Home › Forums › Bass Cat Boats › Power Poles installed…thanks for the info!
Picked up my Power Pole Sportsman IIs on Saturday and a buddy and I spent about 8 hours installing them…that is to say, we spent 6 hours trying to locate the pumps by building a bracket that would attach to the battery cage before we realized that by removing the seat post, the oil resevoir and cage could be rotated 90 degrees and the pumps screwed directly into the bilge…doh!!! After that it took about 2 hours to get them mounted, lines run and pumps hooked up. Most importantly, they clear the dog box for my motor in my garage. Still working out some kinks…the starboard motor retracts at about half speed of port and the port pump has a noisy whine at the end of its return, but got them out on the lake for a few hours yesterday and I know Im going to love having them. One other issue to sort out..I did a full deploy in deep water which was suggested to get the cylinders through a full range of motion. Port side went down and returned fine, starboard stopped about halfway up (using the 2 click auto deploy/stow) and then I had to run it the rest of the way up with the button. At any rate, Ill try and get Power Pole on the phone later today to figure this out, but even with those minor issues they were nice to have in the wind yesterday!But really, I just wanted to offer a word of thanks to everyone that offered advice (and measurements!) while I was researching! 2011 Sabre FTD w/ Mercury 150 Pro XS, Power Pole Sportsman 2s, Humminbird 898 w/ 360 and 858 at bow, 898 at ConsoleFor lots of BCB love, follow me on instagram: @professorbeard
they look great!!13 PIV w/ 200 MercIG: WarriorRiverCustomRods
I installed my own as well. The manual/setup guide that shouldve come with the poles if they are new will have the answers to your issues about one retracting slower and the sensitivity (stopping before retracted or pump continuing to run). Its an easy process, just need to follow the steps. If you dont have that, download it off the PP website. Got any pics of the bilge area where you mounted the pumps?
Thanks! Ill take a closer look at the manual…havent had a chance to mess with them again after getting home last evening. Ill get some bilge pics this evening…its tight, and when I have to swap out the cranking battery, Ill have to take the pumps out, but I installed a new Interstate 31-MHD (manufactured in 4.2016) so it should be a few years before I have to wrestle that out again…lol!And an extra special shout out to xpress spanky, who sent me measurements and info from his Sabre while I was researching!!!I also meant to include this in my initial post, but Im pleasantly surprised that adding them didnt seem to impact my hole shot. They did however impact the amount of backwash onto the deck upon shutdown…lol! Will have to dial in my shut down feathering for the Poles a bit more. Not sure about top speed as I was with my buddy. I may have lost a mph or two, but Ill get a better sense of that after a few trips by myself.2011 Sabre FTD w/ Mercury 150 Pro XS, Power Pole Sportsman 2s, Humminbird 898 w/ 360 and 858 at bow, 898 at ConsoleFor lots of BCB love, follow me on instagram: @professorbeard
somata wrote:Thanks! Ill take a closer look at the manual…havent had a chance to mess with them again after getting home last evening. Ill get some bilge pics this evening…its tight, and when I have to swap out the cranking battery, Ill have to take the pumps out, but I installed a new Interstate 31-MHD (manufactured in 4.2016) so it should be a few years before I have to wrestle that out again…lol!And an extra special shout out to xpress spanky, who sent me measurements and info from his Sabre while I was researching!!!I also meant to include this in my initial post, but Im pleasantly surprised that adding them didnt seem to impact my hole shot. They did however impact the amount of backwash onto the deck upon shutdown…lol! Will have to dial in my shut down feathering for the Poles a bit more. Not sure about top speed as I was with my buddy. I may have lost a mph or two, but Ill get a better sense of that after a few trips by myself.They look good on there, and im sure youll get a lot of use out of them Jason. Glad I could help you out.
They look good on there! Happy to have helped as well.Sounds like you may need to bleed them out a little more. This is best to do on the water as to fully extend them down. Enjoy!
Thanks again all…they do look really good on the boat, particularly with the Merc and black boot. Second trip out with them yesterday after chatting with PP support…by the end of the day they were pretty much in sync on the retraction. They suggested that I deploy them in while on the trailer and then manually lift them up to release the the air from the release valve and then re-bleed and do the deep water deploy, so I did that for both sides. I also wonder if my remote is partially to blame for the different return rates? I messed around with the speed and individual deployments on each side with the dash mount switch and after that they were more in sync. In my excitement on the initial set-up, I may have missed a step in pairing the remote to both of them. The port side pump is still noisy on retraction, Im going to mess around with its sensitivity a bit to see if I can get that dialed in. Only other issue is that occasionally, on deeper deployments, with the double tap auto deploy, one side would find bottom and the other would stop partway down and require another double tap to go the whole way down. Already think Im going to pick up the individual foot pedals…almost choked myself with the lanyard when it got tangled up in my reel while landing a 3lbr yesterday…lol!!! And a nice 4lbr they helped m=1emThanks again all…they do look really good on the boat, particularly with the Merc and black boot. Second trip out with them yesterday after chatting with PP support…by the end of the day they were pretty much in sync on the retraction. They suggested that I deploy them in while on the trailer and then manually lift them up to release the the air from the release valve and then re-bleed and do the deep water deploy, so I did that for both sides. I also wonder if my remote is partially to blame for the different return rates? I messed around with the speed and individual deployments on each side with the dash mount switch and after that they were more in sync. In my excitement on the initial set-up, I may have missed a step in pairing the remote to both of them. The port side pump is still noisy on retraction, Im going to mess around with its sensitivity a bit to see if I can get that dialed in. Only other issue is that occasionally, on deeper deployments, with the double tap auto deploy, one side would find bottom and the other would stop partway down and require another double tap to go the whole way down. Already think Im going to pick up the individual foot pedals…almost choked myself with the lanyard when it got tangled up in my reel while landing a 3lbr yesterday…lol!!! And a nice 4lbr they helped me get… 2011 Sabre FTD w/ Mercury 150 Pro XS, Power Pole Sportsman 2s, Humminbird 898 w/ 360 and 858 at bow, 898 at ConsoleFor lots of BCB love, follow me on instagram: @professorbeard
© 2026 Bass Cat Boats

