After removing the Dominator pump from the boat I just bought I set it beside an old Berkeley Pump that I have setting in the shop and I was looking at the differences between the two. One thing I noticed is that the Dominator suction piece seems to be quite a bit beefier and also has the gussets running down the side as well as three bolts holding down the hand hole clean out. I was wondering if some of you pump experts could tell me if there are actual strength differences between the different brand suction pieces ie. Berk, Dom, AT, Legend, Aggressor? Who builds the strongest one? One reason I ask this is because as of late it seems that I have heard of several people who have cracked or grenaded suction pieces as well as hand hole covers with sometimes catastrophic results with sunken boats and the like. In all of the cases I have heard about they all seemed to be running Berkeley stuff. Now before somebody jumps on me, I am not bashing Berkeley, I have run the piss out of several of them and never had a problem. I assume it is usually Berk stuff that I hear about letting go because there are probably more Berks on the water than anything else, and most of them are getting pretty old too. If someone was going to build a Blown Fuel Jet and wanted the strongest currently produced cast suction piece as their building platform, which one would be the way to go? Also, besides strength, what are the other differences between the suction pieces as well as pros and cons of each?
Are some of these guys who are out there running BIG horsepower through 20+ year old pumps just asking for trouble?
Sorry for all the questions, but I can't be the only one who is curious about this stuff.