Has anyone eliminated the fresh water tank?

I'd like to ditch the tank, and convert the pump to draw from the water surrounding the boat. All I use the shower for is rinsing sand from the swim deck, and it seems silly to store a tank of water that needs to be refilled, cleaned out, winterized, reprimed, etc. Plus, considering a refrigerator in the port side underseat storage, and could use the current tank space to store life vests. Any thoughts? Can I reuse the same pump, just run a pickup hose below water lever?

You can use the same pump but unless they have changed the stock pump is smaller and less powerful than most of the washdown pumps available at west marine or online. For the pick up id look at what the guys woth built in ballast systems use.

Thanks Ronnie. Guess I'll have to change the pump for a better one.

If you ever plan to go to Bimini....you'll want that fresh water rinse to get the salt off you.

That doesn't seem to be in the cards for me. It looks like a great time, but not for me.

I would not go for a bigger pump unless i needed more pressure and /or output. For instance to pressure wash things or to use as a powerful squirt gun. I think the stock pump is small to make the water in the fresh water tank last longer.
As I recall the stock pump is 1 gpm where as the small avaialable at West marine is a 3 gpm, where prices range from $100 to $300 depending on output.

When I bought my boat used, the original owner said he had problems with the shower head. I noticed it was not in the normal place. I found a bag of parts, but it seemed things were missing and the replacement from Yamaha was outrageous, so I bought a sink sprayer from Home Depot and rigged it to function. It functioned but has a very weak stream and was almost useless. I had trouble priming it the last 2 years after draining it for winter. I'm worried I will have the same issues if I delete the tank to pull raw water, so I may just replace everything with a kit intended to work that way.

Install a brass through hull, ball valve, and wash down pump. You'll be plenty happy. You could do the fittings and try the current pump if the flow is adequate. I've seen wash down pumps that spray like garden hoses.

Interesting topic, I actually came out of a 2011 242 LS and it had the water tank, which I used often. The spray is a little weak.

When I got my new AR240 I knew I wanted some sort of wash down so I did some searching and came across this neat little sucker.....its called the spraybox

I'm getting it installed next week permanently but when I used it this summer with the gator clips to the battery on the boat it worked great it shoots far....100 psi I think and has multiple settings. Its 6 gal, with a 25ft hose and should spray about 7-10 min depending on use. Since I can take it out easily I think it should do the trick. Will post pics once its finally installed.

@Jaylex , what does that cost? I’m asking because I put something similar together a few times now for use as a water gun or wash down station while fishing. Mine does not have its own water tank as it just pulls from the surrounding body of water. The least expensive version still cost me close to $200 with the pump and pwc 12v battery making up a majority of the cost.

@zelone , if you don’t want to drill any new holes into your boat consider buying a wash down kit from west marine for a little over $100, it comes with a 3 gpm pump (i think the stock pump is .5 gpm), a coiled hose and spray head. All of which could be lossely secured in the swim deck compartment or almost anywhere in the boat so when you want to use it you would just need to drop the pick up hose into the water. Alternatively you could install it and a small batttery into a battery box and make it portable. If you buy the pump alone you could go for a more powterful unit for the same money and just reuse the hose and spray head from the stock system.

@Ronnie I paid around 300 for it....gives me a ton of flexibility since it has a high psi pump, pretty compact, multi-spray nozzle, and 25ft hose.

I plan on using it to help with a quick washdown of the boat when I take it out the water before I wipe it down to get dirt and grim off. Gonna see if they can run the hose from under the seat into the transom storage locker for easy use.

You can Google spraybox if you want more info. Plenty of flexibility to use their pump and various tank sizes.

That looks nice but I question the 7 to 10 minutes of use claim with at least at 2 gpm pump and a 6 gallon tank it’s more like 2 to 10 minutes depending on use isn’t it?

We love our fresh water tank, good for cleaning off the bbq utensils/ware and for cooling off without having to get into questionable or rough water or for rinsing some off of you as well as for spraying down the seats to prevent being ironed. Even on our heaviest use days we haven’t used all 10 gallons in the tank, it’s more like fill it every three weeks in season.
I wouldn’t get rid of mine, if I need a portable one for camping I’d get something like @Jaylex . Although I would strap a 12 v pwc/motorcycle battery on it.

Jaylex that is awesome! my only concern is that coiled hose likely wont work in the stock hose location. I'd like to keep it looking oem back there.

Ronnie I wonder how hard it would be to build a hybrid system, which could have a small water tank like the one Jay has, and maybe a valve to turn, to allow the pump to pickup raw water as well? Kinda the best of both worlds. I'd also relocate the whole system to the rear bilge area. That way, I can keep the same filler hole in the cleanout tray also. It may be a matter of a "y" before the pump pickup, and a 2 way valve.

What do you guys think?

I actually tried the time on different settings and It was able to give me continuous spray for the time mentioned. I think it's the pump design and nozzle options that gives it robust power with sufficient capacity. The good thing about these systems is being able to add a larger tank if needed, but based on use this should hold me over.

I too recall only needing to refill my 10 gal tank on my 242 only every few trips. But it wasn't really worth more than a gentle rinse, and no real pressure to speak of.

This checks all the boxes I need, specifically being able to wash down my boat ANYWHERE ANYTIME when I come off the water...I've tried it and it got all the grime off before I wiped it down. Plus hosing stuff off and everything else I need. I plan on having the hose mounted in the starboard transom storage area for access and use outside of the boat.

I like the idea of a hybrid system, would def be best of both worlds!!!

I ripped mine out and installed an air compressor. I routed the air house to come out the back where my shower head was located and i havent looked back since. It works awesome for blowing up inflatables on the swim platform

I added an air pump and routed the filler hose on the other side of the swim deck. Its real nice to inflate tubes fast and not have the pump and wires to deal with.

BareHand42Style said:

I ripped mine out and installed an air compressor. I routed the air house to come out the back where my shower head was located and i havent looked back since. It works awesome for blowing up inflatables on the swim platform

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Are you utilizing the on/off switch through Connext?

no it kept tripping the circuit like it didnt have enough juice. I ended up adding a 6 switch breaker panel by my console cause i needed more switches for lights etc.

BareHand42Style said:

I ripped mine out and installed an air compressor. I routed the air house to come out the back where my shower head was located and i havent looked back since. It works awesome for blowing up inflatables on the swim platform

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I've been thinking about doing this? Do you have any install photos?

No but when I open the boat up for spring, I can take some