Official 280 Sundancer Thread

Hi all new member here from Australia. Got my 2008 280DA about a year ago. Here the 280DA is sold as the 315DA for the overall length. Been really enjoying it so far.
I am planning to install dinghy snap davits to my swim platform to allow easy storage of my dinghy. To do so I need to bolt through the swim platform but on the port side the ladder makes this very tight. What I am hoping to find is the underside dimensions so I can work out where I have room to get the bolts in whilst avoiding the fibreglass support ribs for the platform. Does anyone have these dimensions or a diagram that shows what these are? I don't want to drill and find I'm going right into the supports.
Any help greatly appreciated!
 
Davewillo said:
Hi all new member here from Australia. Got my 2008 280DA about a year ago. Here the 280DA is sold as the 315DA for the overall length. Been really enjoying it so far.
I am planning to install dinghy snap davits to my swim platform to allow easy storage of my dinghy. To do so I need to bolt through the swim platform but on the port side the ladder makes this very tight. What I am hoping to find is the underside dimensions so I can work out where I have room to get the bolts in whilst avoiding the fibreglass support ribs for the platform. Does anyone have these dimensions or a diagram that shows what these are? I don't want to drill and find I'm going right into the supports.
Any help greatly appreciated!
Click to expand...
Personally, I have never seen that info published anywhere. But... I thought on your platform you could just look underneath and see the supports?
 
Lazy Daze said:
Personally, I have never seen that info published anywhere. But... I thought on your platform you could just look underneath and see the supports?
Click to expand...
Thanks for the reply Dennis. With the boat in the water I can kind of see where the supports are but not well enough to measure or line up the davits. It's coming out for maintenance next week so I might just have to wait until then. I've been told the best way to fit the davits and the dinghy part are to float the dinghy behind the boat and mark everything up from there. I may just have to work in reverse by fitting the davits first and then marking up on the dinghy later. Any thoughts appreciated.
 
I've now found out that it's not necessary to avoid the supports beams. If I drill into one then I just need to use stainless steel screws instead of bolts. Sounds a lot easier!
 
Claude Picinali said:
Hi, I am from Australia ( Melbourne), where are you, may be able to help you
Click to expand...
Hi Claude
Hope all is well in Melbourne! I'm in Perth and look forward to getting back to Melbourne in the new year!
I've just had the boat out for service, antifoul etc. and worked out where it all goes while it was out. I'll have 2 holes that will hit supports but I'll just screw them instead of bolts.
 
Ideally, Dave, what you want to do for those two screw areas is over size the hole (larger than the threads and slightly deeper), then fill it with epoxy. Now re-drill your pilot hole and install. You'll obviously use a good quality sealant here, but "in case" water gets past the sealant, it won't enter the core.
 
Lazy Daze said:
Ideally, Dave, what you want to do for those two screw areas is over size the hole (larger than the threads and slightly deeper), then fill it with epoxy. Now re-drill your pilot hole and install. You'll obviously use a good quality sealant here, but "in case" water gets past the sealant, it won't enter the core.
Click to expand...
Thanks Lazy Daze. Good advice there which I will follow.
 
Unfortunately, you will get more/better response if you go to the Club Sea Ray Facebook Group. You have to join it as it is a private group. A lot of us have migrated there (7.5K members)
 
Thank you Stroh but I'm not on Facebook.
My fuel gauge doesn't work and I cannot find anyone to fix it. It can say empty when it has a full tank and just goes all over the place with no rhyme or reason. Is this likely to be a faulty sender unit or can it be recalibrated? I get passed from one person to another and no-one seems to know what to do. Has anyone had experience with this?
 
The senders have definitely been a problem for these boats. I replaced mine. If you are talking about calibrating the smartcraft gauges it can be done. If it’s a needle style gauge I don’t know about that.
 
JimFromMD said:
The senders have definitely been a problem for these boats. I replaced mine. If you are talking about calibrating the smartcraft gauges it can be done. If it’s a needle style gauge I don’t know about that.
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Thanks Jim. It's the needle style. I'll see if I can find someone to change the sender. How hard is it to access the sender?
 
Davewillo said:
Thanks Jim. It's the needle style. I'll see if I can find someone to change the sender. How hard is it to access the sender?
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Dave, your fuel gauge has a needle, but it's still a Smartcraft gauge. This means that the needle is redundant - it's simply showing what the SC gauge tells it to. Does the fuel level in the SC gauge do the same thing as the needle? There are reset procedures for SC that are listed in the SC manual (you can find it online if you don't have the original) - I never remember the procedure w/o looking.

BUT... a fuel sender is a fuel sender is a fuel sender and it makes no difference what boat it is on, they all work the same. You can test it by simply disconnecting the pink wire at the gauge and then also shorting it to ground right there. With the key on, shorted to ground should show full on the gauge, disconnected should show empty. If that works, the issue is the sender. If things are still wonky, the issue is the wiring in between and/or the SC gauge/fuel gauge.

Access is "probably" through the midcabin floor... unless you can reach it from the bilge.
 
Davewillo said:
Thanks Jim. It's the needle style. I'll see if I can find someone to change the sender. How hard is it to access the sender?
Click to expand...
So the original senders in mine were the float on an arm / lever style. The float went bad (all suspected because of ethanol). I replaced my senders with a rod style (made by Royce Industries, 20" rod for my specific tanks) that has a float that travels up and down the rod. The replacements I got also had the floats go bad, which turned out to be a recall from the manufacturer. They sent new floats and instructions how to change them. Have been good since then.

My 05 300DA has two aluminum tanks, one on each side of the boat in the bilge. Had to cut some insulation to make vertical room to get the port one out/in. Starboard was easier. I'm not sure where your fuel tanks are in the 280. Others here may know.
 
Lazy Daze said:
Dave, your fuel gauge has a needle, but it's still a Smartcraft gauge. This means that the needle is redundant - it's simply showing what the SC gauge tells it to. Does the fuel level in the SC gauge do the same thing as the needle? There are reset procedures for SC that are listed in the SC manual (you can find it online if you don't have the original) - I never remember the procedure w/o looking.

BUT... a fuel sender is a fuel sender is a fuel sender and it makes no difference what boat it is on, they all work the same. You can test it by simply disconnecting the pink wire at the gauge and then also shorting it to ground right there. With the key on, shorted to ground should show full on the gauge, disconnected should show empty. If that works, the issue is the sender. If things are still wonky, the issue is the wiring in between and/or the SC gauge/fuel gauge.

Access is "probably" through the midcabin floor... unless you can reach it from the bilge.
Click to expand...

Thanks Dennis. How do I short the gauge to ground? Not familiar with boat wiring matters.
 
JimFromMD said:
So the original senders in mine were the float on an arm / lever style. The float went bad (all suspected because of ethanol). I replaced my senders with a rod style (made by Royce Industries, 20" rod for my specific tanks) that has a float that travels up and down the rod. The replacements I got also had the floats go bad, which turned out to be a recall from the manufacturer. They sent new floats and instructions how to change them. Have been good since then.

My 05 300DA has two aluminum tanks, one on each side of the boat in the bilge. Had to cut some insulation to make vertical room to get the port one out/in. Starboard was easier. I'm not sure where your fuel tanks are in the 280. Others here may know.
Click to expand...
Thanks Jim. I will start with the gauge then work back to the sender and go from there. If I need to remove the fuel tank then it'll have to wait until the boat comes out for annual maintenance around October.
 
Davewillo said:
Thanks Dennis. How do I short the gauge to ground? Not familiar with boat wiring matters.
Click to expand...
Sure, no problem. "Short" basically means "touch". Touch the pink wire to a known-good ground. The ground at the sender "should" be good.
 
Davewillo said:
Thanks Jim. I will start with the gauge then work back to the sender and go from there. If I need to remove the fuel tank then it'll have to wait until the boat comes out for annual maintenance around October.
Click to expand...

Hopefully it's the gauge. BTW I didn't have to remove the tank if I gave that impression. The senders are screwed to the top of the tank in my case. Would anticipate it being the same for yours. Burn some fuel off so the tank isn't super full, then unscrew, work the old sender out of the tank at whatever angle it takes, then add the new one, reconnect wires, secure.
 
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