Routing Sac Fill/Empty Hoses

Once I was finished routing the vent/drain hoses, I then began to route the hoses for filling/emptying.  As mentioned previously, the same hose will be used for filling and emptying since my pumps are reversible.  When routing your hoses, I suggest planning ahead so that other hoses don't get in your way as you work through the install.  The space where the hoses attach to the manifold will be pretty tight so you don't want to be fighting other hoses that are already attached.  I hope that made sense.  Also pay attention to where you are routing the hoses in the storage areas.  For my hoses that attached to the top of the sacs, I tried to keep those routed up high in the locker area so that they don't tend to get caught on anything that is stored in the lockers when the sacs are not being used.  I routed those hoses along the base of the engine compartment and then brought them up over the rear of the locker divider.  Look at how your stock bilge hose is ran....I did the same type of thing routing the hoses up under the top of the locker.  Just make sure you allow enough slack where the hose meets the sac so that it can reach the bottom of the locker floor when the sac is emptied.  Each boat will be different and may need the hoses routed differently.  My point here is to plan ahead so that things are routed cleanly and you don't end up cutting off a section of hose only to find that you would rather have it routed a different way.

I started by routing the hose for my integrated bow sac.  The hose came from the manifold, across the front of the port locker and then along the port side of the boat behind the seats.  Again, I routed this one high so that it was out of the way.  When the hose reached the front of the observers compartment I then routed the hose towards the floor and attached a 1" Y fitting which splits the flow into each leg of the bow sac.  Here is a picture of this section of hose.

There is an opening at the base of the storage divider that gives you access to attach to the port leg of the bow sac.  The hose for the starboard leg of the bow sac is routed through an opening at front side of the storage compartment (in front of the battery) and then under the bow footwell.  Yes, there's actually space under the footwell.  I would have thought it went all the way to the floor of the hull but it didn't.  So this was good access for routing the hose over to the starboard leg of the bow sac located under the starboard bow seat.  I secured everything to the walls with mounting zip ties.

Next, I routed the hoses for the hard tanks and attached them to the manifold.  I decided to reuse the stock 3/4" hose for the stock tanks.  This saved a few pennies in the cost of hose.  Just be sure that none of the stock hose is damaged.  It is pretty fragile stuff especially if you had to heat it up during the removal of the stock pumps.  This stuff can easily get a small pin hole that is hard to detect.  I happened to find this out during my install.  The stock tanks are so small that I wasn't concerned with using 3/4" hose for them.  They will be full well before any of the other sacs are filled.

Finally, I routed the hoses for the rear locker sacs.  I ran two hoses for each sac since the bags have the available ports.  One hose will be ran to the top of the sac and the other hose will be ran to the rear base of the sac.  This will allow for filling with two pumps through two hoses which will help speed things up.

I used 1" quick release elbows (W746) for attaching to each sac.  Be sure to wrap the hose clamps with electrical tape to prevent any punctures as the sac fills up.  If I have not mentioned it previously, now is a good time to mention that it makes the job A LOT easier to put a small amount of liquid soap on the end of each fitting and then heat up the end of the hose using a heat gun.  This helps slide the hose over the fittings a lot easier.  Especially with the type of hose I used.  This stuff does not stretch very easily over fittings unless it is heated.  Just make sure to let the hose cool before you secure the hose clamps so that you don't run the risk of the hose clamp tearing the hose while it is still soft from the heat.

Once I had all my hoses routed then I went through and secured everything with zip ties.  I used 8" mounting zip ties with 1/2" screws to attach to the walls and then used 14" tip ties for securing bundles of hoses as shown in the following picture.  Be sure to clean up all the clipped zip ties and check for any that have fallen down into the bilge area.  I have heard that they can cause issues with the bilge pump.