Official 320 Dancer Thread

topgun1185 said:
Has anyone installed rod holders in the gunwals of a 320. I was intrested in putting a couple in and wanted to get some measurments from anyone that has them already installed so when I drill there will be no worries.
Click to expand...

I did this on my 340. I used my friend's 320 as a guide. His were canted out 45 degrees. I couldn't understand why until I drilled mine. In the back section of the gunwales, there are the vents for the engine room. To keep water out of the ER, air goes into the vent, then up over a barrier, then down to a center section which has drain tubes to drain mist and splash, then up over a barrier and into the ER.

On my 340, I decided where I wanted them fore/aft, then measured from the gw sides to determine how to center them up on the non-skid surface from below to make sure the area was clear. The plastic barriers (see above) were in the way, but they are flexible. I made my best guess, then drilled a small hole from above - angle this hole aft about 30 degrees (like a fishing rod). The thickness of my gw tops change in that area, so I drilled so that the entire hole would be in the thick region. I then evaluated the position of the actual center of the proposed hole and was happy.

So, I placed the rod holder upside down on the gw to determine the entry angle for the hole. I then took an appropriately sized hole saw and placed the guide bit in the pre-drilled hole. The guide bit was not long enough to achieve the desired angle, so I angled it as much as practical without allowing room for the guide bit to jump out and the whole hole saw to go digging a ditch across the top of the boat.

Going slowly, I began to cut the aft portion of the hole (drill angled aft). Realize that at this angle, the hole saw will bottom out before you get through your gw. I had to back it out, chisel out the area, then drill again. Once I got all the way through, I trial-fit the rod holder. I bent the plastic barrier out of the way, but it kept rotating the rod holder as previously described. Additionally, the hole was not angled aft enough. Now that the hole was started, I was able use the big hole as a guide to angle it even more.

Once I got the big hole drilled in at the right angle (so the rod holder flange would sit flat), I inserted it and, once again, the barrier/divider tried to angle it out. I came up with a compromise angle that have my rod holders angling out about 15 degrees from straight aft. I had to hold them forcibly in the right position until I could mark the holes to pre-drill the screw holes for the rh flanges. I drilled those, re-inserted the rh and held the rh in position, added 4200 sealant on the screws and around the hole and under the flange, then screwed them in position. I've learned that when pre-drilling holes in fiberglass, drill larger than the shank and, obviously, smaller than the threads. With wood, you can drill small. With fiberglass, you can't. It will either not give and you will break the screw or it will crack or chip away the fiberglass.

They sit flush with a small amount of sealant filling the gaps in the diamonds of the non-slip surface - it is not noticeable. I am very, very happy with the installation.

On the 320, the dividing barriers may be closer together which may dictate more of an angle out like my buddy's 320.

Good luck.
 
We just separated from our 2003 320 which we bought new and loved dearly. Some thoughts after running her since 2003.

1. Boat pole - we zip-tied boat pole clips to the struts supporting the windshield, and mounted it horizontally under the windshield. It worked great - easy to get to, out of the way.

2. Camper Canvas - a must have. We have the full extension that dropped vertically onto the transom. Fantastic - make the cockpit usable always. Best fasteners would be the elastic bands - did not have them. Had snaps but switched to "dot" posts. The angle and stress is hard on that closure.

3. V-drives are great, docking became quite easy.

4. There is no light in the cockpit at night for dinner. The arch is far forward, so the arch lights don't help. We installed a rope light around the camper up high - worked great. DC would be better than AC lights if you can get them.

5. There is no engine room access.

6. Storage is very good.

A great boat- as stated no speed demon but a great family cruiser. We'll miss her. (but we'll get over it!)
 
I've noticed that a lot of people who own '04 - '05 320's and 340's move up to '04 - '05 420's and the like. This makes sense to me. They are happy with the style of those years, and the condition of their boats, but are ready to move up. It's not too hard to move up to a larger boat of the same year group after owning your boat for a few years as compared to moving up to a larger, newer boat.

I like the trend. Ours would be an '05 420 Da. I happen to have a friend who has one, and he has approached me about selling it, but we won't be ready for several years. We had our 250 for 10 years. My 340 warranty is good 'til the end of Summer '11.

We've almost finished making it the "Perfect" 340 (for us). Our marina can only handle a 340 or smaller. We're on an AF base. Our kids are moving out every couple of years (1 out of 2 to go). We have a great loan. I have a great grip on the maintenance. We've done all the big 3 - 4 year items. We love the boat.

Need I go on?
 
I've opened a new thread regarding batteries for 320DA:
http://clubsearay.com/forum/showthread.php?t=8174

One of my questions was which battery does what. I couldn't find the naswer in the manual, so I called Sea Ray customer service. The best answer they had was that I have two port bats for engine and genny. The two starboard bats are wired together for strbrd engine and house use. If I'm on the hook for a while and don't recharge them, both strbrd bats will drain.

I was hopping if anyone could provide some comments and/or clarification. I wont be by the boat for another couple of weeks to do the manual tests to discover how those bats are used.

Thanks,
Alex.
 
I do not have a generator on my 320, so I have two batteries wired together used as starboard engine and house. The third battery I thought was just for the Port engine- but I was wrong! This past weekend I turned on the radio with just the starboard engine switch on, and I could not get the amplifier for the cockpit speakers to work. As you guessed, I found it it was wired to port battery -- Still learning !
This is part of the fun
Rich
 
I am new to this site and had a question about smart craft for my new 320 sundancer. I was told that you could not get smartcraft as an option if you had the GPS and Radar options. Is this true and can I get the info from smart craft to come up on the c80 chartplotter? Thanks fro the info. Andy
 
alubell,
I just got my 320 before the winter. It has both GPS and Radar and it also has smartcraft guages. I can't tell you much details, b/c I'm still new to it, but I guess it should answer your question if it can be installed or not.
 
Andy, congrads on the new boat and welcome to the site. As Alex said you can have both Smartcraft and GPS/Radar - I added the Smartcraft guages to our boat and we have a Raymarine C70 plotter and 2Kw radar.

Unfortunately you can't tie the Smartcraft system into the Raymarine gear to get the engine stuff to display on your plotter. You can tie your GPS into the Smartcraft, which will allow you to display GPS speed on your speedo, some waypint info and also MPG data.

-CJ
 
Thanks for the quick responses on the smart craft. I have smart craft guages in the dash, but there appeared to be an option offered to have a single monitor installed that offered more info with synchronizer and water temp and air temp in it. This was supposedly not available with the radar and Gps option. Let me know, Thanks Andy
 
Andy, I suspect it is simply a helm real estate issue - I know I would like to have the fancy LCD display, but I'd have to do a major re-org of my helm layout and I just can't justify the cost. Maybe if Jim can help me sort this out at the BiH get-together. I'd really like to add an autopilot at some point, but I don't have the room for the control head with the current configuration.

-CJ
 
CJ, Did you install the smartcraft guages and hook up to the GPS yourself? Do you replace all 4 guages and what is the cost?

Darryl
 
I hook up my raymarine,c70, gps 125 to my smart craft. It's very easy just look uder the dash and you will see hanging lose one blue and one white wire just tie these into your gps info and you will have more accuret fuel use data and waypoint data. MM did not do this on delivery and i lived without this for 2 seasons and now i did it last year and relly like it. Why not use everthing you got. This year i finished installing auto pilot and was easy to do. I placed the controll head just to the left of the steering wheel right where the halon fire system light and warning sticker was. I removed the light and installed in a couple inches away. Looks good and is easy to reach.
 
1185,

My 340 does have some GPS input into my SC gauges, but the economy stuff is based on the Analog speedo. Does this sound like yours before you tied them in?
 
serenity said:
CJ, Did you install the smartcraft guages and hook up to the GPS yourself? Do you replace all 4 guages and what is the cost?

Darryl
Click to expand...

Darryl,

I did all the work myself. I replaced the entire panel that has the engine gauges, tachs and sync with a new one from Sea Ray (ordered from my local dealer, price was under $200). I needed the new panel because the Smartcraft SC1000 gauges are smaller than the old tachs, and larger than the old sync gauge. I believe the panel from a '03-07 340 was the one I ordered, the 320 and 340 have the same helm design. The new panel perfectly matches the color of the side pods, and all the screw holes lined up perfectly.

Next I ran new cables from the engines to behind the helm, where they connect to a 6-way junction box. The Smartcraft gauges (two tachs and one speedo) plug into this box as well. I found used 4-in-one Smartcraft engine gauges that daisy-chain off the Tachs. I did need my local boatyard to configure the gauges properly using their Merc laptop - they needed to set one gauge to the port engine as by default they both come up for the starboard engine.

I was able to hook the Smartcraft GPS inputs to a Raymarine GPS output cable that plugs into my C70. It's only two wires.

I bought some of my stuff from eBay (cables, junction box, some misc parts to connect the fuel gauges to the Smartcraft bus), the 4-in-ones from a well know Sea Ray salvage yard in FL (they look perfect), the dash panel from Sea Ray, and the gauges from my local Merc dealer. Total cost was in the $1800 range, including the yard labor configuring the gauges.

As an aside, over the course of time I've managed the pick up two Sea Ray logo'd SC1000 Tachs and a Speedo, which will replace my Merc Smartcraft gauges. The 4-in-ones were already Sea Ray Logo'd. Aside from the logo, the Sea Ray gauges have a blue backlight at night, while the Mercs are red. I'll need to have the yard configure the "new" gauges, and then I'll have a year old set of Merc gauges already set for a dual engine config for sale.

-CJ
 
Does anyone know the wattage of the larger overhead halogen lights in the boat cabin. My larger ceiling overhead lights are over the galley and the table area. My bulb was not marked - I don't have the dual voltage overhead lights. Just 12 volt. Are they 10 watt or 20 watt. The manual with the boat shows the old style lights - with 110- and 12 volt bulbs.
 
On a prior post a question was raised about draining transmission fluid vs. pumping it out on Hurth V-drives. All the maintenance manuals direct you to drain . It appears impossible to drain-- anyone had any success pumping out ?
 
I personally found it impossible to drain and could not get it to pump out via the dipstick. The only place I could get it to pump out was where the filter is. So, I removed the filter after a fellow CSR suggested that method. It has worked for me. If you find a better way let me know.
 
SeaRenity said:
On a prior post a question was raised about draining transmission fluid vs. pumping it out on Hurth V-drives. All the maintenance manuals direct you to drain . It appears impossible to drain-- anyone had any success pumping out ?
Click to expand...

I did. I used a trick from this forum. Take the filter out of your transmission and insert a tube from your pump-out bucket down inside the resulting opening. I used the small, white tube inserted into the larger diameter one and clamped. It should get it all out.

Then, you can drain the excess into a cloth if you want.
 
Hampton said:
1185,

My 340 does have some GPS input into my SC gauges, but the economy stuff is based on the Analog speedo. Does this sound like yours before you tied them in?
Click to expand...
yes it sc sarches for gps first then uses the paddle wheel anolog ck to see if the blu/white wire from sc is conected. I found mine just hanging there. Hope this helps.
 
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