Transom Mounted Live Wells?

[HIFLUTIN]

Transom Mounted Live Wells?
Thinkin of putting them on my 170 to gain space ,have a few?
Will keep the boat in the water for extended periods of time, how bout keeping the inside clean, marine growth etc?
How are they bout keeping bait alive?
Anything other input?

[akbridge]

These livewells are in demand.  I think someone on this site is in the process of making a mold to make new livewells.  Those would be sweet.  Most of the factory livewells I have seen are beatup and falling off.  I have a set from a someone other than aquasport.  But I can report that bait fish do well in them.  You just have to tune the inflow.  I did mine with a bronze thru-hull and a PVC spray pipe.  When running the boxes fill up nicely but don't beat up the fish.  I can't report on keeping them clean while in the water.  I would think you would need to use anti-fouling paint inside and out.  One thing to think about is they can act like trim tabs and they will break up a wave coming upon the stern.

[akbridge]

I found some pics of mine when I first installed them.....




You can see they are a different shape than normal.  But they work.  Also you can see my bronze thru-hull and PVC spray pipe.

[gran398]

Morning fellas!

It is almost the New Year. The new model AS transom livewells will soon be available.

Need to check with Lew and the guys first...please stay tuned

[wingtime]

I saw this set on Craigslist. They came off a 222 so I'm not sure if they will work on your boat.  The guy is asking $250.  

http://tampa.craigslist.org/hdo/boa/2720007501.html

[fitz73222]

These livewells are in demand.  I think someone on this site is in the process of making a mold to make new livewells.  Those would be sweet.  Most of the factory livewells I have seen are beatup and falling off.  I have a set from a someone other than aquasport.  But I can report that bait fish do well in them.  You just have to tune the inflow.  I did mine with a bronze thru-hull and a PVC spray pipe.  When running the boxes fill up nicely but don't beat up the fish.  I can't report on keeping them clean while in the water.  I would think you would need to use anti-fouling paint inside and out.  One thing to think about is they can act like trim tabs and they will break up a wave coming upon the stern.

I did the same thing with the clamshell pick-up but on the inside I used a livewell pump intake strainer to get the water flow and oxygen to exchange water from the bottom to the top of the well instead of having the water discharge high up in water column and go out the overflow without really oxygenating the lower water in the well. I have a neoprene plug intalled in the top of the strainer so I can unscrew or screw in until seated to block the water flow entirely or fine tune the amount of water entering the well. Plus the water blasting through the stainless mesh really breaks up the water into fine bubbles and supercharges the O2 entering the well. To maintain O2 at rest I have  commercial 6" X 2" X 2" airstones in each well, fed by a surplus AF Thomas diaphragm type air pump mounted under the console. The pump keeps both livewells full of air and the bait very lively. Being able to shut off the water intake and avoid water loss or fill allows me to stop by the baitshop and pick up shrimp or mud minnows, turn on the air pump and head to the ramp without dealing with separate buckets and aeration. most of my fishing involves finger mullet, shrimp, mud minnows or pinfish; for these smaller baits the wells work very well. For larger baits like Threadfins or Menhaden not so much. I have a 30 gallon plastic tank with a hinged lid and a separate pump for that. Eugene Son @ Shipoke Boats in St. Pete has the livewell molds near completion so contact him for ETA on price and availability.

[HIFLUTIN]

Did they make these one size fits all?

[fitz73222]

Did they make these one size fits all?

Yep, they were made for all 12 degree bottoms so a pair off of a 22-2, 19-6 or 17 will work.

[fitz73222]

A couple of things to remember when mounting these livewells is you need to make sure they are mounted exactly the same height on both sides or you are going to wind up with a list while running. By design, they have a slight negative rake towards the rear that put them about 1/2" below the bottom at the trailing edge which give them a slight trim tab effect. With twin engines you can trim the list out but with a single engine you can't. For mounting, they were originally just lag bolted into the transom core; 3 bolts across the top and two across the bottom. Mine were breathing a bit when I stood on them so I took one of mamas old plastic cutting boards that was compatable with 5200 and backed up the lag bolts with a solid plastic plate to keep them from breathing and then ran a bead of 5200 around the seam where the well meets the hull on the exterior parameter. These wells are pretty stout considering the abuse they get; trim tabs, banging docks; water blasting through them; we used them as diving boards when we were kids and they never flinched!