300 Sundancer questions.

Is there a good way to drain the hold under the helm seat? I have an ant problem
in there and when I hose it down, the water all seems to just accumulate in there rather than draining out. Any suggestions?

My smart craft fuel gauge is very unreliable. What's a good second option for keeping track of my fuel levels without breaking the bank?

Jason
 
drjjames said:
Is there a good way to drain the hold under the helm seat? I have an ant problem
in there and when I hose it down, the water all seems to just accumulate in there rather than draining out. Any suggestions?

My smart craft fuel gauge is very unreliable. What's a good second option for keeping track of my fuel levels without breaking the bank?

Jason
Click to expand...
The fuel level reading is a common complaint on this site and I have the same problem. I have started doing what others recommended. Which is fill the tanks full then reset the "fuel used" reading and use it to keep track of how much fuel you have used.

I personally would just shop vac out the hold. Shop vac (small one) on the boat is turning out to be one of my best friends.
 
drjjames said:
My smart craft fuel gauge is very unreliable. What's a good second option for keeping track of my fuel levels without breaking the bank?

Jason
Click to expand...

I finally got tired of trying to keep track manually on my '04 and bought 2 20" senders from Royce Industries. http://royceind.com/flexi-sensor.php#purchase
Very simple installation and so far there has not been any issues. I think it was $90 +\- a side. We'll give her a good test in February when we spend a week in the Gulf.

On a different note: has anyone recaulked their windshield? If so, did you remove it completely or just scrape out the old and caulk the seams? I'm leaning towards pulling all of the screws and rebedding the whole thing but that will be a pretty big job.
 
I had my Royce senders installed this summer on my 300 Sundancer. The people at Royce were great to deal with. The accuracy of the senders are much better than what they replaced. I find they are still not very accurate until 1/4 of the fuel is used but improved as the fuel level decreased. Here are some numbers I recorded on my trip from Midland, Ontario to Little Current.

Smart Craft Gauges Read
Starboard 72 gal
Port 75 gal
Trip (smart craft) 36 miles
Fuel Used (smart craft) 42.2 gal

GPS 46.1 nm

Actual Fuel added at fill up
Startboard 22 gal (84 Litres)
Port 21 gal (80 Litres)
Total 43 gal (164 litres)

Smart Craft Gauges Read
Starboard 28 gal
Port 34 gal
Trip (smart craft) 101.1 miles
Fuel Used (smart craft) 105 gal

GPS 111 nm

Actual Fuel added at fill up
Startboard 56 gal (212 Litres)
Port 55 gal (208 Litres)
Total 111 gal (420 litres)

My tanks are calibrated to 84 gallons each side so I find they are within a 2-4 gallons of being accurate at least with 1/2 tank. I generally fill up with 1/2 to 1/3 tank remaining since I'm still gathering information on the accuracy however so far they are light years better than what I had. The mechanic charged me 3 hours to install them (however if I wasn't on vacation the following week I would have done it myself. It's looked pretty easy) which included time to diagnose the senders were the problem and a cooling problem. SR was smart enough to install a hole in the deck to access the sender that othewise would be impossible to get to. Thanks SR.

I hope this information helps.
 
Her Diamond 2 said:
Smart Craft Gauges Read
Starboard 72 gal
Port 75 gal
Trip (smart craft) 36 miles
Fuel Used (smart craft) 42.2 gal

GPS 46.1 nm

Actual Fuel added at fill up
Startboard 22 gal (84 Litres)
Port 21 gal (80 Litres)
Total 43 gal (164 litres)

Smart Craft Gauges Read
Starboard 28 gal
Port 34 gal
Trip (smart craft) 101.1 miles
Fuel Used (smart craft) 105 gal

GPS 111 nm

Actual Fuel added at fill up
Startboard 56 gal (212 Litres)
Port 55 gal (208 Litres)
Total 111 gal (420 litres)
Click to expand...
I would've thought that the 5.0's would be more fuel efficient?
 
The boat was fully loaded for 2 weeks vacation. Full fuel, water, dingy on a hurly davit. Weather conditions were calm, maybe too calm I probably put the boat up on plane of off quite a bit since certain parts of the trip were unfamiliar. Better be safe than sorry since we boat in mostly solid rock as a bottom. I generally run the boat at 27-28 mph, no tabs, just a touch of trim and the engine turns 3,600 - 3,750 RPM depending on wind, fuel levels. Take off the dinghy and RPMs would improve by 100. Unfortunately I don't have anyone else to compare number with since I'm the smallest of my friends with twins. That said, the performance isn't lacking.
 
Our dingy is a 10.2 ft Zodiac with a 9.9 Johnson (2-stroke). I went with the Hurley Davit system over Weaver since I wasn't crazy about gluing pads to the dingy and going through the pain of lifting the dingy onto the swimplatform sideways. I did have a problem where the Hurley was wearing a hole through the bottom of the dingy and Hurley mailed me a new part that solved the problem. Hurley was great about it, no questions they sent the part at no charge. I believe I used the 10 inch brakets to install the Hurley. Unfortunately I don't have pictures of the underside of the swim platform but I used stainless steel bolts with stainless backing plates. I tried to upload a few pictures however it keeps telling me the upload failed. If you send me a PM with your email I'd be more than glad to send them to you unless you can tell me why the upload failed.
Neil
 
When I bought this boat the helm speaker didn't put out sound. It was not the speaker. It has the factory premium sound system (Clarion XMD3, Clarion 400W amp driving the 4 cockpit speakers). I checked the XMD3 settings and all looked good there. So out of desperation I pulled the amp fuse and checked it (it was fine) and re-inserted it. Now all the speakers work. I guess pulling it acted as a power on reset and the amp initialized to normal operation.

Unrelated, the 2004 300DA spec sheet says the Smartcraft comes with a GPS interface and Troll Control. Do any of you with the 2004 know if the GPS is connected so I can drive the speedometer from the GPS rather than from the pitot sensor? Also, is troll control worth using for anything? Can't try either of these out until winter is over. Thanks.
 
I was hopping someone would answer a question for me. We just purcased a 300 Searay Sundancer it has 5.0l with bravo three outdrives I was hopping that someone could tell us the cruising speed and what the rpms run. Also what is it like in the water
 
Bev & Earl said:
I was hopping someone would answer a question for me. We just purcased a 300 Searay Sundancer it has 5.0l with bravo three outdrives I was hopping that someone could tell us the cruising speed and what the rpms run. Also what is it like in the water
Click to expand...
"In the water"??? Like... as opposed to on land??? I don't have the 5.0's but I'll guess.... faster???
 
Bev & Earl said:
I was hopping someone would answer a question for me. We just purcased a 300 Searay Sundancer it has 5.0l with bravo three outdrives I was hopping that someone could tell us the cruising speed and what the rpms run. Also what is it like in the water
Click to expand...

I have twin 5.0MPIs with Bravo II drives. I cruise around 3500-3650 RPMs which has me running approx 28-30MPH and burning 10-11GPH per engine. I tend to keep at least half a tank of water and above half tanks of fuel, because I'm still trying to get my fuel guages calibrated correctly. Currenlty I manually track the fuel burned since last fill up to keep on top of it. I dont run the boat up to full throttle often but last time I did i think both engines ran up to ~4700rpm which was about 45MPH.

The boat handles great under most circumstances. I would actually prefer to be able to hold plane at a slower speed for the times that the bay really kicks up a big chop (2.5 foot waves is about the max I like to be out in, especially since my standard compliment of guests start to get nauseated if we pull off plane and wallow through for too long a time). I've run the tabs all the way down and the slowest I've been able to hold plane was around 24MPH, but that was really forcing things. I'm the smallest of the boats I cruise with and it would be nice to be able to get in behind some of the bigger ones to let them plow the way for me in the 19-21MPH range.

With the Bravo IIIs and or the BIIIs with the larger engines, I'm sure you'd get up on plane faster than I do, but still get up and out pretty quickly. Happy to discuss further if you like.

James
 
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JimFromMD said:
I have twin 5.0MPIs with Bravo II drives. I cruise around 3500-3650 RPMs which has me running approx 28-30MPH and burning 10-11GPH per engine. I tend to keep at least half a tank of water and above half tanks of fuel, because I'm still trying to get my fuel guages calibrated correctly. Currenlty I manually track the fuel burned since last fill up to keep on top of it. I dont run the boat up to full throttle often but last time I did i think both engines ran up to ~4700rpm which was about 45MPH.

The boat handles great under most circumstances. I would actually prefer to be able to hold plane at a slower speed for the times that the bay really kicks up a big chop (2.5 foot waves is about the max I like to be out in, especially since my standard compliment of guests start to get nauseated if we pull off plane and wallow through for too long a time). I've run the tabs all the way down and the slowest I've been able to hold plane was around 24MPH, but that was really forcing things. I'm the smallest of the boats I cruise with and it would be nice to be able to get in behind some of the bigger ones to let them plow the way for me in the 19-21MPH range.

With the Bravo IIIs and or the BIIIs with the larger engines, I'm sure you'd get up on plane faster than I do, but still get up and out pretty quickly. Happy to discuss further if you like.

James
Click to expand...
James, I admire your patience. Brian
 
Jim, So that's about 1.3MPG with the 5.0's? Do you have a SmartCraft monitor or is this based on fill ups/GPS? My 350's are about 1.1-1.2MPG based on SmartCraft no matter how I run them. Brian
 
Bev & Earl said:
I was hopping someone would answer a question for me. We just purcased a 300 Searay Sundancer it has 5.0l with bravo three outdrives I was hopping that someone could tell us the cruising speed and what the rpms run. Also what is it like in the water
Click to expand...

JimFromMD said:
With respect to what part? :)
Click to expand...
Replying to such a vague question. I suppose you need to see his other thread to understand. Brian
 
Thank u for answering my question. The end of the question about how it is in the water. What I meant to ask was how does it handle on the water
 
Bev & Earl said:
Thank u for answering my question. The end of the question about how it is in the water. What I meant to ask was how does it handle on the water
Click to expand...
I'm sorry for my sarcasm yesterday, I wasn't myself. Anyway, welcome to the 300DA club! I don't see what year your 300DA is but I'll assume it's a later model 2002-2007. JimfromMD and a few others have posted some good numbers for you on the twin 5.0's. Read back a few pages here on this thread. As far as handling goes, what boating experience do you have? Is this your first boat or did you go bigger? I went from a single engine 26' foot boat and the twin bravo 3's make docking much easier. The boat gets up on plane faster and is much more stable than my 260DA was. I have pulled tubes and water skied off the boat and the stern drives enables you to get into very shallow waters which is important to me where I boat. I cruise comfortable at around 30 MPH and my WOT is 45-48MPH depending on condition of bottom paint.

In answer to your cockpit refrigerator question on another thread, it is a Norcold 1.7 cubic ft AC/DC refrigerator similiar to this one. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Norcold-DE-...frigerator-AC-DC-New-/280790068941#vi-content I can't get to my boat because it's shrink wrapped but maybe someone else here can double check the dimensions for you. Good luck with your 300DA! Regards, Brian oh and p.s ... when asking a question on a forum try to give as much info as possible and you will get better answers...and less sarcasm :)
 
Thank you for the information we appreciate it. We went from a 2855 Bayliner to the 2002, 300 searay. We went from single 7.4 merc cruiser outdrive. To the twin 5.0 liter with bravo three's. We purchased it at after boating season so we haven't even been on the water yet. Sorry and i will add more information when i ask questions. Thank you again
 
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