560 DB Owners Club

Thank you for taking the time Dquint, I did some digging in the CATs last night and they seem to be a very strong, robust motor that don't require quite the maintenance regiment of the MANs. The extra 400 HP would be great but for 3 or 4 knots of increase in cruise speed does it make sense? In addition to be able to get around the motors for routine maintenance and cleanliness is critical for me, I'm anal about the engine room. Hoping to see one with Mans next week, any other comments or concerns would be great. When you cruise at 24 knots is that with the boat loaded for a trip or ? We have had the all in one washers/dryers before only used to dry beach towels. I've had Detroit, Volvo, Cummins before so this will be a new venture. A nearly 20 year old boat if I can find the right one, I will have to replace some hosing, clean AC units, is all that readily available? Thank you again for your time, looking forward to our next boat.
 
Barney, for or my style and budget the Mans dont make sense, for me at least. Let me know your thoughts on the engine room when you see it. yes 24 knots is pretty loaded. I have 4 kids, we pack a lot of food, and I'm usually carrying a Super Jet, or SeaDoo. Roughly 500 and 900 lbs. I usually run with about 3/4 full fuel tanks. This is weekend or 4 day trips for us. As far as replacing anything, I've never had trouble finding a single part. Let us all know how it goes. Good luck with the search!
 
Thanks again Dquint, good to know. I'm with ya on the Mans, great engines but $$$$$. We will be spending some time in the Bahamas next summer and would like to run about 24 to get to some of the far points. I will bring a tender, probably in the neighborhood of 3-4 hundred pounds. I'm assuming you have the hydraulic lift, what is the weight limit on it? Also good to know about parts availability for the routine stuff. Have narrowed my search to CAT versions and will post when we find one, may have to wait til the weather warms up north, they have been put to bed for the winter.
 
Anyone know how difficult it is to pull the port motor in the 560? Looks like the carpet rolls back, couch is removed and the floor pan is unbolted. ??
 
Gofirstclass said:
I'll post a few of mine. I have some videos but don't know how to put the fancy links like boatingfool did.

Here's a shot at the Aqualapalooza party in Portland, OR in August. We were at the docks at Columbia River Yacht Club.
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We left Portland on August 2nd to head upriver to our area. It was a 225 mile trip that took us through 4 locks. I had ordered as new chip for the Raymarine C120W but it didn't get here in time for the trip so I did all the navigating using a chart book and compass. It was a good refresher course in how to do it the old fashioned way. Thank God for Autopilot systems. There were times I didn't have to touch the helm for 30 minutes or more.
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Here's the "old style" flybridge seating with the helm up front. There's seating for 12, refrigerator, freezer/icemaker, sink & lots of storage.
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Here's another trip we took. We went up the Snake River through Ice Harbor Lock. It has a 95'-100' lift, making it one of the highest lifts in the country and the highest on the Snake or Columbia River lock system.

Here we are getting ready to leave the lock at the top, heading up river on the Snake.
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That's another boat from our club ahead of us in the lock. Here's a shot of the park where we spent the weekend with others from our club.
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Here's one of the tugs we passed on the way up there.
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If someone can 'splain to this ol techno idiot how to post those videos I have some that you might enjoy. The're on Photobucket right now.
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I have a 550 as well not to be one of those guys. That wasn't called the old style bridge it was an actual option called the international bridge as it lowered the overall height and as I am told made cruising in Europe much easier. I have the regular configuration love the boat. Took out bunks and made that a laundry room with a real washer and dryer in my opinion the bunk room was a joke and a waste of space. That's my 2 cents.
 
Is it necessary to plug BOTH the 50A-240V AND the 30A-120V into shore power? What is lost if you just run the 50A?
 
Paul from Key West here, glad I found this thread with the help of another member! I have a 1999 560 DB under contract, survey and sea trial on Friday. It has the Detroit 8V92 engines, old tech I know but the price is right. I was days from pulling the trigger on a nice 480DB and the 560 popped up for the same price. I have a lot to learn coming from a 30 ft. ProKat center console lol.
 
ConchRay said:
Paul from Key West here, glad I found this thread with the help of another member! I have a 1999 560 DB under contract, survey and sea trial on Friday. It has the Detroit 8V92 engines, old tech I know but the price is right. I was days from pulling the trigger on a nice 480DB and the 560 popped up for the same price. I have a lot to learn coming from a 30 ft. ProKat center console lol.
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The Detroits are bullet proof engines but noisy and sooty and aged.
That boat would be really something refitted with a pair of Cat C18's 1100's.
 
ConchRay said:
Paul from Key West here, glad I found this thread with the help of another member! I have a 1999 560 DB under contract, survey and sea trial on Friday. It has the Detroit 8V92 engines, old tech I know but the price is right. I was days from pulling the trigger on a nice 480DB and the 560 popped up for the same price. I have a lot to learn coming from a 30 ft. ProKat center console lol.
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I rejected the 560 after sea trial and survey. It was a long and trying day. Boat would not start, bag of 30 amp fuses next to starters was a clue, my surveyor replaced the fuses and she started. Engine room was notable for multiple rusty/corroded nuts, bolts and fittings, particularly the exhausts. We got about 2 miles before port engine started throwing high temp alarms, so we cruised to the haul out at 1800 RPM or less. Generator not working, salon got pretty warm on a typical Florida day, bridge A/C was inop on generator or shore power and only had one vent for the entire bridge, puzzling. Several stains in the staterooms from leaky windows/portholes and water was dripping from the overhead cockpit puck lights when boat was running. Haul out revealed more bad news- bottom paint worn everywhere, lots of blisters and multiple dead spots on percussion testing. Also NO zincs, badly corroded through hulls and barnacles nearly blocking the bow thruster. After putting in a second set of fuses she started again and we returned to port. On the plus side, the Fusion/Wet Sounds stereo was awesome and working great, gave me some insight into owner's priorities. Boat clearly needs a lot of work and even at a discounted price was not for me. The search continues....
 
Hello and glad I found this thread as I have a 2000 410 sundancer that I am hoping to move up to 1999 560 with the Detroit Diesels in her (8v92 DDEC twin turbo) Has many upgrades and 1400 hours on engines and have talked with mechanic that has serviced them for past few years and he has pulled oil samples and states boat has been well taken care of and the engines do not leak oil and they have no issues.
The boat appears to have meticulously maintained and I love the size and appointments the boat has.Wondering what else I should be looking/concerned with? Boat has had all caulking removed and re done 2 seasons ago and still appears in good condition.
 
Firemedic181 said:
Hello and glad I found this thread as I have a 2000 410 sundancer that I am hoping to move up to 1999 560 with the Detroit Diesels in her (8v92 DDEC twin turbo) Has many upgrades and 1400 hours on engines and have talked with mechanic that has serviced them for past few years and he has pulled oil samples and states boat has been well taken care of and the engines do not leak oil and they have no issues.
The boat appears to have meticulously maintained and I love the size and appointments the boat has.Wondering what else I should be looking/concerned with? Boat has had all caulking removed and re done 2 seasons ago and still appears in good condition.
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I love Detroit's, but not the DDEC ones. DDEC were the first electronic controlled engines Detroit put out and it was basically a disaster. Most of those engines don't get much more then 1000hrs. They were designed with a higher then 1:1 ratio of horse power to displacement. I would go on BoatDiesel and read through all of the DDEC post's. The low profile twin turbos were a little better. Until it comes time to do the exhaust maintenance.
 
SKybolt said:
I love Detroit's, but not the DDEC ones. DDEC were the first electronic controlled engines Detroit put out and it was basically a disaster. Most of those engines don't get much more then 1000hrs. They were designed with a higher then 1:1 ratio of horse power to displacement. I would go on BoatDiesel and read through all of the DDEC post's. The low profile twin turbos were a little better. Until it comes time to do the exhaust maintenance.
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Thanks for the reply, have heard pros and cons about them but as anything some will say they are great and some hate them. Mechanic seems to think these are great motors that have been well cared for.
 
MatthewGoodlife said:
No all you need is the 50amp! Just bought one last year LOVE the boat just redid it
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Hello and would you mind sharing some pics of what you re did as I have put in an offer and hope to own the boat by April. It has been heavily updated electronics but am thinking of interior upgrades. Thank you
 
Hello all,
we are starting to look at possibly upsizing from our 420 DB, and the 560 DB with Cat's has our interest.
Can anyone share what areas of interest we should focus on as far as weaknesses on the boat on our initial looking over any 560 we go look at?
Thanks!
 
boaterholic, welcome to the forum. It's a good place to get your questions answered.

I had a '96 550DB with Cats and I Loved the boat. Everything about it. The galley was spacious and conveniently located on the same level as the lower helm and dining area. The upper helm area was comfortable and spacious enough to allow us to have 24 guests on board for a day cruise, most of whom spent the cruise on the fly bridge.

The Cats (3406C's) were flawless. They started easily, didn't smoke and we ran our boat up to the 30.1kts WOT speed that the specs called for. We did some of the regular maintenance on the engines ourselves but had a tech from a marina do the oil changes.

I couldn't say anything but good comments on the boat. We owned her for 10+ years and would still have her had medical issues forced us to sell her. Got questions? PM me.

Mike
 
Gofirstclass said:
boaterholic, welcome to the forum. It's a good place to get your questions answered.

I had a '96 550DB with Cats and I Loved the boat. Everything about it. The galley was spacious and conveniently located on the same level as the lower helm and dining area. The upper helm area was comfortable and spacious enough to allow us to have 24 guests on board for a day cruise, most of whom spent the cruise on the fly bridge.

The Cats (3406C's) were flawless. They started easily, didn't smoke and we ran our boat up to the 30.1kts WOT speed that the specs called for. We did some of the regular maintenance on the engines ourselves but had a tech from a marina do the oil changes.

I couldn't say anything but good comments on the boat. We owned her for 10+ years and would still have her had medical issues forced us to sell her. Got questions? PM me.

Mike
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Sounds great, I appreciate the info. Hopefully go out eyes on one soon which I’m sure will raise more questions.
 
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