Official 280 Sundancer Thread

That’s it. And sorry about that, I just saw your post while looking around the forum and didn’t know until last week when I replaced mine that this is the one.
 
Hello all, I am interested in installing a level gauge in the fresh water tank. Looks like the smart craft system is setup to monitor a sensor, but I cannot figure out what sensor I would use or how to install. Anyone have any info?

thanks

josh
 
Hello all, I am interested in installing a level gauge in the fresh water tank. Looks like the smart craft system is setup to monitor a sensor, but I cannot figure out what sensor I would use or how to install. Anyone have any info?

thanks

josh

I know the Smartcraft fuel tank harness contains wires for two additional tanks. I also know that it will plug into a standard resistance based tank sender for fuel. When I converted our 280 to SC all I had to do was find the pink fuel line on the Sea Ray harness and splice the SC wire into that to bring the fuel tank on line. No special sender needed. The SC tank harness originated off of a plug near the ECM (?) on the engine. It is a three wire plug.

KUS USA handles Wema tank senders and they make water tank senders (one is on our new boat) that should work.
 
Thanks Henry. I found this today on eBay and figure I’ll give it a try. Looks like an easy install and it’s German engineering so it must be good quality. https://www.ebay.com/i/264120861751?chn=ps

[fQUOTE="Henry Boyd, post: 1174965, member: 1155"]I know the Smartcraft fuel tank harness contains wires for two additional tanks. I also know that it will plug into a standard resistance based tank sender for fuel. When I converted our 280 to SC all I had to do was find the pink fuel line on the Sea Ray harness and splice the SC wire into that to bring the fuel tank on line. No special sender needed. The SC tank harness originated off of a plug near the ECM (?) on the engine. It is a three wire plug.

KUS USA handles Wema tank senders and they make water tank senders (one is on our new boat) that should work.[/QUOTE]
 
Thanks Henry. I found this today on eBay and figure I’ll give it a try. Looks like an easy install and it’s German engineering so it must be good quality. https://www.ebay.com/i/264120861751?chn=ps

[fQUOTE="Henry Boyd, post: 1174965, member: 1155"]I know the Smartcraft fuel tank harness contains wires for two additional tanks. I also know that it will plug into a standard resistance based tank sender for fuel. When I converted our 280 to SC all I had to do was find the pink fuel line on the Sea Ray harness and splice the SC wire into that to bring the fuel tank on line. No special sender needed. The SC tank harness originated off of a plug near the ECM (?) on the engine. It is a three wire plug.

KUS USA handles Wema tank senders and they make water tank senders (one is on our new boat) that should work.
[/QUOTE]

That looks like it will do the job if it is physically the right size. I assume by being a sender and display it is self calibrating. But, I’m not sure that will work with Smartcraft.
 
But, I’m not sure that will work with Smartcraft.[/QUOTE]
I was wondering the same thing. Josh, Henry knows more about changing/updating systems than I do, so I'll defer to him on this: That's a 12V unit - will it work with the 5V Smartcraft system? Don't assume I'm correct on this - it's just something that I would wonder and find out more about before buying.
 
But, I’m not sure that will work with Smartcraft.
I was wondering the same thing. Josh, Henry knows more about changing/updating systems than I do, so I'll defer to him on this: That's a 12V unit - will it work with the 5V Smartcraft system? Don't assume I'm correct on this - it's just something that I would wonder and find out more about before buying.[/QUOTE]

A traditional tank sender is based on resistance change:

American Standard 240-33 ohms (240 ohms at empty , 33 ohms at full), or,
European Standard 0-180 ohms (0 ohms at empty, 180 ohms at full). This is where the float moves up and down as the liquid height changes and in doing so changes the resistance in the circuit that in turn adjust the voltage.

So the sender can be used with 5,6, 12, or 24 volts seamlessly. The issue is that Smartcraft is based on 5vdc and introducing 12 would be catastrophic. As a stand-alone this could work just fine, however tying it in to SC could be an issue. The specs on the sender aren’t clear enough to determine if it could be used without the display. There are many other ways of measuring fluid level and at this point we don’t know what besides resistance change senders work with Smartcraft.
 
Thanks guys. I was just going to use that system as a stand alone. Figured that would be the easiest way to go.
 
Thank, Henry. What you said makes perfect sense. I saw "12V" and didn't think it through that the voltage doesn't really matter to the pot.
 
We purchased an 2003 280 this year - our first boat and we loved every minute of it this summer.

We want to redo the cabin - the cushions are a little rough. Looking at some plush vinyl a friend used in his Carver that is super comfortable and thicker than the original pads. I'd love to see pictures of colors, materials, and patterns of updated cabins along with an other redecorating ideas.
 
We purchased an 2003 280 this year - our first boat and we loved every minute of it this summer.

We want to redo the cabin - the cushions are a little rough. Looking at some plush vinyl a friend used in his Carver that is super comfortable and thicker than the original pads. I'd love to see pictures of colors, materials, and patterns of updated cabins along with an other redecorating ideas.

Whatever product you plan to use should be one made for marine use. While there are the obvious reasons ultraviolet exposure and direct water contact for marine grade, less obvious is resistance to mold and mildew. We are redoing some of the interior cushions with a fabric called Ultraleather. We chose it because it is the same fabric used by the company that built our helm seats.
 
Whatever product you plan to use should be one made for marine use. While there are the obvious reasons ultraviolet exposure and direct water contact for marine grade, less obvious is resistance to mold and mildew. We are redoing some of the interior cushions with a fabric called Ultraleather. We chose it because it is the same fabric used by the company that built our helm seats.

I have a local boat canvas guy - what we are looking at definitely is marine use material.
 
We have a 2005 265 Sundancer and are looking to do some remodeling in the cabin. The cushions in the V-berth are stiff and uncomfortable, and I'm thinking of getting a mattress topper, but I'm also considering removing the bolsters along the side of sleeping area (we never set it up as a table so have no need of them as back rests). Anyone ever remove them? How do you manage the storage under the bed if it's always set up as a bed? The cushions need to be removed to access the area.
 
I just found this thread. I recently bought a 2001 280DA. Mine has a single 6.2 B3 and generator. I'm looking forward to the process of making it ours and working through the issues. We are the third owners, the second owner bought it in April of 2020 and then decided to buy a HUGE house and sell the boat. It's only got 161 hours on the engine and 200 on the generator.

The original owners kept it immaculate and although they spent lots of time on it, they didn't put many hours on it. The guy we bought it from was pretty new to boats, so his family took it out often and promptly spent $5K on getting the moving partsoving again. We have had everything serviced thoroughly and are ready to get some use out of this boat. I'm fully expecting to have grimlins to work through because of the lack of run time.
 
Screenshot_20210117-115014_Adobe Acrobat.jpg
I need to remove the rear facing seat (#9 in the pic) to have the plywood replaced on the seat bottom. Anyone on here ever remove this themselves? I'd like to take it to my local upholstery shop.
 
That seats slides back on rails. Look on the starboard side under the seat. Should be a knob to loosen and slide it back.
 
That seats slides back on rails. Look on the starboard side under the seat. Should be a knob to loosen and slide it back.
Correct, and the seat bottom is attached to the fiberglass base by a piano hinge. It's very tight quarters and seems some of the screws are almost impossible to reach on the far end. I'm just wondering if there's a trick?
 
Figured it out so figured I'd post the answer. The part I needed to remove is attached to the track with 2 screws. Once those are out the section of seat bottom can be lifted and the piano hinge and screws are easily accessible.
20210117_174604.jpg 20210117_175258.jpg
 
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