P
psenior01@aol.com
Guest
Here's one fix, I had the old style bilge plug plate with six screws on my
amphi, and a real pain it was to remove them to drain the bilge, also it
required a sealer to be applied on refitting. So I modified the plate cut a
1" hole and welded up a small 1" 90 deg union to which I attached a stainless
steel valve ($5) with a 90 deg open to close lever (3 "long). The lever can
easily be seen from the rear wheel area, it does not protrude below the
bottom of the hull (does not catch on debris), and when the valve is 'closed'
it is vertically up, and when 'open' it faces horizontally to the rear.
Therefore it is easily viewable without even bending down if you are 20' from
the car ! My next step is to install a simple hall effect proximity
transducer inside the hull connected to a lamp/alarm (power supplied from
ignition circuit) that will tell me if the valve is open/closed, when I the
engine is running. The valve ($5) is used by the gas appliance industry, so
internally it has a nylon sleeve with a stainless steel ball valve, the
advantage of a gas valve is that if it won't allow natural gas(vapour) to
pass then it certainly won't allow water to get through! The only problem I
can guess would be if you drove into very acidic water - not likely.
Paul Senior
55 Albatross
59 Delta
64 RHD Amphi
75 Jensen Interceptor Convertible
75 Bluebird Jet Boat
92 Diesel Range Rover
96 4.2 LWB Range Rover
65 Autogiro (ala James Bond), on wish list !
amphi, and a real pain it was to remove them to drain the bilge, also it
required a sealer to be applied on refitting. So I modified the plate cut a
1" hole and welded up a small 1" 90 deg union to which I attached a stainless
steel valve ($5) with a 90 deg open to close lever (3 "long). The lever can
easily be seen from the rear wheel area, it does not protrude below the
bottom of the hull (does not catch on debris), and when the valve is 'closed'
it is vertically up, and when 'open' it faces horizontally to the rear.
Therefore it is easily viewable without even bending down if you are 20' from
the car ! My next step is to install a simple hall effect proximity
transducer inside the hull connected to a lamp/alarm (power supplied from
ignition circuit) that will tell me if the valve is open/closed, when I the
engine is running. The valve ($5) is used by the gas appliance industry, so
internally it has a nylon sleeve with a stainless steel ball valve, the
advantage of a gas valve is that if it won't allow natural gas(vapour) to
pass then it certainly won't allow water to get through! The only problem I
can guess would be if you drove into very acidic water - not likely.
Paul Senior
55 Albatross
59 Delta
64 RHD Amphi
75 Jensen Interceptor Convertible
75 Bluebird Jet Boat
92 Diesel Range Rover
96 4.2 LWB Range Rover
65 Autogiro (ala James Bond), on wish list !
