Thank you, New 280 owner

[Monkey Business]

My family and I are just about finished with completing a deal on a 2001 280 Sundancer (4.3s and 5K). This forum was incredibly helpful in helping determine the model I wanted and what power/amenities we wanted. We go this weekend to pick up a trailer (Pirate Marine) and then bring it back. For the next 3 months or so we'll be in Hunstville, so we're looking forward to checking out Lake Guntersville and the tenntom.

I am in the process of ordering a few upgrades. I just ordered a Lowarance HDS-7. I plan to put a network together to monitor fuel consumption. The only draw back I found on this boat is the relatively small fuel tank/limited cruising range. We will be going to CA in the next 4 months and cruising out SoCal usually encouters about 25 mi one way. So I want to be able to keep a close eye on the fuel consumption. Has anyone hooked up a fuel flow sensor to the Gen fuel line? I have no idea how many gph the gen uses at even half a load. The HDS is supposed to be able to moniter 3 engines off of one tank.

Scotty
Will put signature together when I finalized on boat.

 

[Turtlesboat]

You'll be a pro at fuel consumption after 2 tank fulls.

 

[mwph]

Welcome to CSR. I can't help you much with fuel consumption. Hope you enjoy Guntersville. I'm @ MM 357. PM me if I can help with any lake info.

 

[everthing's irie]

Your generator will burn just under 1 gallon per hour .08gph at full load. Always run the genset under a full load.

 

[Monkey Business]

Thanks for all the encouragement. Yes the she has EFI and on the Sea Trial had plenty of power with 5 adaults and half tank. I just like the versatility of the design. Can do some fishing with the rear seat folded down and plenty of room for the family to fool around for 2-3 day trips. Based on 1 gallon per hour I don't know if it would even be worth putting a flow sensor on the gen, I doubt the Lowrance sensor would be consistently accurate enough. Thanks for the info. The folks we are taking the boat from are the second owners and have only spent 2 nights on the boat in the 3 years they owned it. The cabin looks and still feels new.

Scotty

 

[Turtlesboat]

I hope that the 4.3's in the boat you are looking at are EFI or MPI. I previously owned a 2001 280 with the carburated 4.3's @190 HP each, and the boat was way under powered. I ended up repowering the boat with 5.0 MPI's because it performed so badly.

If this critter has the weak engines and it is not too late, I would suggest dropping this one like a hot potato and finding one with the fuel injection.

that's only because you never washed the boat and it accumulated hundreds of pounds of dirt.

 

[nwboater]

Congrats on the boat! I've also recently gotten into a 280 and love it. I also installed and HDS-8 unit with sonar and really like the bright screen and detailed graphics. I tried to figure out how to connect to SmartCraft via NMEA 2000, but no luck. I assume you will be using the Lowrance fuel flow sensors to measure fuel consumption. Let me know how it goes. I'd like to combine gph with mph to get mpg in real-time on the unit.