Astonishingly, I find nothing on a search for 'diesel bug' here. My (or, correctly, my Son's) boat has an infestation. Carver's failure to install any sort of inspection hatch in the tanks now prevents me from scouring the tanks of this vile nastiness, and I have to resort to 'treatments', lengthy waits and many diesel/water filters before I can expect relief.

Doubtless, this is isn't an issue which worries too many of the Petrol users, or those who use their boats continuously throughout the year, but we tend to be fair-weather bods who grab a sunny and wave-free day once in a while, and so the fuel festers with whatever condensation drips in the tanks. It's a bugger.

Complaint: No bloody inspection hatches; I can't clean out the tanks without removing the damn things from the boat, or extensive, fiddly messing about with pressure hoses and driers.
Result: Use of feeble anti-bug 'treatments' and many, many expensive changes of filters for the foreseeable future.

Signed; Hacked Off of Northern Ireland.

Anyone know what new gauges look similar to the OEM gauges? Or, are OEM gauges still available? Needle broke on fuel gauge.

I am looking to purchase a 2001 46 ft. Carver aft cabin. I need to run her up to Lake Champlain. During the trip we will need to go under two low bridges with a clearance of 17 feet 3 inches. This particular boat has a hardtop cover on the bridge. Does anyone know the measurement from waterline to the top of the hard cover?

We have a carver 444. We have a 50 am plugged in with splitter. When plugged in at dock there is no electricity going to refrigerator, cockpit radio, and some lights. When we took the boat out the bow thruster wouldn’t turn on. Assuming there is an electrical issue. Any idea how to trouble shoot? We did try turning generator on to see if that would work but it didn’t. Thanks!

My Riv launches tomorrow. At long last! I have no experience with 115ACV shore power. My boat has 2 SP inlets but 1 power cord and no working A/C.
One panel is for 12V appliances and a 20W 115V for the range. The other panel is for 115V, Range and A/C.
After I manage to actually dock this wide beast I will want to plug in the SP cord - how will I know that I have connected to the correct circuit?
If I can get the A/C working, I will buy a second cord, but I believe I will only have access to a single SP source at the dock. What then???
Wisdom welcome.

No, the question isn't dumbass, the questioner is.

Doing some engine troubleshooting on my 3607 port engine. Wouldn't start. Inadvertently left the key in the run position. What does that men? Of course it means that the electric hour meter keeps running. Left the boat for several days, awaiting parts. Parts got here, I headed for the lake first chance. Grabbed a glass of Southern tea (that's SWEET, y'all) and headed up to the bridge to enjoy the view before getting dirty. Kept hearing this 'click, click, click'. 'Looked down and the hour meter had racked up a couple HUNDRED hours! See? DUMBASS!!! Keep this up and I'll soon be qualified to go into politics.

Anyway, does anyone have any idea to reverse the hours indicated? It's not a big thing, just irritates me. Would like to get the time closer to reality.

Ed

This is the weekend that I am installing the 400w 4 panel system. I have been reading the Renogy installation manual, and it states the panels need to be "earth grounded at the frames.

??????

Any input?

Tony

1988 Carver 3807, Dual Helms, Equipped with Raymarine Avionix connected to Garmin Auto Pilot.

Oil is leaking from the fly bridge. steering wheel. The oil leaks on the surface of the dashboard and appears to come from the shaft on which the steering is attached. Happens mostly after the boat has been navigating. No leaks under the steering mechanism and hydraulic lines. The Auto Pilot doesn’t engage. This is a new boat to me, purchased during winter months so no trials were done prior the purchase. Has anyone experienced this. Any help would be appreciated.

Hi everyone!
Yesterday, I realized that both of my side lights do not work (I know for a fact they worked before, recently). My question/issue/conundrum is, the Nav Light switch on the helm, controls the sidelights, stern light, mast light [meaning, the ON/up position, those three lights are ON at the same time]. Everything else (except the side lights) work properly. When looking under the helm at all the wiring, the nav lights are powered by one large bundle wires with a housing plug (See attached for example). I guess that it can't be a circuit or fuse issue (assume they all share the same circuit and same fuse)(????)
Has anyone experience this before? Not sure how to start trouble shooting this. They lead to a large bundle that goes somewhere... They do not lead to the bridge buss bars.
It might be easier to run to new cables to, two new side lights. Figure I throw this situation out there before I get past the point of no return!

Appreciate the help!

Good Day all,
Trying to track down a problem we've been having with our 350 Mariners engines.

Engines: 1998 Crusader 350 XLi's, Fuel Injected into the throttle body on top of engine, with ~ 550 hours on them. Boat has sat for about 18 months with last owner and accumulated less than 10 hours (in two main runs, and some small repositions).

Purchase Survey/Sea Trial
Both engines made 4200 RPM @ 22-23knt (Book says 4400 RPM is expected max, so this wasn't far off)
No issues observed on sea trial.
Since owning, the engines run a consistent 155-160 coolant temp and have never gone above that.

1st Run - Took Possession:
45 minutes into 1 hour motor to our home port and this:
1. Cruising at 3400 rpm, port motor starts slowing loosing RPM
2. after a few minutes, it can't maintain 300o RPM, regardless of throttle position
3. after about 4 minutes, it will barely idle and stalls/dies shortly after
4. Ran on starboard only until almost to our marina
5. right before entering marina, tried Port, and it cranked right up and ran fine for docking.

Assumptions - Old/bad fuel and "crud" in fuel tank clogging filters.
Actions - Cleaned some crud from both filters on both motors (disk and fuel/water separator) as well as filled tanks with new fuel (put just over 1/2 tank it each to bring them up to full).

2nd Run:
1. Ran to fill tanks (referenced above) right after refuel (20 min running to fuel dock) motors were still warm from run for fuel
2. Refueled, with about 80 gallons each side (twin 125 gallon tanks), engines off about 20 min’s
3. Departed at 3400-3600rpm cruise and after about 20 mins run, backed down to 2000 rpm
4. 45 min after departing fuel dock, port started loosing RPM slowly. Not abruptly, but slowly dropping what it could achieve or hold, increases in throttle did nothing to raise RPM.
5. It would make full RPM in neutral at first but not in gear, however after 2-3 minutes of troubleshooting, it wouldn’t even idle and died.
6. After nearly an hour idling on starboard, tried to restart port right before entering marina, and it cranked and ran fine

Assumptions – electric fuel pump on port was getting hot after a period of running and breaking down/failing. Let it cool off and it would work again.
Action – replaced both port and starboard electric fuel pumps.

3rd Run:
1. Short run for pump out. Ran fine, both engines made 3400-3600 no issue with throttles matched. 10 min run each direction.

4th Run:
1. Starboard would not make more than 3200 RPM, but required ¾ or just over ¾ throttle to make that, where as port was needing just under ½ throttle for that same RPM.
2. With engine RPM matched, starboard would not do more than 3200, but I could “Drag” starboard by pushing port up to 3600-3800 and get starboard to come up to 3400-3600, by running port harder
3. Ran that way for 1 hour before anchoring at our spot for the day.
4. Dove the bottom to look for anything “hanging up” starboard prop, but bottom and prop were clean.
5. This was the first time starboard had not acted correctly
6. Sat on anchor for 5 hours (engines fully cooled down)
7. Return run 1 hour home, same observations for starboard, and port ran fine.
8. Looked like starboard was burning more than port

5th Run:
1. Initial out of marina (engines barely up to coolant temp of 140), Starboard made about 3600, but after 5-10 min, would only make 3200 unless I “drug” it with higher port RPM.
2. 50 min – 1 hour run to anchor spot, ran about 3400ish on port, starboard stabilized around 3200 max, but still was ¾ throttle or more to get that RPM.
3. Return run 1 hour, same behavior.
4. Observed that starboard was clearly burning more fuel than port, close to ¼ tank difference now

6th Run:
1. Out of marine with cool engines (just passing 140ish coolant), port made 4800 RPM and likely would have made 5000 had I kept pushing (past its 4400 rated max continuous). Starboard made about 4300. Port was 4800 with throttle left, starboard was 4300 wide open.
2. Backed off to 3600 on both as was trying to make time and they were running good.
3. After about 10 minuets, starboard could no longer hold 3600 and was back down to 3200-3400 if I kept port pushed harder.
4. Ran port harder to make better time, approx. 45 min run.
5. Forgot and left battery charger on with genset running and engines running.
6. Anchored for less than 2 hours, with genset running, engines wouldn’t have fully cooled down after that time
7. Departed to new spot, but after about 20 min of running with port around 3400, noted that we felt like we were loosing power
8. Within a couple minutes, port started loosing RPM slowly, and over the course of about 3-4 minutes, port slowly decreased RPM regardless of increases in throttle and died.
9. Limped in on one motor, about 45 minutes, with port off
10. Before hitting marina, tried port after it had sat and cooled down, and it cranked right up.

Suspicion – fuel filters clogged or something other than the fuel pump, something ignition related or fueling injection related.
Action – Cleaned all four fuel filters for third time, nothing notable removed that would have caused issue.

7th Run – Immediately following 6th after fuel filters cleaned.
1. Motors still warm, left out, planned to maintain 3200 on both
2. Went to fuel dock – 20 min away, fueled up to ¾ tank on each side
a. Port took 35 Gallons
b. Starboard took 54 gallons
c. In approx. 8 hours of running, Starboard burned roughly 20 gallons more than port, and genset was only ever pulling from port fuel tank.
3. Motored one hour at 3200 with no issues, except Starboard still required ¾+ throttle to make 3200
4. Anchored for about 4 hours with genset running
5. Motored one hour back at 3200 with no issues, other than throttle split

Assumptions – Fuel pumps were likely not the cause of Port motor issue. It seems “something” on the motor is getting “hot” or breaking down and failing after about 20-40 minutes of running if the RPM is up around 3600+, but it doesn’t seem to happen if the RPM is left around 3200. 3200 is not ideal as it is just barely at planning speed so we are about as inefficient as it gets at that RPM.

Spark arresters on each motor were cleaned right after taking possession. Fuel is nearly all fresh new fuel and filters are clean and good. Motors never overheat. Unlikely it is fuel related or fuel pump related. Looking now at Injection at Electrical

Going forward –
Port - Injectors starting to fail? Port motor is still experiencing the RPM loss and failing, but we seem to have isolated it to possibly load or RPM related as opposed to just pure time related. The throttle body or injectors getting to end of life? The distributor and internal ignition is all likely original. Are both fuel nozzles in the intake spraying? Engines electronic fuel injection computer failing or getting hot and failing?

Starboard – Motor has seemed to run fine until after 3rd run. On 4th run, it wouldn’t make RPM and hasn’t since. It did seem to be burning a little more fuel prior to the RPM issue being observed but since then, I’ve confirmed its burning about 37% more fuel than port. I believe that I’m fueling correctly based on the throttle position, ie, its burning like I am running it at nearly wide open throttle, which is where the throttle is, but its preforming poorly as if I’m running at less than 50% throttle.

Any thoughts and directions would be greatly appreciated. Apologize for the book, but trying to summarize what all I’ve seen, in order, and detailed, as each time it seems to have been slightly different.