Official 280 Sundancer Thread

Danny Troy said:
Funny, most people complain that the fuel tank is too small. I think it's all about what you require for your specific needs. I'd gladly take a 75 gallon fuel tank, and add that 25 gallon capacity to my water tank. I also feel the freshwater tank is too small.
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25 extra gallons for both tanks would be the best option for running to the Bahamas...lol
 
Question about aircon and heating with the cockpit covers on:

My cockpit covers are shot (like that when I got it) so cant fit them, debating replacing them but wondering if you have all covers fitted then put the AC on on a hot day or heating on on a cold evening, does the cold / heat come up from the cabin to noticeably warm up or cool down the covered cockpit? I can imagine cooling the cockpit woud be a big ask in the sun as it a greenhouse but may help at night? heating up there def would be nice for chilly evenings but not sure if enough heat would come out the cabin or would just be lost thru the covers?

I am in Perth, we can hit 40C (100F) on a hot summers day and down to a few C (40F) on a winters night.

Thanks
Anthony
 
Anthony,

By covers I assume you mean the canvas? Our summers are about like yours (currently at 9:12 it is 83 degrees F going for 94), winters are a lot colder and we don't boat then. However the AC will not push cold up into the cockpit. Its the whole hot air rises, cold air falls thing. However with the canvas up in the Fall and spring it is quite comfortable both from wind blockage and heat generated from the sun warming the blue canvas. In early spring and late fall I help a friend move his boat (also a SR) between Boston and Portland, Maine - about 120 NM. The trip would be completely impossible without a complete enclosure. As for heat from the cabin in the evening I would say it depends obviously on the ambient temp. However as the Ac Heating system is a reverse cycle system, as the water temp drops the ability to heat declines. SO the performance of the heating system is not going to be that great. But, there is no reason why you couldn't use a small electric heater in the cockpit.

You folks must be well into winter by now. Are you still boating?

Henry
 
hi

Thanks for the comments Henry, yes July is mid winter here, but its my first boating season in Australia as I am from England, I boated back there all year round, I have helmed in the snow on a sailing yacht (so very open and no covers) so I find it funny that some people pull their boats out for what they call winter here, the day temps are pretty good (15-22ish C) but it can drop a lot at night or if theres a cold wind.

That said I have been in Boston (and further North in New Hampshire) in the winter and you guys really know what snow is out there so I am with you and wouldn't venture out on that either; beautiful place though, amazing in the fall. :)

I have the extended camper Bimini for shade in the summer which was my main concern out here, so far I have coped without the canvas sides that go with it, but a couple of times in the last month they would have been nice.

I have the original 2001 build 280 that Great Lakes wont supply canvas for as they claim it was a different pattern so its a bigger issue to try to replace it all (things are also expensive here).

Understable that the AC wont cool the cockpit, so I might just see how I go the rest of this year without them.

Thanks for the help,

Anthony
 
solved - not getting full revs:

I while ago we had a discussion on here re max revs / speed of efi and mpi engines and it was clear I (and one or more others) were not seeing the top end numbers we should have been.

Just wanted to feedback; I purchased Diacom and have been going over my twin 4.3s and whilst there is a lot of info there I dont understand I did figure out the timing seems wrong. It was spot on when the engine was running normally but with Diacom I was able to put it into the base timing mode and then it was about tdc instead of 8btdc so I suspect whoever did it last did it without putting it into base mode; both engines were the same. I am up from 3900 rpm to 4500 WOT, its supposed to be 4800 but shes not perfectly clean and I haven't checked the accuracy of the tachs yet either so I am pretty happy with 4500 for now compared to what I had. Hopefully she will drink a little less fuel now too.

Just wanted to put it out there in case it helps anyone else. Apparently there is a way to get base timing by jumpering the ecu connector (not the distributor wires, that was the older engines), but I have not tried that, I am happy that Discom is a good investment if saves just one repair bill.

Anthony
 
Thanks for posting this Anthony, I'm collecting all kinds of data to help me assess the health of my engines.
So far I'm satisfied with performance, but I noticed it's hard to get her on plane sometimes, especially if following a large boat. My guess is prop ventilation from the wake?

And to follow up on comments above about water/fuel tanks, yes both are way too small.
I would gladly give up the aft berth for larger tanks.

All that said, she's a joy to drive, and everyone on board was very comfortable. I love my boat more every day.







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Does anyone know if it is even remotely possible to increase the size (amperage) of a breaker in the engine room aft EIM? The ones with the little white pushbutton that pops when tripped.

I installed new bilge blowers over the winter that were greater cfm than the originals. However the amps they need is the same as the breaker size. So occasionally the breakers will pop on both. If I can't upgrade breaker size I'm going to go back to the Attwood brand oem style.

Also and I'm not sure if this is related or not but my helm blower switch no longer lights up when the blowers are running. Why would this be? I need to figure that out because I must know if my blowers are running or not. If it's related to the new blowers I find that odd, but thats the only thing I've changed in the blower setup.

Tom
 
Tom - did you just notice the switch light not on, or has it been like this since the blowers were replaced with the higher cfm units? Can you hear the blowers running at all (if you get down in the bilge & listen)?

Jim
 
Sundance280 said:
Tom - did you just notice the switch light not on, or has it been like this since the blowers were replaced with the higher cfm units? Can you hear the blowers running at all (if you get down in the bilge & listen)?

Jim
Click to expand...

Jim, I replaced the blowers and everything seemed great. Then I noticed the indicator light was not on, at the switch. I don't recall if it was like that immediately after changing them out or sometime later.

If the generator is not running I can hear the blowers running. Otherwise I would check by placing my hand over the port vents. I would keep checking as eventually the breakers would pop. Then I'd have to climb down there and reset them. Not enjoyable!

Tom
 
Ok, 280 experts: I noticed this weekend that each time when I run the VacuFlush, an odor :smt009, yes, is coming from the wet bar built-in cooler drain hole (right side of bar). Please tell me that this would be remedied with a vent filter replacement... as filter is several yrs old. Anyone have this happen?

Jim
 
Tom, I can't offer any advice at this point but I will monitor your findings, as my blower switch at the helm is not working nor will it light up, so I have to go into the cabin to turn them on/off and I hope there's a fix besides replacing the entire switchpad.


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blower led is unlikely to be related to new blower, the dash switch is a digital connection to the EIM, so likley a fault in the dash panel or EIM. the breakers in the EIM are just plugged I to the board using blad terminals as I recall so yes could swap it out for larger a one providing the pcb tracks can handle the extra load, or just use the current switched output to pkwer on a relay to handle the extra load and put a large fuse or breaker on the output of the relay, if you do that remeber everything in the ER needs to be ign protected.
 
Sundance280 said:
Ok, 280 experts: I noticed this weekend that each time when I run the VacuFlush, an odor :smt009, yes, is coming from the wet bar built-in cooler drain hole (right side of bar). Please tell me that this would be remedied with a vent filter replacement... as filter is several yrs old. Anyone have this happen?

Jim
Click to expand...

Replace or "recharge" filter sure cant hurt! Can you recall a time when you may have "over flowed" the black tank? Mine was bad when I got the boat and its been fine since replacing filter.
 
floriduramax1 said:
Replace or "recharge" filter sure cant hurt! Can you recall a time when you may have "over flowed" the black tank? Mine was bad when I got the boat and its been fine since replacing filter.
Click to expand...

The holding tank hasn't overflowed to the filter since we've had it (about 2 1/2 yrs). It's a safe bet that the filter hasn't been replaced for a lot longer than that, perhaps never. I'm thinking that the filter charcoal has given up...
 
Dooley,Thanks for the info on the teak flooring. Seems like a lot of work to make that template for the company, but worth a thought. Question for any 280 owners....does anyone know the reasoning behind Searay to make you have to turn on the radio and water pump at the helm every time you turn off the batteries, and has anyone bypassed that in any way. Frustrating for me anyway. Thanks, Mark
 
floriduramax1,

I recall your extensive cabin upgrades...I have a question. Coming back from my 4th July run I hit some rough seas and shook my cabinet loose over the table. Two screws on each end just isn't enough.

What are those screws going into? They sure don't seen to hold much before pulling out allowing the cabinet to sag down. Are there areas to add more screws that might be preferred over others. Any wires, etc to look out for behind those end cabinets? I'm looking for any recommendation you might have to remount those cabinets better/sturdier than the factory did. Your opinion would be appreciated.
 
aquaaddiction said:
blower led is unlikely to be related to new blower, the dash switch is a digital connection to the EIM, so likley a fault in the dash panel or EIM. the breakers in the EIM are just plugged I to the board using blad terminals as I recall so yes could swap it out for larger a one...
Click to expand...

Not what I wanted to hear! But I figured as much. It didn't make any sense to me that attaching a black and red wire to a different blower would make any difference as to whether a lighted switch indicator would work or not...

Dooley, I will have to check and see if the much simpler blower toggle switch in the cabin panel next to the generator switches lights or not. It has an indicator light too, so I will have to check that one. Didn't think of cross referencing that one.

Have thought about using a relay, but then that just clutters up things with inline fuses, etc and where to tie them into battery power. If need be, I'm just going back to OEM style and amperage draw. Though the red/black wires going to the blowers look to be 14 or 16 gauge so and should be able to handle 15 or 10 amps, so upgrading the breaker would be easiest of all. Now that I know the breakers can be removed individually from the EIM, I will have to check this out and see what they look like out of the EIM and without the protective boot to see if I can find a match. I may have found some here: http://www.searay-parts.com/Pushbutton-circuit-breaker-for-12-volt-electrical-p/1658pushbrkr-spadeterm.htm

Tom
 
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dont forget to check the rating of the relay inside the EIM, swapping out the breaker is easy but u dont want to burn out thr relay or pcb track that feeds it. u will also need a special security screwdriver bit to be able to open the ER EIM.
 
Hello Everyone!

I hope you all are having a Great summer!
Does anyone know where I might the weight limit for my swim platform?

Thank you all for the help.
 
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