2000 260DA fuse panel bypass

[FishOn]

I've owned a 2000 260DA for about a year now. I've noticed that one of the previous owners must have rewired the dash bypassing the fuse box (behind the dash). The box is still there but nothing goes though it now. Everything has inline fuses. Is there any reason why this would have been done? Is there an inherit flaw with the panel or something?

 

[JimG]

That's odd... the only thing I can figure is the PO ran out of fuse positions for accessories, so just used inline for everything.

 

[Lazy Daze]

There must be more to this that you're not aware of or saying. Your boat used a rubber keypad for switches that then communicated with the fuse box. They worked together. The rubber switchpad (on the dash) will not work without that fuse box. If you look closer, you'll see that the fuse box is not a simple fuse box - it's much more complicated, using a computer board.

If you now have regular switches on your dash, then that makes more sense. There must have been an issue with one of the original parts of the system and rather than fixing/replacing, the PO bypassed the whole system and put it regular switches... which is perfectly fine (assuming it was done properly).

 

[JimG]

Good call Dennis... I didn't realize that the 2000 260 had the button pads and EIM's.

 

[Lazy Daze]

Yeah, there's a lot of ins and outs and changes to the models over the years, Jim. It's hard to remember sometimes.

 

[FishOn]

Great! Thanks guys! What you are saying makes sense. The PO (actually most likely the PPO) did bypass the button pad. I think they stopped making it or it was prone to failure so a lot of people did this. I saw something to that effect mentioned somewhere anyhow. The dash panel was replaced with standard rocker switches at some point. From what you are saying the the original fuse panel can only be used with the original control pad. Is that correct? That would explain it. Maybe I'll install a different fuse panel. I think that would be a lot cleaner.

 

[Lazy Daze]

The rubber switchpad and fuse box are both still available - but it gets costly to replace them. The switchpad isn't bad, but the box is costly - at least until Sea Ray finishes up an agreement with a new company to make it, anyways. Some have chosen to convert back to regular switches, instead. If it's possible to use the existing fuse box with regular switches, I'm not aware of how... at least not without some messing. I would, however, prefer to see a nice, clean looking fuse block rather than a bunch of individual inline fuses - but functionally, what you have is just fine.

Not that it really matters, but it looks like someone replaced the gauges, too.

 

[FishOn]

Good to know about the "smart" fuse panel and guages too. I really appreciate the help figuring this out! Little by little I'm getting up to speed about my boat. Thanks for sharing your knowledge!