Carpediem44DB
Well-Known Member
- Aug 18, 2015
- 3,230
- Boat Info
- 2000 Carver 506
2006 44 DB Sedan Bridge
- Engines
- Volvo TAMD 74 P
So Volvo does have a decent reputation for many of their Marine products. Many of the diesel engines are really considered bullet proof and good for thousands of hours of service. The major gripes are the availability of parts and service techs. My big issue is the Electronic Engine Controls. They are single lever controls that are computer supervised so any little glitch drops an engine into neutral and 1100 rpm idle. It makes no difference to the system what perilous position the vessel is, if it wants to it will just go limp, usually on just one engine. I have had the boat for 9 months now and only really but 15 hours on it mostly because I just don't trust the bitch. We get a lot of use out of the boat as a condo but that was not the idea.
The Carver owners forum is about as helpful as tits on a boar but the Boat Diesel. com guys are very helpful.
The engine harnesses have at a minimum, four 8 pin connectors between the helm and the EDU on each of the engines. These plugs are found to be the major culprit in engine electronics gremlins. The collective wisdom is to simply cut every plug combo out of the harnesses and wire directly with marine quality environmental splices and then encapsulate the entire splice in good marine heat shrink. Several owners have posted that they did just that and virtually all of their engine operations woes were history. This is my new project. I hope this does the trick so we can enjoy some of the best Bay Area boating season (Oct-Dec).
I just really miss the relative simplicity of the Cummins 500s. Frankly the quality of the harness plugs is better on the Cummins by far.
Carpe Diem
The Carver owners forum is about as helpful as tits on a boar but the Boat Diesel. com guys are very helpful.
The engine harnesses have at a minimum, four 8 pin connectors between the helm and the EDU on each of the engines. These plugs are found to be the major culprit in engine electronics gremlins. The collective wisdom is to simply cut every plug combo out of the harnesses and wire directly with marine quality environmental splices and then encapsulate the entire splice in good marine heat shrink. Several owners have posted that they did just that and virtually all of their engine operations woes were history. This is my new project. I hope this does the trick so we can enjoy some of the best Bay Area boating season (Oct-Dec).
I just really miss the relative simplicity of the Cummins 500s. Frankly the quality of the harness plugs is better on the Cummins by far.
Carpe Diem