Unclogging an intake grate

[BobJohnson]

It is kind of like the people that say they know how to drive in the winter because they have not ended up in the ditch yet. Granted milfoil is an invasive species from somebody dumping their fish tank in the lake, but I have clogged up an outboard with these weeds. If you ever get up here in August with your boat I can show you around although I would recommend avoiding the frustration and just enjoying the lakes.

Well it's August here and these damn chain o lake weeds in my channel suck. 4x's in a row out got clogged intakes. Reverse trick is working but after it worked and got me going today, I stopped at a sand bar to check things out. Sure enough I was able to reach under and pull basketball size wads of weeds off my grates. Boat drove awesome after that. But going back to dock, I got re-clogged and now have that waiting for me to deal with next time out. I HATE WEEDS!!!!

 

[Murf'n'surf]

As long as it's not a flowing lake.....
Just joking.

https://www.killlakeweeds.com/products/aquacide-pellets?gclid=Cj0KEQjwuJu9BRDP_-HN9eXs1_UBEiQAlfW39vCJouvBhzR-9Xjggp43__qiRqrTkiIRorWtNYguOyoaAjtT8P8HAQ

 

[davel501]

Well it's August here and these damn chain o lake weeds in my channel suck. 4x's in a row out got clogged intakes. Reverse trick is working but after it worked and got me going today, I stopped at a sand bar to check things out. Sure enough I was able to reach under and pull basketball size wads of weeds off my grates. Boat drove awesome after that. But going back to dock, I got re-clogged and now have that waiting for me to deal with next time out. I HATE WEEDS!!!!

Thought you were at Webb's. Did you move or did I just "misremember"?

 

[Ronnie]

I had two Mercury sport jet powered boats, a 16' euro line cyclone and 20' seadoo x 20. I got rock grates for nth of them. They did a good job of keeping the big stuff out of the intake grate. For the weeds I used to jump in reach under from the back and pull the weeds out. I could never find the weed rake described earlier but recall that is is basically a garden claw on a pole shapped like a "u" or "v" on its side so you could try and clear the grate from the back of the boat without getting in the water.

I think it I got my rock grates at bam or bams marine in Florida.

Even on the Yamaha jet boats I've found that it's easier to pull the weeds out of the intake grate from the water as opposed to through the clean out plugs, especially when part of the weed or weeds gets through the grate but the rest, 5' long or more is just hanging from the grate.

 

[BobJohnson]

Thought you were at Webb's. Did you move or did I just "misremember"?

@davel501 Misremember ... I am over at Sequoit. @Devildog is over at Webbs. Never met him, but see is nice blue Yamaha in the corner slip when we head towards the bridge.

@Ronnie - I talked with a guy who has a Yamaha with clean out plugs who has a boat in a marina even further into our weedy channel. He was telling me he too can't get the weeds out of the grates through his clean out plugs. He needs to get in the water also.

I would love to find a rake or make a rake that will work and not scratch or harm the bottom of my boat. Right now, getting in the water and pulling the weeds out is no big deal. So far, each time has been a day when swimming or water sports was the plan for the day. But, there will be nights soon where I want to go up and just go to dinner with my wife. times like that, it would suck to have to get in the water.

Thinking... some garden hose or Shop Vac (run in reverse to blow) "McGyvered" attachment that I could, from the swim platform, reach down and push into the jet nozzle while at dock. Although, that would at its best, do what the reverse trick does. Gets me going, but still would leave dangling attached weeds. A rake just sounds like a bad idea, scratch potential wise.

 

[Ronnie]

If the garden claw/rake didn't already have covered tines I would probably coat at least the ends with plasti dip or something similar.

 

[Devildog]

@davel501 Misremember ... I am over at Sequoit. @Devildog is over at Webbs. Never met him, but see is nice blue Yamaha in the corner slip when we head towards the bridge.

@Ronnie - I talked with a guy who has a Yamaha with clean out plugs who has a boat in a marina even further into our weedy channel. He was telling me he too can't get the weeds out of the grates through his clean out plugs. He needs to get in the water also.

I would love to find a rake or make a rake that will work and not scratch or harm the bottom of my boat. Right now, getting in the water and pulling the weeds out is no big deal. So far, each time has been a day when swimming or water sports was the plan for the day. But, there will be nights soon where I want to go up and just go to dinner with my wife. times like that, it would suck to have to get in the water.

Thinking... some garden hose or Shop Vac (run in reverse to blow) "McGyvered" attachment that I could, from the swim platform, reach down and push into the jet nozzle while at dock. Although, that would at its best, do what the reverse trick does. Gets me going, but still would leave dangling attached weeds. A rake just sounds like a bad idea, scratch potential wise.

Bob and Dave....hope we connect one of these days.....

I just took out my plugs last week for the first time since buying the boat in May. There was a little vegetation in there, but not much. Knock on fiberglass, I have had no clog issues while tooling around the lakes. I think having my boat docked in an area where the water flows from boat traffic helps a lot. Some of the boats at Webbs are docked in a closed area and they don't have the water flow to get rid of some of the crud (I forget the fancy name that you call that stuff )

And just for the record, I am going to start removing my plugs more often as regular maintenance. I started reading the threads on this topic and I probably should have been pulling the plugs so they don't get stuck, etc. It's still a new boat and the plugs did come out pretty easily last week. But I have now added this to my normal routine.