Close to buying a new 07 310 Sundancer: comments, feedback, maint.?s, etc.

Hi everyone. I am new to this site and am currently an owner of a 2006 240 Sundeck. I love my boat now and can't speak highly enough of the quality of the Sea Ray product. I have come to a crossroads in boat ownership. I presently live in So Cal and have been taking my boat to a few different lakes of our choice, but unfortunately these lakes are in AZ and NV. With that being said, we are faced with obstacles that have my wife and I reconsidering these destinations. First of all, it takes us about 4-5 hours each way to get there. That limits us to only going on weekends. Also, with the gas prices so high now, we are faced with paying $4.40/gal for diesel in my truck to get there. With towing, this equals to about $300 minimum just getting there and home for a weekend. That doesn't include the gas for the boat or anything else for that matter like lodging and eating out.
This past weekend I took my 240 SD to the ocean. I absolutely loved being on the ocean. I have an opportunity to purchase a brand new 2007 310 DA at a great price, but with this being a huge step up, I would love to get some feedback from current owners of this particular model. This particular model has T350 MAGs with v-drives. To my understanding, the V-drives require much less maintanence than the stern drives. I would be getting an extended warranty, but am curious what the extra maintanence costs would be other than the obvious of having 2 engines instead of 1 I have now.
I have been looking at these larger cruisers for quite some time now and absolutely love the 310. I love the fact it comes standard with closed cooling, generator, AC/heat, V-drives and the roominess we want.

Any feed back I can get from current owners would be fantastic and greatly appreciated. With this larger boat, I know there is more cost involved in ownership, but with what we spend now in storage, towing, lodging, etc., it seems to make sense for us to have something such as the 310 in a slip only 20 minutes from our home vs. driving for hours and hours just to use our boat. Thanks in advance. Sorry for being so long winded here.

-Chris

Welcome Aboard Chris, some of the issues you face are the reasons I chose a 270DA, I wanted the ability to go to Lake Powell, as well as to LA or SD to try Catalina, so tow-ability and sea worthiness was important for me. I am learning that quite a few people think of a 310 as a trailer boat :grin:

But I guess it all boils down to what you are using it for, we just needed a place for the little ones to sleep, and we aren't big on water sports. I will be leaning towards a 290-310, when I look to upgrade. With the DA you can have the best of all worlds, (salt, fresh, limited sport, cruise) without the need to find lodging.

I will let someone else elaborate on the double maintenance costs you will incur, but on the bright side, you will have more money for fuel, until you decide to hit the canyons. :smt038

Chris,
Welcome, We own a 05' 302DA. LOVE IT.... We live 3 minutes away from the boat and use it at least 2 time a week and every weekend (alot of over nites)...
I also do all my own maintence (everything).
Extra cost are.. larger slip, larger dry storage, more bottom to paint, 2 engines to maintain, a/c, generator, head and water systems tp maintain..
MAJOR PLUS.. you will love it, v-drive very low maintance, more room and so much more.

Good luck and enjoy
Bill

run...

Chris, we just upgraded from a 260 DA to the 310 DA 2008. I am currently waiting for delivery (hopefully this week). We stayed away from the 2007 model because it is the first year of that style. We are hoping that all the bugs are worked out with the 2008. Best of luck. You'll love the room.

Well I pulled the trigger tonight and signed the papers. I got a great deal and I'm feeling really good about it. Kind of nervous going from a 240 SD to a 310 DA. I am taking delivery this Saturday. They need to dial it in, clean it and put in the Raymarine C80 Electronics. I'm very excited and can't wait to take it out. I'll report back after taking delivery. Thanks for the feedback and comments, I really appreciate it.

I've looked at a lot of the sundancers and when we do upgrade it will be to a 320 or bigger because of how the 310 bed is. I don't want to have to climb over the admiral or her over me if either of us has to get up in the middle of the night. Other then that I think the 310 is a great boat.

Congratulations...................

Thank you very much. Now I just need to think of a name. Yes, the bed is angled, but there is quite enough room for my wife and I to sleep. I am 6'1" and am quite comfortable in it. yes, I will probably have to have my wife climb over me if she gets up, but for us that is very minor. The 320 is great boat, but was too far out of our price range and the deal we got on our 310 was too good to pass up.

Congrats on the 310

Kettle Won said:

.....yes, I will probably have to have my wife climb over me if she gets up, but for us that is very minor.

Click to expand...

And that sometimes is not allllll bad........

I have a 310DA and love it. I've had no issues to date and it's loaded with every option except a vacuum cleaner!

Congrats and enjoy and post some pics!

Don't be nervous about the upgrade, we purchased a new 2007 320 as our first boat! simply a case of 35.5 ft itis...

Thanks for all of the feedback, I really appreciate it. I will take some pictures this week. I take delivery on Saturday at 1230 and I can't wait. I'm going out as soon as we're done. I have to think of a name by Friday. So far I have "Happy Ours" and "H2Ohana" They are putting in the Raymarine C80 radar/chartplotter/gps now and also detailing it. I can't wait to see it all dialed in and spotless.

Thanks again for all of the feedback. It has been very helpful.

-- Have the props prop scanned. Out of the box they more often than not do not match.

-- Make sure the engines reach at least the middle of the WOT range. I am not referring to the limitations placed on WOT by the transmission. For example: My 6.2's mated to "V" drives are rated at 4600 - 5000 WOT. The SAME engine on a sterndrive is rated at 4800 - 5200 WOT. The limitation is the "V" Drive, not the engine. The transmission is limited to 5K. I have been refused service by two prop shops based on the transmission limitations. To limit the engine to 5K will be overloading the engines in the midrange and could hamper what little efficiency a boat gets per gallon.

-- Check the WOT under full fuel, water and normal pax on board.

-- Make sure the "Zincs" are for salt water and not fresh. Performance metals is a good source. They pointed out the difference to me in plain english. Good folks to talk to.

-- What type of bottom paint are they applying? I prefer ablative, but that's me.

Good luck and enjoy.

Thanks for the advice David. The boat is brand new still, but is sitting in Newport Harbor. It already has bottom paint so I'm not sure what kind it has. I had them inspect it already a few weeks ago and they said it is in good condition, but I think they may throw it in when the time comes since it has been sitting in the water for 9-10 months.

I am buying it from a Sea Ray dealership directly. I have also got the extended warranty so the engines and drives are covered for 6 years total.

they are also topping off the fuel tank for me. :smt038

I am buying it from a really good life long friend so I know if there are ever any issues, they will take care of it.

I can't wait!!!!

I'm having the prop issue right now on my 2008 310. Out of the box. The marina did a sea trial last Friday. One of the engines was off by 300 RPM's. They are sending out the prop to be corrected. Also, I had a oil leak in one of the engines. They had to take the boat out and remove the engine. A gasket was not in correctly. They noticed the bottom paint was peeling. My marina has been in contact with Sea Ray (pictures etc). They do plan on power washing the bottom and repainting. At the end of the year they plan on reexamining the bottom and they say Sea Ray will back it up if any problems. Hopefully on Monday it will be back in the water.

Congratulations! What a beautiful boat. Did you do a sea trial with the 350 V-drives? What was the performance like? Some magazine test's show a top end of about 29 knot's. Is this right?

Kettle Won, Congrats to you!!! That is so exciting and I know you can't wait. We just bought a 2000 310 on April 5th. I was dying to have it delivered and to be able to use it and I am still dying. It was finally delivered last Thursday but then Missouri flooded so ironically we owned two boats but couldn't get to them LOL Any way a long story shorter finally this weekend is the big weekend!!! I will let you know what I think about spending the night on it on Monday~!!!!!

Congrats again!!!!! We need pictures!!!

Bridog,

I did take it out for a demo a few weeks ago. I didn't take it out for too long, but I was rather impressed with the performance. I believe it does 34mph top speed with the v-drives, but that is fine with me. I loved the performance and the handling. It turned with such accuracy even at high throttle. It came out of the water from a dead stop better than expected as well. That demo was what sold me.

Thanks for the congrats....I'm very excited. I am going tomorrow to sign the coast guard docs for the name of the boat which will be "H2Ohana". I am going to bring my camera and take some pics when I go so I'll post them when I return.