Sea Ray introduces Zeus on the 38 and 44 Sundancers

I agree....very odd to skip over the 40DA....I wonder if that's a typo or mis-information...
 
They had a 44 docked in our marina in Oshkosh Wis. for about 1/2 the summer. We were told that they were trying out the Zeus Drives and had to put so many hours on it a week.
 
Skipping the 390/40DA?.........

Not odd. Sea Ray does very little without a solid reason. The boat may be scheduled for replacement and they don't want to invest the engineering $ in a lame duck boat, or more likely there is a problem with the hull design, center to center distance of the engines, etc. that makes the Zeus not feasible.
 
Frank, have you had a chance to run a Zeus equipped boat yet? Would be interested in your thoughts, even though the Zeus is mated to the, uh, Cummins Marine Diesel product, as opposed to Caterpillar.

Skip
 
No Skip, I have not.

I did get to run an '08 44DA with the new drive by wire system. It is one impressive boat. It has 500hp QSC Cummins power and the boat will fly.......37 mph at WOT. The coolest feature is the cruise control where you can dial in preset rpms and the system will set the power and sync the engines automatically. We set the high speed one at cruise rpms and the low speed at fast idle of 950rpms and it held speed like the throttles were welded in position.

Only negatives were the generator location.......owners better pray that their dealers employ a small monkey with some diesel skills since any mammal bigger than that can't get to the genset. The engine room ladder also obscures access to the transmissions, but it is removable.
 
Frank,
Cruise control has been around since 06 on the 44 with the QSC 8.3's . The genset with the sound cover is tight but serivceable . Without the cover IT has to be much more managable . Besides where else is it going to go? ( its a 9 kw genset ) THE RACOR location on the stb side...NOw thats an issue that has to be addressed. I cant believe they havent fixed this yet. The ladder swings up out of the way. How often u playing with the trannies ?
 
Skip said:
Frank, have you had a chance to run a Zeus equipped boat yet? Would be interested in your thoughts, even though the Zeus is mated to the, uh, Cummins Marine Diesel product, as opposed to Caterpillar.

Skip
Click to expand...

Skip-

I had the chance to operate the 44 with Zeus at this year's Sea Ray Yacht Expo. It was pretty impressive - joystick is functional up to about 1800 rpm's. It was pretty simple and comfortable to operate, although it's easy to juice it too much the first few times one handles it. More impressive than the tight quarter maneuvering is the purported 30% fuel efficiencies with the pod system. Time will tell on that. Turning radius was much tighter than on our 44/420. If you happen to be out on one and the captain says "Hold On," trust me, hold on! We made a hard turn to port (I was sitting starboard) at about 28 knots and I felt like I was on an amusment park ride staring straight down at others on the port side. My only negative on it was noise - I found it to be pretty loud.

I'll say this with more than a wink - I've offered my services to sea trial and critique the Zeus system on the 48. Should be back down in March/April. Cummins is working on a QSC engine to increase HP for the 48 by about 10-15%. This is interesting as the actual HP on the 44 with Zeus was reduced about 10%.
 
The ladder on the '08 is indeed hinged, but it won't swing out of the way (because of clearance issues on the port engine) and must be removed......once a year to service the transmissions and touch up the paint. Its not a big deal but it is one of those annoying things that 10 more minutes invested by the engineering guys would fix.

The Racors on the '08 were bigger 1000MA's rather than dual 900Ma's and they were very accessible.

I don't know where else the generator could go on this boat...I just know the guy who services the filters and water pump/impeller is going to need a box car load of Advil!

BTW.......I love the 44DA......w/ 500 hp QSC's the damned thing is a rocket!
 
standers said:
......
I'll say this with more than a wink - I've offered my services to sea trial and critique the Zeus system on the 48. Should be back down in March/April. Cummins is working on a QSC engine to increase HP for the 48 by about 10-15%. ........
Click to expand...

Sounds like we may get to see a Zeus powered 48DA at the BIH '08 get together......:thumbsup:.....I'll have a special stogy waiting for ya'....and a drink of course!!!!
 
osd9 said:
Sounds like we may get to see a Zeus powered 48DA at the BIH '08 get together......:thumbsup:.....I'll have a special stogy waiting for ya'....and a drink of course!!!!
Click to expand...

Dom-

If all goes well at their end, it will be introduced in the '09 line. So for this year coming up, I'm sorry to say there'll be no change. If the Zeus is wildly successful on the 38 and 44, one could anticipate solid sales for the '09. That scenario should present a strong '07 or '08 used market for 48's.

Do I still get the stogy and scotch. I got your port picked out already!
 
This is not good Guys, told my dealership that I'd be getting a 44 when they put the Zues drives in them.... they told me it would be a year or two off yet,,....... Uhm Hello...... They are now in the 44DA... Webster.... Tell me what you really thought, PM me if you'd like, I'd like to hear your wisdom from driving that Boat... we were invited to the Yacht, but We're not in the buying Mood yet, working on a large Automotive order at our business,, and it's taking a lot of cash to get it up and moving....But now that the Malibu had debuted, it's really rolling so maybe the 44 is in the future near future......Webster..... I'm waiting to hear more..

Thanks
 
Stan,
Bring the Margarita Machine again and there will be fistfights to be your slip mate. As for me, I look forward to berthing by that very nice fellow who hands out free Marine Toilet Paper and gives free advice/demonstratons on how best to pump out the head and burn up impellers on one's boat. Now how cool is that?

Skip
 
When we were at Yacht expo they had lots of 38 and 44's in production with zeus. Only takes a week to build either boat, so I don't think there would be too much of a wait, unless your dealer has a V-drive in stock and wants to sell that before they order a boat.
 
Did SeaRay move the bulkhead toward the stern to take advantage of the smaller area required by the Zeus drives? Did they put pockets on the hull?

I like the joystick placement but don't care for the single engine controller on the right of the wheel. I guess you have to dock left handed when turned around to back into your slip.
 
I spent many hours talking to the Cummins tech as well as riding both 38 & 44 Zeus demos at the EXPO... On the 38 the the salon aft bulkhead was moved forward 8-10 inches!!! Cummins reps admitted the release of Zeus is about 6mos. early, due to tech/design issues with the Searay hull... SR wants a single design hull for both v-drives and Zeus... The 44 with hydraulic platform had a smother ride than the one without. Non platform 44 had lots of vibration/noise due to a lack of additional support in transom area(according to the cummins people), somehow the ext.platform added the add. support... The 38 rode somewhat stern heavy, the SR demo had the waterline extended about 2feet aft to help lift at the stern... Cummins said that they were still trouble shooting the one 38 Zeus and five 44Zeus demos... The loss of 8-10inches in the midberth area of the 38 seemed against the principle of pod systems being smaller allowing more room in the bilge ? Oh by the way all the demos were sold at the show, I hope all questionable things get figured out before deliveries... The helms with the new System View and armrest with joystick, are beyond cool, very airplane like...
 
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