location as well for access. Seems like we have a bunch of much in the water where i put in in lake erie and jope this will help the pump's a bit.

How long does it take to get to those if they need cleaning out from sucking up some sea weed etc?

sea strainer
 

Mine take about an hour as the thumb screws on the back side of the lid on the top of the Livorsi units are difficult to reach. Sugest you get some with a hinged top rather than all the thumb screws.

It looks worse than it was in the pic. I could reach right down and unscrew lid and clean out. It was a straight shot. It just LOOKS hidden from the way the pic was taken.

That is what I wondered about. Mine are from Hardin, and have a oblong screw off top fitting. Given the location I wondered if something similar might be a little easier to get to if they get clogged while running.

Thanks - I just wondered if the multiple fasteners were hard to get to given the location.

God Forbid, if you have to get to it in a rush....WOW
...I looked and I thought I had a pic of my location, but I don't maybe this weekend

I hate to open a can of worms, but is every body happy with their sea strainers or if they could do it again would you pick a different brand or style? I am thinking about adding them to my boat and wonder if some are better than others? Are their any i should stay away from? Considering KPMS because of the claim to filter out sand.Any thoughts? Thanks in advance.

I'm happy with mine and have put them in the past 2 boats. Now about the sand thing....that goes both ways. But sea and lake weed .... it works great

If I was putting some in today I would go with the screw off top type. I believe Harden and Livorsi both offer them. Mine are a bear to clean due to their location and the thunb screws.
Relative to sand, in my opinion they help but if your in a bad sand spot with Livorsi units you are still going to loose your impeller.

I'm happy with mine but never had them before now, so cannot compare it to anything. What I like best is I can have the tops off in half a minute. Plus I had quick disconnects inserted into one port so you can put the other quick disconnect end on a hose, connect it to the port on the strainers and flush. I also have it set up to pump antifreeze through the quick disconnect to the heat exchanger so can basically winterize both engines in about 5 minutes.

strainers
 

That is cool. How do you winterize your air cond?

Turned out that I can just push the hose end up to the fitting, which sits about 5-6 inches inside the chine about a foot or so aft the dash. When I say the hose end it is the hose that is connected to a 2 way jabsco pump that will pump the pink antifreeze from the 5 gallon bucket to wherever you have the hose end. I just turn the air (or heat if it is cold enough) on and it sucks the pink antifreeze through the air/heat. Takes only a minte to pump it through once you have it set up.

Then I do the same thing on the Vacuflush head. I have the head sucked out one last time at the marina and go back to the slip and put the jabsco pump up to it and flush the toilet 2-3 times with the jabsco pump running and it is done.

Pretty easy to get it all done. :D

I got the 2 way jabsco pump from west marine. When I worked with the engineers from Sunsation my request was to be able to winterize everything in 15-30 minutes. We can get it all done in about 20 minutes with 2 people.:D

Takes me about two minutes per strainer to clean out and close up. Makes it easy to run the engines off the hose, just lay it in the open strainer.

Other side overhead. Notice the HP500 shutoff valves:rolleyes:

How do you like the clamps on the GIL strainers? Do they feel secure, ever come loose? I'm looking to get one.

No problem with them just tighten the center screw then snap the clamp.

Thanks