Building a LiveWell - Completed

[russ010]

I worked all the kinks out before posting this to make sure it would work.. the only thing I have yet to do is put a fish in it.

When I turned the bilge on, I checked the voltage on my fishfinder, and at the time I went from 13.6v to 13.5 volts. I'm running a 500GPH bilge and it goes into a cigarette lighter adapter. One thing I wasn't thinking about was the adapter that attaches to the bilge pump has a little light on it that shows it's receiving power. I doubt that could draw much power, but when trying to conserve power, that little bit probably wouldn't make a difference, but it's something to think about.

 

[Waterwings]

Russ,

I see the entire post, including the pics and pricing.

 

[Hanr3]

Great idea and nice write up.

My only concern is the weight your expecting that tub to control. Water weighs roughly 8 pounds per gallon. To keep the math simple, 20 gallons * 8 = 160 pounds. I suspect that tub wont be able to control 160 pounds of water in rough seas. Building the exterior box and insulating it should solve that problem and you could lower the height to match your deck.

 

[russ010]

I've filled that tub up to about 18 gallons so far, so that should be roughly 150lbs including tubweight and accessories.. it's just like putting another person in the back of my boat. I don't get in rough seas, only electric only lakes where there are no waves, only high winds and some little white caps.

That tub is a lot more sturdy than I thought it would be as I was worried about its' ability to handle the pressure of the water. But after the test on Sunday, I'm not worried about that anymore either.

 

[FishingBuds]

Niceley done again Russ, how quick does the water fill up for ya? I actually am not to familiar on live wells

 

[russ010]

I filled it half way, enough to cover the tops of the fish + about 3 inches... I timed it and it took me about 2 min. I'm using an 800 GPH livewell pump for that function.

 

[bassboy1]

My only concern is the weight your expecting that tub to control. Water weighs roughly 8 pounds per gallon. To keep the math simple, 20 gallons * 8 = 160 pounds. I suspect that tub wont be able to control 160 pounds of water in rough seas. Building the exterior box and insulating it should solve that problem and you could lower the height to match your deck.

I had that concern when I made mine, which uses a standard Rubbermaid tote. The biggest thing with it is the lid. When riveted on, it keeps the top in the right pattern, and keeps the sides from bowing out as easily. I have used mine in one tourney so far, and bouncing around in my boat in rougher water, it didn't have that problem. Russ only uses his boat in electric only waters, so it won't bounce around like mine. When I made mine (on a budget of about 15 bucks two days before a tourney - reason I didn't use a cooler, or fabricate a better tank) I figured if I had a problem with it bowing out, I would make a couple bands out of some 1.5 inch wide strips of sheet that always seemed to have to come off when I was building my deck.

 

[russ010]

bassboy does your livewell have the handles on top like mine do that snap over the lid to keep it on? I don't trust them so I still put a bungee cord over the top of it to keep it on while trailering it to and from the lake. This thing is pretty sturdy so I don't know now if I'm going to cut a top out of it and put a hinged lid or not

 

[baptistpreach]

Great job, I still don't know why I had such a hard time finding it! Thanks again, and you'll be seeing probably the same thing in my boat soon!

 

[bassboy1]

bassboy does your livewell have the handles on top like mine do that snap over the lid to keep it on? I don't trust them so I still put a bungee cord over the top of it to keep it on while trailering it to and from the lake. This thing is pretty sturdy so I don't know now if I'm going to cut a top out of it and put a hinged lid or not

Yep. I put the rivets all the way around the lid with the hinge as my bin was a standard Rubbermaid, and no where near as stiff as yours. So, without the lid, the water makes it bow out like crazy, but it is the lid that solves that dilemma, and the handles alone are not enough to hold it.

 

[daltonmcgill]

I worked all the kinks out before posting this to make sure it would work.. the only thing I have yet to do is put a fish in it.

When I turned the bilge on, I checked the voltage on my fishfinder, and at the time I went from 13.6v to 13.5 volts. I'm running a 500GPH bilge and it goes into a cigarette lighter adapter. One thing I wasn't thinking about was the adapter that attaches to the bilge pump has a little light on it that shows it's receiving power. I doubt that could draw much power, but when trying to conserve power, that little bit probably wouldn't make a difference, but it's something to think about.

i ran my livewell all dayand night (for shinners) and woke up the next morning and it was still going so i dont think you will have to worry about it draining that much power and i was using a lawnmower battery

 

[russ010]

Awesome.

I've ran it for about 5 min at a time while having fish in it every 30min.. they did fine, but I did a water change after about 4 min to see what changes I needed to make if any..

but as far as the batteries - I've got the bilge for livewell, a radio, and front trolling motor on 2 batts in parallel, and it doesn't drain at all after an all day fishing trip

 

[G3_Guy]

Awesome set-up Russ!

 

[baptistpreach]

I'm gonna try to finish putting mine together by tomorrow afternoon or Mon morning at the latest! I've got everything, and I've got it dry fit now, I can't wait to post pics! Thanks Russ, you're the man!!

 

[dougdad]

awsome job Russ, the post shown through the home page came out great, wireing and all. Going to build one a bit smaller for bait as I do not fish tourneys. Besides my boat does not have room for a big one. Again Great job !!!

 

[dunk50]

A couple rookie questions so please indulge me a little. If the live well is not bolted down as in you are able to move it a little then why?? I am thinking of building yours with a minor change. I would either eliminate the bilge portion of the live well or move it close enough to the side to have both the bilge run to empty it and the other run to fill it. This would make it easy to change or put fresh water in. Clear as mud huh. Let's try it this way, if you have to have a separate 800 gph pump to fill it you could use the same 800 pump to empty it. If you hooked it up near the side of the boat, you could leave the 800 in the water. Turn the 500 on to empty and the 800 on to fill. In my case I would use two the same gph output. Seems like it could be made to work. Maybe even suction up the one in the water to the side of the boat. No ice, no hassle and very little difference from what you did. Just using both pumps. I can visualize it, question is can i BUILD it. I think I can I think I can!! :mrgreen:

 

[russ010]

I added 2 D-rings - I have 1 on each side of the cooler (I'm not using the rubbermaid container, now I'm using a cooler. Anyways, I attach the straps to that and wrap it around the handles on the cooler and then back down to the hook screwed into the floor. Then I run a strap across the top from one side to the other to keep the top on going down the road.

The way I have my cooler set up is a little different, and I'll post pics of it later. I have a bilge pump in it that I use to circulate the water, and I can take the hose off the spray bar and pump water out. I have another bilge pump with a longer power wire set up to where I can pump water in.

I have a cigarette lighter on both bilge pumps. I have the one 12volt plug-in like before. But I bought a 12v adapter that has 3 inputs on it. The bilge in the cooler has a switch on it for me to cut it on and off, and on the other bilge pump I just have to plug it in and pull it out when I'm done. I didn't put a switch on it because when I'm done recirulating I pull it out of the water and put it behind the cooler somewhere out of the way. I carry atleast 9 rods with me during tournaments, and in a 12' boat that makes a cramped space even smaller.

I'll try to post pics tonight if I get home in time.

 

[jojo]

Nice! I just found this. What a great design. I had a question though. I liked the idea to have a second pump to fill the livewell. You mentioned that the pump would not pump water in through your tube you initially had on there. Any idea why?

 

[roncapps]

Nice Job. I had been thinking of how I would make one and then saw yours. I now know what I'll be doing. I'll post mine when completed. Thanks for sharing!

 

[russ010]

Nice! I just found this. What a great design. I had a question though. I liked the idea to have a second pump to fill the livewell. You mentioned that the pump would not pump water in through your tube you initially had on there. Any idea why?

Yea... I was using a Livewell pump, not a bilge pump. So I had a hose just stuck in the water expecting it to suck water up, but you actually have to have that pump in the water to draw water in... When I switched it to a bilge pump, it worked 10 times better because I could throw the pump in the water to fill, and then put the pump in the livewell to empty (sorry I'm just now responding, I missed your post)