300 Sundancer questions.

Question about vents in the hull. The users's manual identifies all the holes in my hull. But there are two vent holes it does not mention. One is directly above the two matching bilge pump outlets starboard aft and there is a matching vent in the same spot in the port aft corner of the hull. What are these for?
 
Fuel tank vents?
Fuel tank and water tank vents are accounted for. But I got the starboard one figured out. Its not a vent, its the discharge for the hot water heater pressure relief line. Still don't know what the port side is for. From inside the bilge there is definitely a hose connected to it, but I can follow it for more than a foot until it disappears up top.

Update: Ah, gotta be the vent from the holding tank filter.
 
Last edited:
My boat didn't come with the battery adapter that plugs into the DC socket at the helm either. Anyone know the gauge of wire SR used so I can make an adapter?
Thanks
 
Guys,

re: water system winterization

Don't want to start thinking about winterization but the time has come... I have read a decent amount about this on the forums but wanted some guidance from 300 owners.

I would rather not run pink through water tank or hot water heater, too much cleaning it out in the Spring (I could be talked into this if it made sense...).

Here are steps as I see them:

1) Drain water system through running all taps, hot and cold.
2) Bypass hot water heater by connecting cold water inlet to hot water outlet
3) Drain hot water tank and maybe blow out hoses that feed heat exchanger from engine???
4) Blow out city water inlet valve in trunk
5) Disconnect main water line from bottom of water pump, blow this out back to tank
6) Connect a line from water pump to bucket full of pink and pump through all nozzles hot and cold

How about using shut offs on water manifold? Any other words of wisdom?
 
Guys,

re: water system winterization

Don't want to start thinking about winterization but the time has come... I have read a decent amount about this on the forums but wanted some guidance from 300 owners.

I would rather not run pink through water tank or hot water heater, too much cleaning it out in the Spring (I could be talked into this if it made sense...).

Here are steps as I see them:

1) Drain water system through running all taps, hot and cold.
2) Bypass hot water heater by connecting cold water inlet to hot water outlet
3) Drain hot water tank and maybe blow out hoses that feed heat exchanger from engine???
4) Blow out city water inlet valve in trunk
5) Disconnect main water line from bottom of water pump, blow this out back to tank
6) Connect a line from water pump to bucket full of pink and pump through all nozzles hot and cold

How about using shut offs on water manifold? Any other words of wisdom?
Last year I did your exact steps, except I didn't bother blowing out the line on #5. I just held it down as far is it would go after I disconnected it and it drained out. And I didn't do #4, I am pretty sure it drains clear naturally. But certainly won't hurt to blow it out. I didn't touch the shut-offs. Also, I left the hw heater drain valve open all winter and then closed it before I used it the first time in the spring.

On #3 part II, disconnect them both at the engine and then its easy to drain or blow out. If you are winterizing your engines via the bucket method then you can skip this as coolant will get pulled through the heater's heat exchanger hoses during that process.
 
Last edited:
Hi guys,
hope I'm not hijacking this thread, but I posted this in the newbie section, then thought it might be better answered here.
so...........New to the forum and getting ready to sea trial an '06 300 Sundancer this week.
For those of you who have experience with them, is there anything in particular I should be looking for?
Appreciate any feedback in advance....
Thanks
 
BrianR - Pay attention to how easy the cabin door slides on its trucks. It should slide smooth and easy. Pull up the inspection cover in the floor (right in front of the door to the head) of the cabin to inspect the area of the shower sump box...make certain it is dry around the sump box. How easy does the throttle/shift move? You shouldn't have to use a lot of force to shift from F-N-R...I had to change both throttle cables after the 3rd season.

What engines and cooling system type does this boat have?
 
Thanks Jeff.
engines are 5 liter Mercs with raw water cooling, 240 hours.
manifolds have just been changed with the new and improved manifolds, (time will tell, but they are supposed to be good for 10 years).
PO had flush kits installed.
so, shower sump has potential leaks?
thanks for your response, I'll pay attention to shifters as well.
 
Hi guys,
hope I'm not hijacking this thread, but I posted this in the newbie section, then thought it might be better answered here.
so...........New to the forum and getting ready to sea trial an '06 300 Sundancer this week.
For those of you who have experience with them, is there anything in particular I should be looking for?
Appreciate any feedback in advance....
Thanks
Not much else for you that wasn't covered in your other two threads. Jeff has two great points. I bought my '04 last year with a beat up door track system that I am finally going to replace this winter (still slides, but lots of friction is involved now) and a shorted out pump inside the shower sump that caused it to overflow into the secondary pump area. That was an easy fix with a new pump. So, like Jeff suggested, make sure all that stuff works since you may not have known its there and water is involved. If it doesn't work, might be able to get a few bucks off the purchase or make the repair a condition of purchase. Also, if you do decide to follow the spark plug replacement suggestion in your other thread, since you need 16 of them I recommend buying the AC 41-993 platinum plugs (should come properly gapped at .060 right out of the box) from an auto parts store. They are less than $10 each there and will be around $18-$20 each from a marine supplier.

Oh, and other things with high failure rates to check out:

- Sea Temp Sensor is part of the depth sensor. It can go bad. Its a readout on your Smartcraft speedometer. See if that reads properly (mine is broke).
- Trim limit sensors can break frequently. If so, your drive(s) won't go up with the trim button on the aft shift lever. You would have to use the trailer buttons on top of the shift lever unit. There is an easy wiring workaround for this if you don't want to pay to have the sensors replaced on the outdrive.
- Check the two factory DVD players in the cabin for proper operation.
- Fuel level readings for each tank may be erratic. That's just a characteristic of the factory fuel senders. Some just go ahead and get aftermarket more reliable senders, others just live with it and use fuel used readings from a fuel tank to figure out how much fuel is left in the tank.

That's it. Good luck. I think its a wonderful boat.
 
Guys,

re: water system winterization

Don't want to start thinking about winterization but the time has come... I have read a decent amount about this on the forums but wanted some guidance from 300 owners.

I would rather not run pink through water tank or hot water heater, too much cleaning it out in the Spring (I could be talked into this if it made sense...).

Here are steps as I see them:

1) Drain water system through running all taps, hot and cold.
2) Bypass hot water heater by connecting cold water inlet to hot water outlet
3) Drain hot water tank and maybe blow out hoses that feed heat exchanger from engine???
4) Blow out city water inlet valve in trunk
5) Disconnect main water line from bottom of water pump, blow this out back to tank
6) Connect a line from water pump to bucket full of pink and pump through all nozzles hot and cold

How about using shut offs on water manifold? Any other words of wisdom?

So the local dealer gave a winterization class last fall and said that they use the water pump to clear as much as they can from the fresh water tank, drain and bypass the HW heater, then blow out the lines. They then use a t-valve bypass (if one is installed) before the water pump to feed pink into the system or disconnect the water intake line from the pump and attach a hose into a supply of pink. They also connect the fresh water washdown in the trunk to the pierside water hookup and then use that to fill the remaining supply lines throughout the boat with Pink. (Water pump feeding pink to fresh water washdown with then pumps through the city feed). Also made a point to mention to not forget the fresh water washdown and stern shower while you're doing it, since they are out of sight. Pretty interesting concept I hadnt thought of. I plan to blow them clean and pink all the supply lines, but not put any in the nearly empty fresh tank.

For generator winterization, do you all fog the generator or just flush pink through the strainer/exhaust and call it done? Anyone do the spin on fuel filter trick with 2-cycle oil mix? Winterize the raw water portion, then pull the spark plugs and spray in some fogging oil, followed by a few clicks on the starter to coat the inside of the cylinders?

James
 
Last edited:
Last year I did your exact steps, except I didn't bother blowing out the line on #5. I just held it down as far is it would go after I disconnected it and it drained out. And I didn't do #4, I am pretty sure it drains clear naturally. But certainly won't hurt to blow it out. I didn't touch the shut-offs. Also, I left the hw heater drain valve open all winter and then closed it before I used it the first time in the spring.

On #3 part II, disconnect them both at the engine and then its easy to drain or blow out. If you are winterizing your engines via the bucket method then you can skip this as coolant will get pulled through the heater's heat exchanger hoses during that process.

Bill - What did you use to bypass HW heater? I have seen bypass kits but also heard these can limit flow due to smaller opening in pet cock. I have also seen a 6" copper tube used to connect the two. Thoughts? Thanks for response.
 
So the local dealer gave a winterization class last fall and said that they use the water pump to clear as much as they can from the fresh water tank, drain and bypass the HW heater, then blow out the lines. They then use a t-valve bypass (if one is installed) before the water pump to feed pink into the system or disconnect the water intake line from the pump and attach a hose into a supply of pink. They also connect the fresh water washdown in the trunk to the pierside water hookup and then use that to fill the remaining supply lines throughout the boat with Pink. (Water pump feeding pink to fresh water washdown with then pumps through the city feed). Also made a point to mention to not forget the fresh water washdown and stern shower while you're doing it, since they are out of sight. Pretty interesting concept I hadnt thought of. I plan to blow them clean and pink all the supply lines, but not put any in the nearly empty fresh tank.

For generator winterization, do you all fog the generator or just flush pink through the strainer/exhaust and call it done? Anyone do the spin on fuel filter trick with 2-cycle oil mix? Winterize the raw water portion, then pull the spark plugs and spray in some fogging oil, followed by a few clicks on the starter to coat the inside of the cylinders?

James

James - great narrative. Excellent idea on connecting fresh water washdown to pierside water hookup. Basically, you hook this up first and thn running pink through all lines will fill this line????

I am not planning on putting any in nearly empty fresh tank.

I had not thought of foggind gennie at all. Will see mechanic in the AM and will ask him about it.

I just bought a funnel system designed for easily running pink through gennie and AC system. My hoses are permenantly adhered to the strainer so I can't take them off to run pink through them. Funnel is expensive but if it does the job...

http://www.seaflush.com/
 
Not much else for you that wasn't covered in your other two threads. Jeff has two great points. I bought my '04 last year with a beat up door track system that I am finally going to replace this winter (still slides, but lots of friction is involved now) and a shorted out pump inside the shower sump that caused it to overflow into the secondary pump area. That was an easy fix with a new pump. So, like Jeff suggested, make sure all that stuff works since you may not have known its there and water is involved. If it doesn't work, might be able to get a few bucks off the purchase or make the repair a condition of purchase. Also, if you do decide to follow the spark plug replacement suggestion in your other thread, since you need 16 of them I recommend buying the AC 41-993 platinum plugs (should come properly gapped at .060 right out of the box) from an auto parts store. They are less than $10 each there and will be around $18-$20 each from a marine supplier.

Oh, and other things with high failure rates to check out:

- Sea Temp Sensor is part of the depth sensor. It can go bad. Its a readout on your Smartcraft speedometer. See if that reads properly (mine is broke).
- Trim limit sensors can break frequently. If so, your drive(s) won't go up with the trim button on the aft shift lever. You would have to use the trailer buttons on top of the shift lever unit. There is an easy wiring workaround for this if you don't want to pay to have the sensors replaced on the outdrive.
- Check the two factory DVD players in the cabin for proper operation.
- Fuel level readings for each tank may be erratic. That's just a characteristic of the factory fuel senders. Some just go ahead and get aftermarket more reliable senders, others just live with it and use fuel used readings from a fuel tank to figure out how much fuel is left in the tank.

That's it. Good luck. I think its a wonderful boat.

Brian - Great points made by both Bill and Jeff

- My trim sensors don't work, trim limit is ok, trim just does not show on guages. This boat needs so little trim, don't really miss it and expensive to replace
- Just replaced shower sump pump, cheap and easy
- If you can, pull up cushions in aft berth, unscrew "floor" on Port side and see if water or signs of water in the fiberglass compartment. I have water in there regularly, still can't figure out where from. Thought it was leaking through head window but caulked the hell out of it and still getting water in there.
- Both fuel senders are shot, going to follow Bill's great instructions next season to replace.
- I replaced aft DVD/TV with small flat screen on Port wall, forward DVD player is shot
- Glad to see risers were done, just had mine done to the tune of $5K
- Check to see if chain or rope rode. PO put all chain and this looks to be popular way to weigh bow down and get on plane quicker.

I assume drive is Bravo III, I think this was only option in your year. I test drove '02 with BII that I felt was slightly underpowered. I have 5.0 with BIII and she still needs to be pushed with more than 5-6 people on board (we have habit of bringing to much crap too).

Agree with Bill, great boat and about to put her up after GREAT first season. Almost 70 hours on her since May, lots of nights out and many vodkas!
 
Bill - What did you use to bypass HW heater? I have seen bypass kits but also heard these can limit flow due to smaller opening in pet cock. I have also seen a 6" copper tube used to connect the two. Thoughts? Thanks for response.
Bought two 1/2" NPT male plastic fittings (the gray ones with all the plumbing stuff) with barb ends from Lowe's and connected a 5/8" (I think that was the size) cheap clear plastic hose between them which I also got from Lowe's. I just used zip ties to clamp the hose to the fitting. Fittings were 36 cents each. Plastic tube wasn't too much more. For the water pump pickup for the pink, I bought a female 36 cent fitting of the same and connected another piece of the same tube to it. For the genny pickup I didn't have enough length of the genny hose when I took it off the seacock, to fit it in the bucket of pink. The clear plastic tube I used for the other stuff fit nice and snug inside the genny hose. So I just stuck one end of it a few inches into the hose and another end into a bucket of 2 gallons of pink and ran the genny until it all got sucked out and I could see pink coming out the side of the boat. I did not fog the genny. I did change the oil, oil filter, the 2 spark plugs, the inline fuel filter, the impeller and the zinc. All those together were about $50 online. For the A/C, I simply disconnected the hose from the seacock, let it drain out, stuck the 1.5 gallon shop vac hose against the opening of the a/c pickup hose, and blew it out with the shop vac in blow mode. Didn't run pink through it, just left it cleared out all winter. Heck, the manual for it says just to disconnect the hose and let it gravity drain. The blowout I did was a bonus maneuver.

This weekend I am going to try an experiment and attach the shop vac hose to the dockside inlet of the water system to see if it generates enough force to blow out the water lines. Probably doesn't. Also, I'll take a pic of my cheapo bypass/pickup stuff when I am at the boat tomorrow and post it here later in the evening.
 
Agree with Bill, great boat and about to put her up after GREAT first season. Almost 70 hours on her since May, lots of nights out and many vodkas!
You gotta do the bed extension thing and add the 4" memory foam if you haven't. JimFromMD did his as well. It turns the 300DA sleeping into a 320/340 space/comfort level.
 
Here are cheapo bypass hose (on right) and cheapo water pump pickup hose (on left):

IMG_0720.jpg
 
Here are cheapo bypass hose (on right) and cheapo water pump pickup hose (on left):

Bill - Thanks for taking the time and the advise above. Headed to home depot now to build me one 'o them bypass thingies!!!!
 
Got all the hose connections for the bypass.... Hate closing the boat, much more fun to open it! :smt021

Plan to drain HW heater this weekend install bypass. I know turning on the 120V electric element while tank is empty will kill the element but is running the motor and having motor push hot water through HW heater is ok, correct? How water running through heat exchanger and other side of heat exhange being dry should be good in my mind. Could you guys just confirm this?
 
Not much else for you that wasn't covered in your other two threads. Jeff has two great points. I bought my '04 last year with a beat up door track system that I am finally going to replace this winter (still slides, but lots of friction is involved now) and a shorted out pump inside the shower sump that caused it to overflow into the secondary pump area. That was an easy fix with a new pump. So, like Jeff suggested, make sure all that stuff works since you may not have known its there and water is involved. If it doesn't work, might be able to get a few bucks off the purchase or make the repair a condition of purchase. Also, if you do decide to follow the spark plug replacement suggestion in your other thread, since you need 16 of them I recommend buying the AC 41-993 platinum plugs (should come properly gapped at .060 right out of the box) from an auto parts store. They are less than $10 each there and will be around $18-$20 each from a marine supplier.

Oh, and other things with high failure rates to check out:

- Sea Temp Sensor is part of the depth sensor. It can go bad. Its a readout on your Smartcraft speedometer. See if that reads properly (mine is broke).
- Trim limit sensors can break frequently. If so, your drive(s) won't go up with the trim button on the aft shift lever. You would have to use the trailer buttons on top of the shift lever unit. There is an easy wiring workaround for this if you don't want to pay to have the sensors replaced on the outdrive.
- Check the two factory DVD players in the cabin for proper operation.
- Fuel level readings for each tank may be erratic. That's just a characteristic of the factory fuel senders. Some just go ahead and get aftermarket more reliable senders, others just live with it and use fuel used readings from a fuel tank to figure out how much fuel is left in the tank.

That's it. Good luck. I think its a wonderful boat.

OH!!!! Just thought of thought of another one.... MAKE SURE HOT WATER HEATER WORKS. Need to check the 120V element heating side works and motor heat exhange as well. We just bought boat this year and HW unit was bad. If it is element, than easy/cheap fix. My tank was rotted out and whole tank needed to be replaced.

To get tank out, riser and manifold needed to come out, good thing I was doing these anyway this season (actually not sure how this is good thing, it was expensive thing). As typical, looks like they put the hot water heater in and then put top of the boat on afterwards.

Anyway, make sure hot water heater works if you care about hot water!
 

Forum statistics

Threads
113,241
Messages
1,429,113
Members
61,122
Latest member
DddAae
Back
Top