Good morning everyone! We just recently picked up our new Q5 and Love the boat so far but we have a few questions. First off let me preface the questions with some information. I have been running boats all my life and this is my third boat to own. All the previous boats were aluminum boats with the most recent being an H56 Xpress. As you can imagine, this boat is a huge and very welcome upgrade. I know my way around boats and motors so I am familiar with boat/motor design, maintenance, and operation.
Boat in Question:
2013 Tahoe Q5i SF
Mercruiser 4.3 MPI
Now for the questions:
1. First off I really like the way the boat handles turns and how she runs out. The question I have is that she seems to take moderately sized wakes/waves rather harshly unless you are going real slow. I know these boats have a V bow but a rather flat bottom so I guess that accounts for some of that but it seems to take the wakes/waves harder than my last aluminum bass boat since I could traverse such wakes at speed without too much pain, lol! I started wondering if maybe I was handling the wakes wrong by slowing down too much which would put more of that flat bottom in contact with the passing wake but I was afraid to try to take the wake at speed with the family onboard and figured I would ask some of you who are a lot more experienced with this type of hull design or boat about your experiences with such and how you deal with them. It just may be the way these boats handle such but I wanted to see what everyone else had to say.
2. I have been reading up on these boats for some time now before purchase and read where the top running rpm for the Mercruiser was around 4800 and the rev limiter would kick in around 4950. When we took the boat out, we easily saw in excess of 5000 RPMS and that was maybe at 3/4 throttle. I suspected the tach was inaccurate because even if the rev limiter failed to detect the over speed, the engine would be screaming which it was not. I don't know where the RPMS would have maxed out at because I was afraid to go any further on the throttle especially since we are still in the break in period but I think it could easily hit 6000 RPMS if pushed WOT. I got home and looked at the setting on the tach at it was set for the V6 motor as it should be but I found that the ground wire going to the tach was not even secure with a nut. The eyelet on the end of the ground wire was just floating around the ground stud on the back of the tach and the only reason it was still on the stud was because all the wires were tightly zip tied together keeping it in place. I found a nut that would fit on the ground stud and properly secured the ground wire. I have not had a chance to test the operation yet. Do you all think that this loose ground could cause the tach to read high or do you think the engine is over speeding for some reason and the rev limiter failed?
3. I know this may be a stupid question, but is there a way to "unlock" the captain and co-captain chairs where they will swivel around freely without having to hold the lever?
4. When we picked up the boat, I just made sure that the right battery charger had been installed and it was. But to install the charger, they screwed four stainless screws through the charger frames and into the bottom of the boat...... When I got home and saw this, I freaked for a second and jumped out and found that the screws did not penetrate the outside of the hull. I mean, the dealership should know whether the screws will go through the hull or not, but I don't trust them. So my question is: how thick are the hulls at the bottom of the boat and is the hull double walled or something that would make screwing screws into the bottom of the boat okay?
5. Last but not least, what is the horn supposed to sound like on these boats? The horn is a thru hull type which exits the side of the boat near the helm. Mine sounds like a semi-loud piezo buzzer of some type but is really not loud enough to be heard at any distance. Is this the normal horn noise or is mine broken, lol?
Okay, thanks for reading the long post and I hope you all have some answers to these little questions. As for the rpm and horn issue, I know the boat is under warranty and if I have any problems I should just take it in and I will. I was just looking for a first opinion as to what may be wrong or not wrong before taking it in to the dealer.
Thanks for everyone's time and I look forward to hearing your thoughts!
Boat in Question:
2013 Tahoe Q5i SF
Mercruiser 4.3 MPI
Now for the questions:
1. First off I really like the way the boat handles turns and how she runs out. The question I have is that she seems to take moderately sized wakes/waves rather harshly unless you are going real slow. I know these boats have a V bow but a rather flat bottom so I guess that accounts for some of that but it seems to take the wakes/waves harder than my last aluminum bass boat since I could traverse such wakes at speed without too much pain, lol! I started wondering if maybe I was handling the wakes wrong by slowing down too much which would put more of that flat bottom in contact with the passing wake but I was afraid to try to take the wake at speed with the family onboard and figured I would ask some of you who are a lot more experienced with this type of hull design or boat about your experiences with such and how you deal with them. It just may be the way these boats handle such but I wanted to see what everyone else had to say.
2. I have been reading up on these boats for some time now before purchase and read where the top running rpm for the Mercruiser was around 4800 and the rev limiter would kick in around 4950. When we took the boat out, we easily saw in excess of 5000 RPMS and that was maybe at 3/4 throttle. I suspected the tach was inaccurate because even if the rev limiter failed to detect the over speed, the engine would be screaming which it was not. I don't know where the RPMS would have maxed out at because I was afraid to go any further on the throttle especially since we are still in the break in period but I think it could easily hit 6000 RPMS if pushed WOT. I got home and looked at the setting on the tach at it was set for the V6 motor as it should be but I found that the ground wire going to the tach was not even secure with a nut. The eyelet on the end of the ground wire was just floating around the ground stud on the back of the tach and the only reason it was still on the stud was because all the wires were tightly zip tied together keeping it in place. I found a nut that would fit on the ground stud and properly secured the ground wire. I have not had a chance to test the operation yet. Do you all think that this loose ground could cause the tach to read high or do you think the engine is over speeding for some reason and the rev limiter failed?
3. I know this may be a stupid question, but is there a way to "unlock" the captain and co-captain chairs where they will swivel around freely without having to hold the lever?
4. When we picked up the boat, I just made sure that the right battery charger had been installed and it was. But to install the charger, they screwed four stainless screws through the charger frames and into the bottom of the boat...... When I got home and saw this, I freaked for a second and jumped out and found that the screws did not penetrate the outside of the hull. I mean, the dealership should know whether the screws will go through the hull or not, but I don't trust them. So my question is: how thick are the hulls at the bottom of the boat and is the hull double walled or something that would make screwing screws into the bottom of the boat okay?
5. Last but not least, what is the horn supposed to sound like on these boats? The horn is a thru hull type which exits the side of the boat near the helm. Mine sounds like a semi-loud piezo buzzer of some type but is really not loud enough to be heard at any distance. Is this the normal horn noise or is mine broken, lol?
Okay, thanks for reading the long post and I hope you all have some answers to these little questions. As for the rpm and horn issue, I know the boat is under warranty and if I have any problems I should just take it in and I will. I was just looking for a first opinion as to what may be wrong or not wrong before taking it in to the dealer.
Thanks for everyone's time and I look forward to hearing your thoughts!
