A very good friend designed a way to auto prime the pump. It consists of an extra length of thin pipe and a shut off valve. Open the valve, use an electric or gas pump to pump water into the line near the foot valve. This fills the thick pipe and primes the pump. Bada Bing...
Roger, come and take a look. It has never failed.
Put the basket under the dock and tie so it won't move... run the pump primer, turn on the jet pump and there is water.
(as long as there are no issues under the house with broken pipes). When the water gets lower the basket can be moved deeper (and the water is warmer to do that)
Before this system, I always had trouble with the prime. If the system lost prime, there I was under the porch trying to prime it again. I suffered for years.
IG