OFFICIAL - 450DA Owner's Thread****

Good to know thanks guys. I will do some more research before I commit. I like the stainless option aesthetically but have seen some scratched and rusted so am leaning towards galvanized.
 
Prior to loading for shipment, I ran the 450DA out in the Pacific Ocean.

Deep water with a lot of widely spaced rollers.

I quickly realized the importance of those red stickers warning to close the sliding doors to the fwd berth and mid-cabin while underway, but found the factory locking system cumbersome to use.

Easy to lock the fwd cabin from the inside and exit via the salon door.

Had to use a deck plate tool (screwdriver) to secure the pair of mid-cabin doors.

Thinking about having my canvas guy make some straps with snaps or a canvas twist lock - that would be a way to either keep them open or closed while underway

How does the BRAIN TRUST deal with this issue, and what, if any modifications have y'all done with these?

BEST !

RWS
 
The 450DA was not Sea Ray's first boat with pocket doors……..before you re-invent the wheel here, suggest you examine the track system overhead. My pocket doors all had a catch or recess in the stack that captured the door trolley and held it in place.

If your has broken or worn parts, we made one 40 mile run home in 12' + seas and I just closed all the doors and latched them closed. You can latch the forward compartment doors from the inside and exit the stateroom thru the 2 head doors where both doors have positive latches. Latch the aft compartment closed from the outside.
 
Hi Frank,

Both doors have the basic "pocket door" latch.

Fwd is easy, just exit through the head.

Mid-cabin - the lock faces aft for the privacy of guests, but is easily overridden with a screwdriver.

Can i simply reverse this lock (or maybe a PO already did that?

Are these latches adequate in rough seas?

THANKS !

RWS
 
The latches on the doors in my 450DA held fine……for 25 years. If they pop loose then you should be tied up to a pole somewhere instead of beating yourselves and the boat up in seas it wasn't designed for.
 
I'm likely getting a wee bit ahead of myself, as the boat is still on the transport, however having done multiple upgrades/improvements and diesel conversion over my 20 years with my current 10 Meter Trojan, I am working through the thought process as to how to make this 450DA, which will now be my LAST BOAT as reliable and trouble free as possible.

A couple of years ago I blew a raw water hose on the Trojan. This was the single on the water failure I ever had EVER since installing the factory new Yanmars in 2006. After reading a horror story about a boat whose engine room filled with water when a raw water hose burst I always intended on installing a BOREL EXHAUST ALARM, which will immediately warn you of such a failure, even if you were to pick up a plastic bag in your strainer. So after my own hose failure, I did install this alarm for both Yanmars & the Northern Lights genny.

I plan to do the same on the Sundancer, along with many other upgrades to things at the dash such as generator oil pressure & water temp gauges, transmission temp gauges, an alternative to the Systems Monitor, boost & pyrometer gauges for the CATS, (my background is old school, 1980's MACK TRUCK engines and boost /pyrometer gauges saved many an engine by detecting a problem early on) and additonal independent higher water bilge pumps wired independently.

Anyway, I'm getting off the subject here which is over the 20 years as I did these improvements to the Trojan I quickly overpowered the factory PANDUIT conduit boxes for getting wiring to the helm/dash area. Had I planned ahead I could have easily added a couple of runs of PVC or even large sanitation hose (smooth inside surface) to serve the purpose of easily running single, duplex or more wiring to the helm area.

This would have eliminated fishing wires through with coat hangers under the helm, and kept everything in one or two places. Had I realized where I was going I could have easily taken a hole saw and added another opening alongside the factory openings and the sanitation hose/PVC/conduit would have made any future wiring additions very simple indeed.

TROJAN attached numbers to the factory wiring which matched the factory schematic. I do keep a labelmaker on board and yes I do (Yeah, I'm anal about the boat) label wiring for future reference.

So, after all the discussion above, the question is:

Has anyone made conduit runs and can you offer any tips on doing this?

Where did you run the conduit? What material did you use? Were you able to avoid the issue of using a hole saw and then having to seal the core?

I should add that I have a VIRGIN boat.

She has 450 hours and spent her life as a dock queen.

Her owners didn't turn wrenches and I have seen zero evidence of the dreaded PO wiring mess that can be inherited with a 25 year old boat.

Your comments are appreciated :)

RWS
 
I think based upon what I know about these SR boats is there isn't enough room in any of the chases for a conduit let alone any significant additional wiring. Rather my advice is to spent finding ways to access where the wiring was routed and making that access a bit easier for future access; especially if you plan to keep the boat for a while. For example the panel over the AV cabinet is access to the main harness routing from the bridge to the engine room. That panel was held in place with those nylon christmas tree fasteners. After pulling that panel five times I got smart and replaced the christmas tree fasteners with rare earth magnets and now I'm not tearing things up to remove it....
The second thing is your boat is probably past due for update to the helm; I recommend doing that update once and do it as a complete as possible.
Strip the boat of all unused wiring then go back with new. You will find that modern systems use far less wiring than original.
Plan near term and long term and do drawings; I can't tell you how much my drawings have helped me in not only doing the systems integration and installation but also modifications and future additions.
Get your NMEA 2000 backbone in place. Use Anchor or Maretron products for that backbone; they are simply the most robust and rugged for the application. Plan for access to that backbone (tees) all around the boat.
 
I'm likely getting a wee bit ahead of myself, as the boat is still on the transport, however having done multiple upgrades/improvements and diesel conversion over my 20 years with my current 10 Meter Trojan, I am working through the thought process as to how to make this 450DA, which will now be my LAST BOAT as reliable and trouble free as possible.

A couple of years ago I blew a raw water hose on the Trojan. This was the single on the water failure I ever had EVER since installing the factory new Yanmars in 2006. After reading a horror story about a boat whose engine room filled with water when a raw water hose burst I always intended on installing a BOREL EXHAUST ALARM, which will immediately warn you of such a failure, even if you were to pick up a plastic bag in your strainer. So after my own hose failure, I did install this alarm for both Yanmars & the Northern Lights genny.

I plan to do the same on the Sundancer, along with many other upgrades to things at the dash such as generator oil pressure & water temp gauges, transmission temp gauges, an alternative to the Systems Monitor, boost & pyrometer gauges for the CATS, (my background is old school, 1980's MACK TRUCK engines and boost /pyrometer gauges saved many an engine by detecting a problem early on) and additonal independent higher water bilge pumps wired independently.

Anyway, I'm getting off the subject here which is over the 20 years as I did these improvements to the Trojan I quickly overpowered the factory PANDUIT conduit boxes for getting wiring to the helm/dash area. Had I planned ahead I could have easily added a couple of runs of PVC or even large sanitation hose (smooth inside surface) to serve the purpose of easily running single, duplex or more wiring to the helm area.

This would have eliminated fishing wires through with coat hangers under the helm, and kept everything in one or two places. Had I realized where I was going I could have easily taken a hole saw and added another opening alongside the factory openings and the sanitation hose/PVC/conduit would have made any future wiring additions very simple indeed.

TROJAN attached numbers to the factory wiring which matched the factory schematic. I do keep a labelmaker on board and yes I do (Yeah, I'm anal about the boat) label wiring for future reference.

So, after all the discussion above, the question is:

Has anyone made conduit runs and can you offer any tips on doing this?

Where did you run the conduit? What material did you use? Were you able to avoid the issue of using a hole saw and then having to seal the core?

I should add that I have a VIRGIN boat.

She has 450 hours and spent her life as a dock queen.

Her owners didn't turn wrenches and I have seen zero evidence of the dreaded PO wiring mess that can be inherited with a 25 year old boat.

Your comments are appreciated :)

RWS
If you pull off the starboard side panel it opens space for you too run wires from the helm to the ER. if you look back a few post at Kvduff he has a picture of the panel removed.

as for the cedar try lightly sanding it
 
1998 450DA out of the water, on the hard.

Might be a good time to handle some gelcoat issues on the swim platform where the PO's 1500 lb capacity crane did some damage.

Anyone know what would be the best color match ?

crane photos below:

BEST !

RWS
Transom_Crane.jpg
 

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This forum is incredible. Thank you all for sharing your years of hard-earned knowledge. I'm working on some winter projects and one of them is a toolkit in an old pelican case I had. I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts on must-have tools that are outside the obvious basic tools? Also, probably a silly question, but the boat is new to me. Is there a need for both metric and standard sizes aboard?
 
I'dd any thoughts on must-have tools that are outside the obvious basic tools? Also, probably a silly question, but the boat is new to me. Is there a need for both metric and standard sizes aboard?[/QUOTE]


I am a stickler for using the right tool for the job.In the boat if you use SAE tools on Metric fasteners you create a problem in chipping paint which means a touch job later to clean up the surface rust and repaint. I carried high quality metric and SAE long pattern combination wrenches in a chrome finish on the boat. Another tool I prefer are band type filter wrenches in sizes to fit your oil filters, a smaller one for the Cat fuel filter and a 3rd cup type or plier type filter wrench to fit the Westerbeke.

I also made a set of tools to capture and retrieve engine anodes that get separated from theit brass cap. I've used them a bunch until I learned that changing the engine zincs more frequently than recommended saves a lotto bad words and saves a lot of diving for zincs.
 

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