Last year, after going 3 year without a boat I bought a used 2005 Sea Ray 220 Sundeck, 5.0, Alpha 1 with 250 hours. The boat was fresh water and I use it in brackish. The 5.0 was super clean and the boat was kept in a boatel. After 1 year we are immensely happy with it. Roomy, quick, plenty of storage.
This week I removed the Clarion XMD3 and replaced it with a Clarion M508. I could have gone cheaper but I was not interested laying in the console in 90 degree heat rewiring the pigtail and hoped staying with the same brand it would be plug and play. I was right, the M508 used the same plug set up and the install took less than an hour. The hole in the console was a bit big but the tabs on the DIN housing had plenty of tabs.
The remote in the cockpit of course was original and in the 15 years since new things had changed.. I went with the Clarion MW1. This required some modification. The previous remote was a 2" hole so I had to use a hole saw and enlarge it to 3". I made a 2 inch plug and put a small piece of tube on the drill bit to make it protrude so it would fit in the hole and act as a guide. Drilling a 3" hole in your boats dash is a nerve wracking thing so I triple checked fit and went for it. Came out perfect. Plugged it up and it worked perfectly.
The only issues I have had to take care of was a 2" chunk broken off the cavitation plate. $250 and that was fixed at a local boat shop and replacing a few dozen snaps riveted into the hull for the bow and cockpit covers. I used this site for research so I though it was only fair to contribute.
This week I removed the Clarion XMD3 and replaced it with a Clarion M508. I could have gone cheaper but I was not interested laying in the console in 90 degree heat rewiring the pigtail and hoped staying with the same brand it would be plug and play. I was right, the M508 used the same plug set up and the install took less than an hour. The hole in the console was a bit big but the tabs on the DIN housing had plenty of tabs.
The remote in the cockpit of course was original and in the 15 years since new things had changed.. I went with the Clarion MW1. This required some modification. The previous remote was a 2" hole so I had to use a hole saw and enlarge it to 3". I made a 2 inch plug and put a small piece of tube on the drill bit to make it protrude so it would fit in the hole and act as a guide. Drilling a 3" hole in your boats dash is a nerve wracking thing so I triple checked fit and went for it. Came out perfect. Plugged it up and it worked perfectly.
The only issues I have had to take care of was a 2" chunk broken off the cavitation plate. $250 and that was fixed at a local boat shop and replacing a few dozen snaps riveted into the hull for the bow and cockpit covers. I used this site for research so I though it was only fair to contribute.
