"Has anybody done THIS and regretted it? " And by THIS, I mean replace a mechanical genny (gas or diesel) with a dedicated Lithium battery bank and regretted it?
I'm thinking of replacing my Kohler 5E with a 12V Lithium 400-600 AHr bank and a Victron Multiplus inverter/charger. I only use my 120V when I overnight to heat water (15-30 minutes/ day), coffee maker/microwave (10-20 min/day) and/or hot plate (10-20 min / day). With that load, I figure a 400...
It's a good bet that someone hooked up a pressurized water source to the cooling intake. In normal operations the cooling water from the seacock is pulled into the running engine where it circulates through the block and exits downstream of the exhaust manifold. When you pressurize the water...
Summer in the Northland: Just 6 weeks of bad sledding.
All seriousness aside ... On the positive side of our short but glorious boating season up North - if the season was 12 months, I don't think I could afford to be a boat owner. The winter months give my boat budget time to recover.
Anyone having problems sourcing the rubber pre-formed hoses for the early 2000 Volvo Penta 5.x GXx? All of my regular on-line VP parts sources are out-of-stock and they say VP can't tell them when they will will ship citing a supply chain issue. All of my rubber coolant hoses are original...
Probably should qualify this by saying, "... any boat as old as those that has been slipped is gonna have rot ...". My 2001 Chris Craft Constellation 26 "lives" on her trailer (high and dry) and has spent most of her life in a climate controlled toy-shed in the high, dry desert of Wyoming - dry...
It seems that my electric brakes on my tandem axel steel trailer are loosing their "grip". I test them by flicking the brake controller to MAX BLAST when pulling out of the driveway and easily notice the extra drag of the trailer but their effectiveness seems to be waning over the years. My...
Consider how/where it's been stored - dry stored/trailer or slip. Also consider engine/drive hours (thinking VP and Mercruisers here) on the older cruisers. I see some 20+ year old dry-stored boats with 400-500 hours (just broken in?). Compare that with a 10 year old boat with 1000+ hours...
While it might be possible to replace the bellows without removing the pivot housing, removing it makes it much easier to access. When removing the pivot housing break the female allen head bolts loose BEFORE you pull the drive. The weight of the drive will help you break those suckers loose...
My DP-SM bellows were last changed in 2011. My boat is dry stored (fresh water only, trailered and inside) when not in use. It saw about 200 hours use in 24 years. I changed both bellows this spring. If you are handy with tools, don't sweat pulling the drive - watch some youtube vids - it's...
That's a lot of work but really the only way to know for sure. The sensed (fuel level float) fuel quantity in my boat varies considerably with the pitch attitude of the hull. Based on experience, it's pretty accurate when I'm cruising on plane. It's very conservative (i.e. shows EMPTY when...
This works for me ... Starting off w/ engine full DOWN and hull tabs full UP. Hammer down - as the the speed stabilizes and the hull is on plane, I begin trimming the engine UP while watching the bow rise. At max pitch the bow begins to porpoise and I can feel a rumble under my feet...
^^^^ THIS ^^^^
I have a 2001 5.7GXi-A. Contacted Fox Marine and they knew exactly what I needed. Easy install. Works Great. Turned an old cruiser into my "Glass Cockpit" pride and joy.
