03 185 BR (new to me) first vessel! A hello and a few questions...

[Kyle Benfield]

Hey everyone,

I just wanted to start by saying hello. I picked up my first vessel - an 03 185 Bowrider w/ the 4.3 Mercruiser option. I'm the boats 3rd owner after a some basic research, bugging my friends with experience, and a good feeling.

The vessel was in good shape - hull was clean, no nicks or cracks, low hours (374.9 when I first saw it) and the engine/engine compartment didn't show any signs of abuse, and had the factory service manuals and some receipts from some work the P.O. didn't do himself. Other than needing to be cleaned (spent its life in the Pocono Mountains in a barn when not in use), it felt good so I pulled the trigger. Towed it home with my wife's 2018 Hyundai Sante Fe Sport 2.0T... considering how well the thing pulled it 140 miles home and than another 15 to the marina, I'm going to ignore I basically maxed out it's towing capacity.

Other than some sticky throttle linkage when I first put her into the water, the boat has been solid the past 15 hours on the Chesapeake Bay. I know that's not a long time and I'm probably jinxing myself, but I'm loving things right now. With that said, I do have a few questions, so I'm hoping you can guys can help point me in the right direction so I can continue enjoying my new toy.

I'll list my questions from least important to most important:

I replaced the battery before I put her in the water. I tried to find the correct battery and got conflicting information between a Group 24 and a Group 27. The previous battery was a Group 27, but I replaced it with a Group 24 because of cost and weight savings. I do not run the radio or other electronics for long periods with the engine off... will I be OK?

Using the last question as a jump off, are there are guides to installing a second battery and an appropriate switch? This goes against my weight savings argument above, but it's worth the piece of mind. My boat did not come with a battery "kill switch" from the factory (if that matters) and I have experience with automotive electrical and high output electrical motors for electric vehicles, so I'm not too concerned about doing it from scratch, but figured I'd ask (always listen to guys with experience... that's how you learn cool shit)

After some research, I used the bleach free CLR to remove mildew from my interior. The seats came out so damn clean, but my steering wheel and grab handles are still noticeably dirty. Each of those got 3-4 applications of CLR and I went through a magic eraser per handle & steering wheel. Any tips or tricks to make these things white again?

I plan on replacing the radio with a modern Bluetooth enabled head unit this spring, along with two new speakers. I've noticed the Clarion unit is a Single DIN style unit, but has what looks like a CD player/holder above it, making it look to be DIN and a half (similar to Chrylser and GM vehicles of the same vintage). If I do just a single DIN replacement, would a generic radio mounting kit for DIN and a half work, or do you have suggestions?

Again, using the last question to ask another - would adding two speakers to the bow be a good idea or bad idea? And why? I don't mind cutting into the interior of the boat, especially using the appropriate tools (Dremel with a circle cutter seems to be the cleanest option, but a hole saw would work as well).

The boat did not come with a snap cover. I bought a generic cover from Amazon and installed snaps. Surprisingly, it holds up well and only cost me $100. With that said, I would like a real snap-on cover. Do you guys suggest buying one from an online retailer who has the patterns or finding a local upholstery shop to make a custom piece during the off-season?

This boat needs bottom paint. Do you guys consider this a DIY kind of thing or should I stick with the professionals? I've got experience with automotive paint (I have a mid-90s VW I've sunk way to much money, time, effort and energy into) but I feel like this may be another animal entirely and I'm looking for advice and experience from you guys (i.e.: the experts).

How often should my bilge pump run? Mine seems very random. When I first put it in the water, I noticed it turn on once briefly after my first outing and I assumed it was from what was left over from cleaning the boat. After the storm, my make-shift cover (pre-snaps) took on a lot of water and I ended up dumping a solid 3-5 gallons of water into the bow. Bilge pump ran for a few minutes, shut off, didn't notice it again that day. Yesterday we were out and in the 2-1/2 hours we road around the bilge pump ran twice for approx. 10 seconds each time and shut off. Today I was on the boat working on the cover and it FELT like the bilge pump was turning on every 15-20 mins. for 10 second intervals. I didn't really keep track of time but instead tracked how much water it was pumping out. I used my empty 18 oz Yeti as a makeshift measuring device and it barely filled that up before shutting off... if you do the math, that is approx. 1 gallon of water it's pumping out every 2-3 hours. That seems like a lot, especially just sitting there in the slip. Am I worrying too much. Should I worry more? I'm going to get out in shallow water and tighten my drain plug, but is there anything else I should do right now?

Sorry... big first post. Tell me I suck if that's the case, and I'll split the questions up in new threads. Otherwise, excited to be here, excited to own a boat, excited to get out of the house, and excited to spend some money... hah... maybe.

Thanks everyone.

 

[Edward Leibman]

Hi there. I ordered some vinyl spray paint from SEM and sprayed my grab handles. I have a 2001 180 br so it should be similar. The usual issues of masking before spraying but the end result is spectacular.

 

[paulswagelock]

Battery - group 24 should be fine for your use, but the 27 had significant more storage capacity. Pick any major brand of add a battery kit with a 1/2/1+2 switch.

bottom paint - a do it yourself project with the boat blocked off the trailer.

adding speakers is easy and a good idea if you like music.

cover - use a local shop or look at bald mikes online or greatlakesboattops or mr-marine. Very likely you can find an exact fit .

Water in bilge - my bets are bad bellows from age. Get those looked at quickly or you will come to the marina and find your boat on the wrong side of the water surface.

And congratulations. Be safe and enjoy.

 

[Leardriver]

A battery switch, like the Perko brand, is really cheap and easy to install. You may need to make a trip or two to Walmart for short battery cables. I've seen people set a second battery in the boat, when the primary cables are long enough to reach both battieries, and unbolt the wing nuts from one and transfer to the good battery in a pinch. It is a funny way to save a few bucks, and you have to manually charge it a couple times per year, but it beats having no back up.

 

[ColoSR]

Wow, lots of q’s, but welcome to CSR!

I added a Blue Seas Add a Battery Plus kit. It’s a great way to add a second battery because it has a charger and ACR so both batteries charge when running. You can also install a house block for the stereo so that it doesn’t shut off when starting.

the steering wheel and grab handles are a bitch to get clean. I had to wrap some bleach soaked paper towels around mine to get rid of the black.

The Clarion hole is a little bigger than a standard DIN, basically a cluster. Most folks are replacing them with the Fusion RA-70 radio with an adapter plate. The RA-70 works with some Bluetooth “ANT” wireless remotes. They are the cats meow, far and away my wife’s favorite boat purchase.

can’t help with cover and bottom paint questions. Bow speakers are a must have for a bow rider, proceed

Bilge pump, you have water coming in from somewhere. If it comes in at the slip, check the bellows, transom, and thru hull depth fitting (if you have one). If no water when sitting, try running the engine at the slip to see if you have a leak from the engine. If it only comes in when you are running, check your rub rail. I had to dunk my tail end in the trailer to find the rub rail leak in the back. I need to do the sides this offseason.

 

[Kyle Benfield]

Thanks everyone for the good advice.

I'm glad to see the addition of battery isn't complicated and there are some great kits out there to help things out. I did have this question as I was drinking a few beers and watching some boat fail videos the other night - Does adding a second battery mess with the weight distribution of the boat at all that I need to think about compensating with a ballast on the opposite side?

Let's talk about the bilge pump. I had the engine cover off the other day (without the engine running and after running the bilge pump manually) and listened and looked for water coming in from the transom. I couldn't find anything that looked out of the ordinary. So, drain plug? We traveled out to an island and anchored off shore this past week. I took a 17mm wrench with me and tightened the drain plug another quarter turn... it was as much as I could tighten in, considering the circumstances... but it still has (at least) an 1/8 in. of threads sitting out. With that said, with travel to the island and how long we were there, it was over 2 hours before the bilge pump ran and spit out about 12 oz. of water and stopped. I have not seen it run since automatically since. I did run it manually when we got back from the island (about a half hour trip at 25mph) and I got the same amount of water. Now, we were all in the water (4 of us), but I'm definitely taking on water, just a lot less than I thought I was. I'm assuming it's the drain plug coupled with some excess water drip from the drive shaft and maybe the bellows. I'm not concerned for the remainder of the season but I'm going to have to look into it before the problem becomes worse once it's out of the water. I've got two factory service manuals - one for the Mercruiser 4.3 and one for the Alpha One outdrive - so I'm going to take care of some preventative maintenance this off-season which should solve some of these issues!

Good to see some solutions to fix the grab handles and steering wheels. They are honestly the ONLY unclean looking thing on this boat after dumping about 6-7 hours cleaning it when I bought it. I'm going to remove the handle from the engine cover and see what works best before I handle the rest. If I have to paint them, I should be able to remove them... especially if I'm giving myself an access hole for the handles in the bow when I install speakers.

Speaking of stereo advice, thank you for everything. I'm not going to lie, I'm most likely going to go with a Kenwood marine unit because I've always had great luck with the Kenwood headunits I've put into my cars. Speakers seem hit or miss, so I'm going to follow reviews and hope to spend less than $100 on four 6-1/2 in. speakers (or my wife anyway, she said it would be my Christmas present).

Last, but not least, here is a picture from the other day:

Thanks for the help... you guys rock.

 

[BillK2632]

My 1999 185 is the same hull and engine as yours.

I have dual batteries (Group 24 with a Perko 1/2/All switch) and could not live wyithout them. You should install a second battery and switch. I have one batter on each side of engine - my boat has the rear sundeck seating plan.

Your leaking could be the drain plug - maybe clean the threads out good and re-install. It should not leak and should not need any teflon tape or anything like that. Also check the bellows, the first one to leak usually is the shift cable - other than the leaking it won't really damage anything. If the U-Joint bellows is leaking, that's a bigger deal and will damage the U-Joints. I would pull that drive and inspect everything - you boat is at the age they should have been changed by now.

The radio / speakers - a few years ago I put a new system in my boat, installed speakers in the bow area, definitely do that. The radio is in the glovebox - mine was a 1dimm, so I just replaced with same. Should be able to cut or add a mounting plate to accommodate whatever system you want. I put in a mid range Pioneer/amp and 4 Polk Audio marine speakers.

Steering wheel / grab handles: I have found Spray 9 to be good for cleaning those.

Bottom Paint: A pretty easy DIY job a boat that small. Assuming you have a place to do it - can be messy with sanding etc. Assume you really need bottom paint? Most boats this small do not have it.

Good luck - the small bowriders from that era are great boats.

 

[ColoSR]

Point taken on the stereo, everyone has their favorite I would highly recommend that add a battery plus kit with the house/stereo battery isolated from the starter battery if you are going to be tubing with the kids. The stereo shuts off every time you restart the engine, so it can get a little cumbersome to keep the bluetooth working when doing watersports.