Hi everybody-My name is Larry and I just had my potential new baby hauled and surveyed today and sea trial also. Mechanical survey on Friday. She is 2001 396 Aft Cabin. Twin diesel with only 100 hours on them! Selling my Sea Ray 2003 Sundancer 260. Love the lay-out of the cabin and fly bridge too. This boat is like brand new-really a beauty!

We do a lot of cruising and more and more we encounter digital cable systems that our existing Sole TV's will not recognize. One solution is to replace with new Sole units but of course the new models are of different size than mine!

Has anyone installed just an ordinary 110V TV like we would buy at Walmart? I understand the Sole units are built especially to withstand vibration experienced on a boat but I really don't need the 12V option. We only watch at a dock or with the genset operating.

Any experiences out there regarding TV change out? At one marina where we stayed for a month the local cable company rented us a converter box to turn the signal back to analog and that worked fine. I am not aware of any universal cable signal converter but if one exists that would be the obvious solution . Thanks for any input.

Hi Seasoned Trusted Friends!

Some of you are following our new boat ownership tails and the Port engine that was previously working really well is not starting! It ran last week just fine while we were running both to troubleshoot the starboard engine overheat (which is now fixed yeah!). The port engine will crank but will not turn over. The starter solenoids were green so we replaced both of them. New spark plugs, and a new ignition rotor. We originally thought the fuel gauge was reading incorrectly and it was out of fuel so they added a bit into the carbs, didn't fire up. The oil pressure read well when it was running so I don't think it seized. What do you guys think?

Chris

Well, this summer is shaping up to be the, "year of the battery", for us. Just two weeks after replacing our engine cranking batteries, we discovered our house batteries acting up. This is only our second summer with the '04 Mariner, and we inherited old batteries, so we expecteid most of this fun. But the following was interesting and dangerous.

I have (had) two Interstate SRM-29 deep cycles in parallel, as our house units. They worked OK last summer, and yes, I'm aware that group 29 batteries are not optimal for house service. But they are ok for general purpose boating as long as one is not too long off of shore power.

Problems started Saturday morning (don't all boat problems begin on our boating weekends?) with a chemical smell in the boat. This turned out to be one battery excessively gassing off. Next clue was a sound like bacon gently sizzling on the stove top, which is one of life's best sounds, except when it's coming from a battery, it's not so good. I located the bacon imitating deep cycle battery, and found it was very hot. So hot, I could not hold a hand on the battery. This was only one of the two identical SRM-29 deep cycle batteries. The other seemed to be acting perfectly normal. So out came the bacon hot battery, and quite quickly I might add.

I placed a volt meter on it and found it quite low, around 10 volts, which is odd for a battery that was on the charger all week. So it's a piece of junk, a bad cell or inside short.

But the funny thing here is that I took distilled water to the boat this weekend, to ensure all batteries were properly flooded. It really pays to open your engine hatches and smell, poke, prod and observe things. I'm real happy I caught that overheating battery. Next project is to remove the so-called good one, because it's an identical twin, and we all know what that means: it's going to crash anytime soon.

Oh, one tip for you. See the wing nuts in the photo. If you have them, throw them away and replace with regular nuts that can be wrenched tight. I've found those wing nuts loosen easily and are usually tightened with pliers. They just cannot match the connection, IMO, of a properly tightened nut. Even my own marina techs, who 'summerized' my engine room, and reconnected my batteries, failed to fully tighten those darn wing nuts. I found two loose. But a properly wrenched nut will not come loose.

What am I doing about house battery replacements? I have two nice sets of Trojan T-105's golf cart six-volts in my tool room, that came out of my last boat. They've been kept warm, dry and charged, and there is much life left in them. We will give them a try.

I'm almost afraid to ask you experts out there, but what could have happened, had that nasty battery continued being so hot, and in my mind, dangerous? Were we headed for an electrifying experience?

Cheers all,

Steve

Hi all - my wife and I bought a 1982 Carver Mariner late last season. We replaced the house batteries this spring ( 4 - 6 volt batteries in series / Parallel ). The boat has an original Pro Mariner 30 Amp Charger ( 3 bank - Ferro Resonant ). We have been on shore power since going in the water 2 weeks ago, when I turn the charger breaker to "on" - I can see the Amperage meter on the charger go from zero to maximum then back to zero , a few seconds later the same behavior zero to max then back to zero. This doesn't seem normal to me - any ideas on how or what to check ? I did check that the single ground wire is attached to a good ground and that the Positive wires from the charger and proper hooked to a Positive post in the 4 battery house set. I am at a loss on how to check further to see if the charger is charging.

Thanks in advance

When I am connected to shore power everything works great but when I disconnect and try to run the generator only the air conditioning will work. The outlets and refrigerator have no power at all. Seems like the electrical system is split when I'm on the gen. Any ideas of what it could be and how to fix it?

We're shopping for our first boat and leaning toward a Mariner 36. On our list of "nice to have" features is a reverse osmosis watermaker so we don't have to worry about the 70 gallon limit on the tank. We found prices ranging from $4400 to well over $6000. Then I accidentally stumbled across this unit from US Water : https://www.uswatersystems.com/us-water-200-gpd-floor-mount-light-commercial-line-pressure-ro-system-with-20-pre-filters.html?gclid=CPXA9fWUjs0CFZQbgQodnn0D6Q. It says it's RO, has three stages of filtering, and produces 200 gallons per day... for only $395??? Seems like I'm missing something here. We would appreciate it if someone who is more knowledgeable about these systems could take a look and shed some light.

Thanks.

John

My wife and I today toured a 2007 Carver Mariner 36. Though we have both been on and around boats a lot and I have some experience driving a 35 foot, this would be our first boat of any real size as owners.

We found it to be extremely easy entry and quite roomy on the bridge with plenty of seating. Although the write up didn't mention an icemaker, and it technically doesn't have one, both the refrigerator on the bridge and the one in the galley had freezer sections.

The aft deck has three panels. We noticed about six inches of water in the bilge under the engines and the sales rep didn't know why. Probably either a blown fuse or a bad bilge pump, right?

We did notice the center panel that exposes the generator has a soft spot in it. It's basically right where you would step when stepping out of the salon. That was concerning. Any thoughts on what is wrong and what it would take to repair that center panel?

With the salon steps in the up position and the deck plates off, there would be lots of easy access to performing your own maintenance. That's a big plus in my book.

In the salon, there was plenty of storage everywhere. The galley had enough room that the two of us could cook together and it had plenty of storage for dishes, pots, pans, and food. The settee and the dinette were comfortable. We can easily fit on the bed together and there is easy access to either side of the island berth. The shower has plenty of room for one and, yes, I even sat on the head. The head seals are holding water nicely, too.

The boat was recently detailed. The gelcoat appears really thin on the port side forward. Not sure what could be done about that or if anything even needs to be done. Any ideas?

The rest was all cosmetic but nothing serious. A couple of slits in the eisenglass and a small hole in the canvas around the eisenglass, which could probably be stitched with matching thread and be inconspicuous.

The broker didn't bring the maintenance logs so I have no idea when the bottom was painted or the oil and filters or impellers were changed.

Overall, we gave it an 8.5. High on liveability and ease of maintenance. Tomorrow we are touring a 2004 Cruisers 375 and will be comparing the two.

Can anyone help me with a measurement? I am 2 hours away from the boat. I am looking for the width of the transom from gunwale to gunwale of the transom on a 1994 390 Cockpit Motor Yacht. ANY help would be super. Still awaiting an engine install so no fun yet this season!

I finally got the time to install my new VHF radio. It is a Standard Horizon GX1700.

http://standardhorizon.com/indexVS.cfm? ... Archived=0

I turned the unit on and got into the Setup Menu and programmed in my MMSI number. No if unfortunately something does happen it will broadcast my position and other information so assistance from the Coast Guard or nearby boaters should be more readily available.

After setting up the radio I went to channel 69 and called for a radio check. I got a response that I was heard loud and clear.

I love the built in GPS within a couple of minutes it had my lat/lon posted on the screen. We'll see how it goes. I do plan to buy a new antenna just so both the radio and antenna are new.

Next weeks project is to install my new Garmin GPS.