Tired of sucking up debris!

[fairpilot]

my addition to the reverse trick is to get it moving backwards with reverse, shut it off and put the throttles full forward, this will open gates and allow maximum water through. It is a great boat, enjoy it

 

[Julian]

my addition to the reverse trick is to get it moving backwards with reverse, shut it off and put the throttles full forward, this will open gates and allow maximum water through. It is a great boat, enjoy it

Did you miss an added step?
https://jetboaters.net/faq/i-keep-g...ps-any-tips-to-help-aka-the-reverse-trick.66/

 

[fairpilot]

Got it ,some other did not post opening throttles after reverse, then i saw link to how to do it.

 

[Bpetri]

Hey everyone!! My husband and I purchased a 2016 vortex 203 in March and are super frustrated with our experience so far. We keep our boat docked at an inlet off the river and are 3 for 3 with getting debris sucked in before we even get our trips started. Once we were able to 'rev' it out, but the other two we had to take the boat out and take apart the jet drive to remove it. We have been told by so many that this rarely happens, but we are 3 for 3, so clearly somethings going on! Any advice!? We are beyond frustrated and just want to enjoy our boat!

I have a Yamaha jet boat on Lake Chelan, WA. Every year, when they raise the lake, large wooded debris are all over the lake. The bigger logs and sticks don't really concern me too much as i just motor around them. What has consistently been an issue with this type of boat is the small wood chips that can form up like a mind field... which there is no way around. These little chips get sucked up through the grate and lodge between the impeller blade and the tube wall. This stops the impeller immediately. The only way to clear it is to use pliers or a knife through the clean out ports. This is very difficult to do because the ports are centered over the impeller shaft. The blade is further starboard and very difficult to get to and out of sight. I considered using steel mesh screening to wrap the inlet grates to reduce the size down to 1/4". The techs at Yamaha said this will not harm the engines as the water dragged into the impeller housing doesn't cool the engine. The only drawback is reduced top end speed by restricting the water flow. I haven't tried it yet, and now I'm considering trading it on boat with and I/O. It's just too much of a hassle being dead in the water every time a piece of wood gets in there. Just thought I'd share my experiences. Bryan

 

[FSH 210 Sport]

I considered using steel mesh screening to wrap the inlet grates to reduce the size down to 1/4". The techs at Yamaha said this will not harm the engines as the water dragged into the impeller housing doesn't cool the engine. Bryan

I don’t know which Yamaha techs told you that water “dragged into the impeller housing doesn’t cool the engine” but that is absolutely false.

Lake Chelan looks beautiful! How long does this wood debris stick around ? Any chance you can just go boat on the Columbia river until the wood chips go away?

 

[Babin Farms]

Are you sucking up this debris while at cruising speed or idling around? I have yet to suck anything other than grass into the intake while at cruising speeds but if I am at no-wake speed I tend to suck up sticks and other larger debris.

 

[Cobra Jet Steering LLC]

I am not understanding the comment from the mechanics about the water in the impeller area not cooling the engine and if you restrict water flow to the impeller it causes cavitation and that can lead to a cracked drive shaft just in front of the impeller and other issues from the vibration, pieces of wood are always a bad thing in the pump. I designed a special deflector for my pontoon boat years ago to deflect the weeds from the prop as Tampa bay is the home of weeds everyplace you go. I designed special deflector intake grates for weeds in jet intake grates also but I am so sick of copy cats that I have never offered them for sale and I keep them secret sorry but I am only telling you this so you know it can be done just takes a little ingenuity. One thing you want to avoid in shallow water is BACKING THE BOAT above an idle as it pushes trash from the bottom up into the intake grate. However if you are in deep water and have weeds learn my reverse move I came up with it in 2001 because I had a jet boat with NO clean out plugs just like your boat and I operate in TAMPA BAY .
I analyzed how the weeds got into the intake and reversed the process and it worked great . The basics of this is simple, get the boat going backward as fast as you can, then shut off the engines and quickly put the controls in forward this causes water to back flush through the pump and pushes out the weeds the way they came in.