Fuses are in a trap door inside the storage area in front of the driver seat. A door flips down to reveal them. It is effectively behind the gauges.

 

Thanks for the intel! Incredibly I didn't see that info anywhere in the owner's manual! (Doesn't mean it isn't there, I miss a lot!)

I always wonder why a particular fuse would blow......in this case....the horn. Was working at delivery. Then, just testing everything at the dock, it isn't. I guess I have to look at the wiring diagram to see what else is connected to that fuse. It seems unlikely it's all on it's own, and I'd like to determine why the fuse went. Sometimes it's an obvious reason, here, doesn't seem to be.

In your experience with your boat have you had any recurring fuse issues?

For that matter, are there ANY recurring issues on our boat that I should be aware of, or watchful of? Or preventable?

Every boat has it's own quirks, at least in my experience. But I wonder if there is any commonality in this model I should be on the lookout for, or do something about in advance of failure?

Thanks in advance Paul, and to any of the other guys out there who join in on the 270 SLX thread. Again, don't mean to overstep in any way.....but it seems like there are a few of us here on the forum, so hopefully a consolidation into one thread with all issues relative to the 270 SLX will make the exchange of ideas and information a little easier for us all.

 

No recurring issues, but there are some nuances. The owners manual and parts manual show the fuses and wiring in great detail - might want to print out those pages.
The 496 is known to eat plugs and wires, so be prepared to watch for that.
It is also a large, hot motor. Keeping the raw water pump and water inlet passages in good shape is critical. My boat, and one other that I know of, had the raw water inlet tube/fitting go bad and limit water intake causing overheating.
Also, it is not a self bailing boat, so keeping the bilge pumps operational is important.

 

No recurring issues, but there are some nuances. The owners manual and parts manual show the fuses and wiring in great detail - might want to print out those pages.
The 496 is known to eat plugs and wires, so be prepared to watch for that.
It is also a large, hot motor. Keeping the raw water pump and water inlet passages in good shape is critical. My boat, and one other that I know of, had the raw water inlet tube/fitting go bad and limit water intake causing overheating.


Also, it is not a self bailing boat, so keeping the bilge pumps operational is important.

Just had to replace my raw water intake and also my plugs. Made a huge difference. I’m in salt water and i wish there was a way to flush it out after each use.

 

Paul, (I'm assuming!), I really appreciate the continued advice!

I actually am a little paranoid about bilge pump operation, since an event on a boat I owned years ago almost cost me an engine. Well, I guess it could have sunk my battleship left unattended long enough.

We had a rainy week while back home at our year-round residence, which is about 35-40 minutes drive from the boat. LOTS of rain, every day.

Like a blessing from Heaven, with the weekend came sunny, warm, perfect boating weather!

Before I go on with my story, some background my "start-up sequence". Everyone has one....this is mine, has been for years.

Rather than starting the blowers and relying on them to clear any fumes from the bilge, I open the engine hatch and check my fluids, belts, etc, to ensure I don't start off with a small issue that could have been prevented from becoming a large issue. Years of riding Harley's (45 years) taught me the wisdom of a "pre-ride safety check".

One day, as I boarded, my phone rang. It was my daughter.

I love my daughter but like many daughters, she drives her dad a little nuts. (Maybe a LOT on some days!)

She started with some conversation I no longer remember, but at the time it was enough to distract me from my usual routine and I started the engine with no preliminaries.

As soon as I heard the engine humming along, I realized my mistake but thought "Well, the boat didn't blow up, and I know the fluids are ok anyway, having checked them yesterday, so I am just going out."

BIG mistake.

We're about 7-10 minutes at no-wake speed from the causeway that leads to the bay. When I get to that run, I bring the boat on-plane to ensure everything is "A-OK" before getting to the bay.

Went WOT and the engine roared for a couple seconds, then the boat bogged down to a crawl. Tried it again, same thing. But at idle it seemed fine.

I'm thinking, "Fuel filter?" and told my wife, "we gotta go home", and turned around and idled perfectly fine back to our dock.

When I got there, I opened the hatch and what do you think I discovered? (drum roll please.....)

Water in the bilge about, no lie, 8 inches deep, covering all KINDS of "stuff". The belts were literally running through the water, that deep, so NO idea how the boat started. I know, I know, doesn't seem possible, but I can't make this stuff up.

Shut it off, of course, and reached into the water, feeling around for the bilge pump, (knew where to feel) and came up with a wire, disconnected from the pump. Corrosion had done it's dirty work.

Lifted the float switch by hand and did something to keep it that way and after what seemed like an eternity the water was all pumped out.

I somehow, blessedly, dodged more than one bullet that day. Although it looked like there was some moisture in the oil, it appeared it had only gotten some in through whatever splashed around the dipstick, and after flushing the engine's oil, twice, it ran as perfectly as ever and the only aftermath was replacing the starter soon afterwards. I feel like I was very fortunate that day!

What had happened was during our rainy week, on my un-covered boat, water had collected in the bilge and the continuous running of the pump, before it could even run the battery down, vibrated off that corroded connecting wire, and that was the end of the pump's ability to get the water out of the bilge.

So now, I unfailingly do the same thing with all my boats, opening the hatch to check things out, including the bilge pump, no matter WHO calls me while I am boarding the boat!

It seems like there ought to be more than one bilge pump on a boat like ours. Too much chance of a catastrophic event with only one to rely upon.

I did spend a good part of the day Saturday, while waiting for the tide to rise, crawling around (as much as I could) in the bilge, cleaning and wiping and vacuuming everything possible in there, so there'd be nothing to clog the pump the next time it's called into service. That's just too easy a thing to happen and an equally easy thing to prevent, IMHO.

The raw water pump was recently replaced on the motor, but I will be sure to keep an eye on the heat issues as you recommend. I certainly don't want to replace this engine any time soon. Or ever.

Thanks again for the much needed and very much appreciated input!!

 

There actually is a second pump located at the rear of the ski locker. there is a round access port on the rear wall in there, and a pump hidden behind it. It is below the potable water pump, in front of the gas tank, and behind the divider wall in the rear of the locker. Go searching..... It is there because as I said, not self bailing. All the water that comes in the cup holders, the bow storage compartments, the bathroom floor drain, the front half of the boat floor, etc all end up in there. The locker floor is a false floor with water space under it.

 

Hello Paul....Do you know what the deal is with the "water space" under the locker floor? I pulled the plastic plugs and there is water in mine along with foam type insulation. How does water get in there and what do you do about it?

 

I'm going to impart some 300 SLX knowledge in the 270 SLX thread on the topic...

There are pumps hidden all over my boat. I have two in the engine compartment bilge (regular and high water back-up), a mid-ship pump at the back of the ski locker covered by a panel (sounds similar to the above), and another pump at the front of the ski locker behind a panel that houses the water tank (this pump shoots out the water from the head sink and drain).

I'm okay with having 4 pumps on this relatively small boat, but I do wish there were more self-bailing. For example, when washing the deck/floor, that water can go directly out.

 

OP, thanks for creating this thread.
I purchased my 2007 270 SLX last year. Right off the bat I was chasing electrical gremlins. Solved one myself - blown engine hatch fuse. Still hunting down why the chart plotter isn't getting power (had power when I took delivery). The only other electrical problem was due to a loose engine ground which tripped the 70 amp (?) breaker. This is when the chart plotter stopped working. Hopefully I will find the chart plotter fuse next time I'm on the boat.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

 

You're very welcome!!


Just curious....which chartplotter came with your boat when you bought it? And have you resolved your power issue yet? I'm also curious as to, if you have the Navman or Northstar, if you've had any issues with alarms triggering Guardian Mode.....love to hear from you, or any of the other 270 SLX guys, regarding this issue. Especially if you've had NO issues with Guardian Mode, what your setting are....which alarms you have "on" and which "off".

On another note, regarding fuses......my horn worked during my survey, now it doesn't.....anybody know where that fuse is??

 

Trim tabs indicator??

OK, so here's my question for the day......

I know everything you read says after a while knowing what position each trim tab is in becomes instinctive and second nature, but that hasn't happened for me on ANY boat I have owned that had trim tabs. Guess I don't have good instincts!

But what I DID have before were trim tab indicators, and that took the guesswork out of the whole subject.

My question is.....since there are trim tab controls that incorporate position indicators into them, how hard would it be to install a set and what does it take to make them functional? (Not just making them retract and drop, obviously, getting the signal, however that's done, to the little LED lights on the indicators to tell where the tabs are.)

Is it by any chance a "plug and play" scenario, or it is a complicated deal involving pulling the boat?

I'd love to have them NOW instead of next season, but I am not pulling this boat (unless I have an emergency) until Winter Layup!

 

Re: Trim tabs indicator??

My understanding is it's not terribly difficult, but it does require pulling the boat because new rams are needed (that are capable of measuring vs. regular ones that's don't).

There are threads around here where folks have retrofitted tabs with indicators.

 

Re: Trim tabs indicator??

My understanding is it's not terribly difficult, but it does require pulling the boat because new rams are needed (that are capable of measuring vs. regular ones that's don't).

There are threads around here where folks have retrofitted tabs with indicators.

That makes sense. Guess that's a project for NEXT season then! I'm still working on whatever the heck is triggering Guardian Mode on my boat!

 

I have an upgraded (at the time) Garmin unit on my 270. No guardian issues.

I very, very rarely use my trim tabs. The only time I use them is when there is a strong wind that is getting caught in the sports arch and I need to correct for it.

 

Well, here's an update on my "System Fault" error messages and how the Guardian Mode triggers as a result.

As I mentioned before, during the last few days while the weather was so bad I couldn't go out anyway, I went through the Northstar chartplotter and disabled the alarms that had been triggering that made no sense, and left any that did enabled.

Today, we had some beautiful weather, finally, so I was able to take the boat out. No problem on the way to the bay, about 7-10 minutes at idle speed.
Got to the bay ok.

But after about 4 or 5 minutes at WOT, at about 45 mph, the alarm sounded.

Unfortunately, Guardian Mode was triggered again. The bright side, (which isn't easy to see when the forth ride on this boat ended like the first three, in Guardian Mode), is that with those alarms in the chartplotter disabled, I didn't get the same "System Fault-Engine Message Data Fault", with no real indication of why I was in Guardian Mode. This time the Smart Tow gauge displayed the reason I was in Guardian Mode......I was overheating!!

The engine temp was 200 degrees when I went into Guardian Mode, and I had my thermal gun with me, so I took some temps, and the Port manifold was at 265 degrees while the Starboard manifold was at 185. Obviously I've got something going on affecting the port side, no idea what.

I stopped the engine, waited a few minutes, the engine cooled back down more quickly than I would have thought, and I headed home, rather slowly.

The engine temp continued to drop as I made my way back, and by the time I was in my own lagoon I was at 165 degrees and no sign of any problem, although I'm sure if I went WOT that it would overheat again.

So, what is the issue? As simple as the impeller? The water pump? An issue specific to the port manifold overheating the engine?

I called the dealer, and expect a return call tomorrow.

I am not going to try to fix this myself. They are going to have to come get the boat and figure it out. I just hope it doesn't take long. Boating season is NOW!

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on this.

 

Upgrade/Update Smartcraft gauges?

I believe what I have in my 2009 is "second generation" Smart Tow gauge package. Deduction made from reading Mercury's illustration and descriptions of each gauge from over the years.

So, a couple questions.....

A. Is it possible/desirable, to upgrade/update the smartcraft gauge to a newer generation? If so, how hard is it, and what are the benefits?

B. My understanding is the Smartcraft system is/was a proprietary system and not NMEA2000 "ready". If that's so, does it make more sense to change out the package to something altogether different? If so, to what? And the benefits?

Since I have been plagued (as have others) by alarms, and system error messages, that sometimes do and often don't make sense, I'm looking for a way out of that annoying and stressful situation. Just wondering what my options are, but not looking to foolishly throw money at a problem if it won't really demonstrate a truly measurable benefit.

 

I am a 2 year owner of a 2005 270 SLX and appreciate the forum. We love the boat and have some similar challenges for feedback.
* With my canvas package, I continuously get water through the area at the bow walk thru door where the cockpit cover and tonneau cover meet. Same issue, the water sits in the ski locker
* I just removed the winter shrink wrap and the boat is still in a cradle. So, water that enters now even with the covers will sit in the bilge - even with the plug out. Is this right??? Anything that can be done or bypassed to allow drainage
* The original Nav Man plotter is garbage - any suggestions on replacement
* Initially, my fridge worked off shore power with my batteries in the OFF position - great for keeping things cold when at dock. Last year, this was not the case and I think it was because of the way the batteries were installed. Any advice? No wit works strictly off battery power. Does anyone keep the fridge on when away for the week?

 

Hey everybody! My wife and I bought our first boat last September and are super excited to be a part of the family. We only have about 4 hours on it bc we took delivery so late in the year, so feels like we're just getting it this year. Hope to learn from everybody here as well as provide some things I learn over time.

As for something cottage run brought up, you're correct the navman stinks nowadays. Not sure if your console dimensions same as mine, I'd assume they are, but I swapped it out with a raymarine a68. It fits about as perfectly as you'll find (I think it's .25" smaller than current cutout). I then hooked it up to a ray70 vhf which enables me to have AIS on the mfd in addition to the chirp and downvision already built in. Nice set up and much better than navman.

Now for my question of the day, I need to change the registration decals on the boat. What suggestions do people have as to the easiest way to remove everything? Thanks everybody!

 

OneDown, Congrats on getting an awesome boat! We just got our '09 270 SLX about a month ago and have had an issue with alarms now being addressed, (ultimately it is an overheating issue but we had problems identifying it until we took the Navman out of the loop and let Smartcraft tell us what it was.), so now of course I want to upgrade the chartplotter. We have the Northstar 500 which is identical to your old Navman.

Did you interface the Smartcraft system into your Raymarine a68? What did you have to add to make that happen, as I assume the old gateway to the Navman wasn't compatible.

And if you could post some pics of your install it would be much appreciated.

I've always been a Garmin man myself, but if Raymarine is the better choice I will certainly switch allegiances. In fact, I recently got a great deal on a Raymarine c95, too good to pass up, but there's no way it will fit where the old chartplotter is, so I have to decide if I want to mount it somewhere else, and frankly, I don't know where to put it. If any of you guys have some suggestions to that end it would be much appreciated. Meanwhile, I've got it safely in the box awaiting my willingness to drill holes in my boat.

I'm also thinking of installing sonar so I can get a view of what's under the boat. When I had a much larger boat I found it very helpful in shallow waters to know what I was dealing with down below. Thinking of doing that with this boat but I can't decide that until I decide what the heart of the system will be. Like I said, I always liked Garmin but this deal on the c95 was great so I bought it kind of impulsively. Now the decision is, do I make use of it or pass it along to someone who will. Have to get some suggestions as to where to mount it before I can decide that!

Cottage Run: I get water into the boat at the same place you do when the covers are on. Don't really know what can be done to eliminate that. There is a place to snap the covers together but there will still be that gap there. I have raised the cover poles as high as they can go to get that "peak" as steep as possible for water run-off when it rains. That has helped a little. I made the mistake of leaving the pole up front too low for the first rain storm and we had a huge pool of water over the bow. Had I not been there to sweep it all off with a broom and raise the pole I'm sure the snaps would have given out and all that water would have wound up in the bilge.

 

Thanks Richard! I did not integrate the smart craft gauges with the mfd for two reasons: I'm working remotely from where my boat is and don't know it well enough yet to mock up all the wiring and have it figured out before I get there, and secondly, I grew up on the waters we are boating on and don't plan on having the mfd on all the time. So by leaving gauges separate, I can still see water temp and depth when traveling to areas I know. When I want to go exploring new areas, nav at night, or go looking for shipwrecks to dive, I'll use the mfd and with the downvision built in, I'll get quite the picture of what's on bottom. The vhf since also a raymarine product is simply sea talked into the mfd so I can now receive AIS. While the a68 isn't the biggest display, like yourself, I HATE drilling holes in the boat and couldn't bring myself to doing that, aside from the fact that there really isn't a good spot at the helm in my opinion. While I love this boat, sea ray did not make it easy for upgrades at the helm, heck, there's hardly a good spot for the vhf and antenna especially since I don't have the sport bar.

As for pics, I don't have any currently but when I'm up there in about a month and everything is finished I certainly will post some to give you an idea of what it looks like!

 

Regarding the canvas leakage...you'll be happy to know the 300 SLX does the same thing.

It's not a complete remedy, but I have done two things:

1) Made sure the air dam door is shut.
2) On top of said door, I wedge a towel to close that "droop gap" between the snaps on the windshield "door."

Like I said, it's not perfect, but it reduces the water.

One day, I plan to head out in a rainstorm so I can sit under the canvas and observe the entry points. From there, I hope to develop a classier solution to keeping the water out. Only to people on here does that sound like a good idea.

 

I'm really grateful for your post! As "obvious" a solution as yours might appear, why didn't I think of it myself?? (Don't answer that!)

I'll do the same thing from now on. Am I going to take it to the next level and head out in a rainstorm? Uh....nah....I'll wait for you to report back on that one! :grin:


OneDown: So you have the latest generation of the A68 with built-in sonar? My recently acquired c95 doesn't have that..... but I wanted a bigger display for my old eyes. Still, with the difficulty of "placing" it, and the lack of the sonar built-in features, maybe I don't want to keep it.....a difficult decision.....

If I could flush-mount it at the helm I know I would keep it, but with no readily available, obvious space, I really don't know what to do. It was a great deal, but not "great" if I can't enjoy it.

A return may be in my near future.

 

Richard-

Yes I bought version with everything built in. I saw older versions you need a separate chirp/downvision box but not this one. I bought product #e70207. The reason why I bought that product number was bc it does not come with cartography. I then bought navionics platinum+ which has 3D maps and satellite overlay. All told it was over $100 less than buying from west marine with only navionics platinum instead of platinum+.

 

Does anybody have any recommendations on a place to buy manufacturers replacement parts? My local sea Ray dealer can't be counted on and I need to order things like the transom sprayer and hose, inline water filter for pump, and other odds and ends. I have all the part numbers I need but when I search online no results. Thoughts?

 

Regarding the transom sprayer......just went through that myself, and found out you can save a TON of money by buying a normal household kitchen sprayer. Same threads. Probably the same hose too. Just make sure it has an on/off switch, or the water will run all the time. But the Sea Ray part was well over $100, and Home Depot can hook you up for a fraction of that price. I have looked on eBay for other parts, with some sporadic success. But that transom sprayer is just WAY overpriced from Sea Ray. Go with a Home Depot special, same job for a lot less $$$.

 

Fantastic, thank you

 

Sorry for the incredibly slow response...
I have the Navman.
No problems with alarms triggering Guardian mode. Sorry, but I cannot answer anymore of your questions. Eventually I will start learning more about all the fancy gadgets.

So I created another problem that needs to be solved. This weekend I was preparing the boat for Memorial Day / Summer and decided to shock the fresh water system. First, I drained the pink stuff. Second, I filled the tank and added 1 cup chlorine. Let it sit for 4 hrs. After 4 hrs, start running water to clear the tank. After a couple minutes lost all water pressure at faucets. Looked under the ski locker and sure enough water was spraying into the bilge from the pump - Yikes. Found and tightened the fitting where water was leaking. Started the water pump again but the pump only stays on for a couple a seconds and then shuts off.
So I believe I have a clog in a hose. This makes sense to me because the water/chlorine solution probably did its job. That said, can someone confirm my suspicion? Also can someone offer a fix. My guess is that compressed air could be run through the system to blow out the gunk.

 

Not sure about yours, but my fresh water pump comes on and off on demand. When it senses a drop in pressure, it cuts on. When no pressure is dropped it cuts off.

 

Thanks for the response. My 2007 has a switch on the dash to turn on the fresh water pump.

 

Yes, that is main power, but then it cycles on and off based on the pressure switch as mentioned.

 

Good information however I am still not tracking with you. Are you saying the pump could be sensing a drop in pressure and therefore shutting off? If yes, what could cause this problem? I do have more information that I failed to share in the original post. When I disconnect the hose from the fitting at the pump, the pump does not auto-shut off - it keeps pumping.

 

Correct. The pump Runs when pressure drops (such as an open line, a leak, or a faucet turned on) and shuts off when pressure builds to a sufficient level to trip the pressure switch.

 

I think what paulswagelock is saying is that, once the switch is turned on, the pump will run long enough to build pressure in the line. Once the pressure has been built up, the pump will automatically shut off. If you then turn on the faucet, the pump detects a drop in pressure and automatically turns on.

BleednBlue, are you saying that the pump is not turning back on once you open the faucet again?? If so, what if you take the faucet/sprayer off and just have the hose loose?

 

The pump turns off a couple seconds after I turn on the dash switch (faucets opened or closed). However, if I loosen the hose fitting at the pump, the pump will remain on (result: water in the bilge). With the information supplied by you and paulswagelock, I believe my initial thought is correct - clogged hose(s).