Finally have a reason to be a member of this forum... 2019 242X

[ColaDawg]

Hey guys!

 

[Scarab 215]

Welcome Aboard.

 

[ColaDawg]

First post, already screwed the pooch and hit enter before i was finished typing my first paragraph.

Little back story, the wife and I moved to a small lake in the midlands and I have been eyeballing boats the whole time. This summer, my very pregnant wife made the stunning decision to tell me to find a boat and go get it. We picked it up a few weeks ago and I'm just now getting around to posting.

We bought it at Charleston Powersports, who made the purchase fairly seamless (a little slow with the paperwork, but oh well).

I do have a few questions/thoughts comments that I thought that I would throw out there... answer, don't, berate me, whatever... it's the internet right?

1. Hitch height...We picked it up and pulled it back with her Suburban (6.2l w/10 speed). It had plenty of power but felt like the boat was bucking when we got to highway speeds. When we took the boat out for the first time we pulled it with my Tundra. It pulled a lot smoother, and i wonder if the difference in the heights would make that much of a difference in the 'feel'. The burb probally sat 4-6" higher once loaded (higher starting height, and air ride).
2. I am not a neat freak by any means, however, i do like things organized, and i noticed several of you guys had done a lot of stuff in the head compartment. So I decided to try my hand at putting a closet shelf in there. Trial 1 is pressure fitted in, using some wood i had from scrap projects and a cut to fit closet shelf. It is in there pretty tight. It looks rough when empty, but i wanted to see how it held up, lasted, and just suited me in general before i drilled any holes for mounts in my new boat (yes, I'm afraid of hurting her).


3. I have added trash bag/can to the door, as well as the mesh shoe rack (no picture as it was getting dark when I finished).

4. Battery Charging. I have motorcycles, and sports cars that are rarely driven and have plenty of chargers for them. Without wanting to change any wiring up unless absolutely necessary, and not wanting to buy another charger, will a standard car/bike charger work with this? I have searched the forums, and most people talk of buying NOCO or other brands, and then doing some wire cutting mods. I'm not opposed to this, but currently i would rather just hook up one that I've got and just go with it in conjunction with the solar charger.

I am sure more questions will come up as we go along on this new adventure with our family, but I think this is long enough.

Lastly, the only picture I have of the boat that my wife isn't in (and she said in not so nice words that she did not want to be in any in her current state).

 

[BigAbe75]

Congrats and welcome!! Awesome boat, we love ours.

1. I usually use a 4” drop hitch on our Tahoe - no air leveling. And I use a 2” raise? (2” drop hitch flipped upside down) on my F250. Seems crazy to me that the Tahoe is taller than the truck.

2. I haven’t done that shelf mod, but really want to. From what I’ve read, you don’t want to make that too snug as the hull will flex going over waves so you’ll want that big open space to able to move as necessary. I’m thinking I would try to rig mine so it has 1/2” room to play somehow and with normal resting have 1/4” gap on either end.

 

[Julian]

Congrats and welcome!

 

[J-RAD]

Congratulations! What a beautiful boat.

 

[zipper]

Welcome aboard, most of us have prematurely hit "post reply" before. No need to now, but you could edit that first post by selecting edit at the bottom of the post. You can change the title or anything in the message. That edit function will time out after a week or so.

 

[DieselCamel]

Welcome

 

[buckbuck]

Let her know pregnant women are beautiful. Congratulations on the child and the boat.

 

[Dixie Highway]

Nice boat, and welcome! I’ll address the charger issue, most of us build the charger into the boat, so no matter where you go you can just plug it in with a standard cord. Marine chargers are designed for marine environments, thus the specific charger. If you have a certain type of trickle charger/maintainer you use, you could always wire a plug to your batteries that you’d plug into your charger at home, such as with a Battery Tender or the like. That is, if you are only worried about home charging. My assumption from reading the post is that you aren’t keeping it in the water, so this might be a viable option. If you do, then you’d likely want to go the built in route.

 

[ColaDawg]

Congrats and welcome!! Awesome boat, we love ours.

1. I usually use a 4” drop hitch on our Tahoe - no air leveling. And I use a 2” raise? (2” drop hitch flipped upside down) on my F250. Seems crazy to me that the Tahoe is taller than the truck.

2. I haven’t done that shelf mod, but really want to. From what I’ve read, you don’t want to make that too snug as the hull will flex going over waves so you’ll want that big open space to able to move as necessary. I’m thinking I would try to rig mine so it has 1/2” room to play somehow and with normal resting have 1/4” gap on either end.

In regards to the drip hitch, i had a 2" that I've always used on the truck. For the boat, I did have to make it a raise in same way you did. I'll agree. It is crazy the height difference in the GM SUVs and our trucks. A new larger drop hitch appears to be in my future.

That was not on my mind. And now I am curious to see how it holds up under flexion. It has a little bit of wiggle when you pull/push on it, but due to the fact that all the parts are connected (not to the boat, but each other) it has stability such that it doesn't really fall over.

Welcome aboard, most of us have prematurely hit "post reply" before. No need to now, but you could edit that first post by selecting edit at the bottom of the post. You can change the title or anything in the message. That edit function will time out after a week or so.

Thanks! I will experiment with this for a while.

Let her know pregnant women are beautiful. Congratulations on the child and the boat.

I tell her everyday. Thanks. This will be boy #3 (the other two are under 4). I am hopeful that they grow to enjoy the water.

 

[ColaDawg]

Nice boat, and welcome! I’ll address the charger issue, most of us build the charger into the boat, so no matter where you go you can just plug it in with a standard cord. Marine chargers are designed for marine environments, thus the specific charger. If you have a certain type of trickle charger/maintainer you use, you could always wire a plug to your batteries that you’d plug into your charger at home, such as with a Battery Tender or the like. That is, if you are only worried about home charging. My assumption from reading the post is that you aren’t keeping it in the water, so this might be a viable option. If you do, then you’d likely want to go the built in route.

Thanks for the information. I find it to be an interesting situation here at the moment. The lake we live on is currently down for some work along the other side (some old sewer lines cross under one corner that are being replaced) and it won't be back up until hopefully by Sept. With that I am going to need some type of charger for now. From what you said I'll just unhook my Battery Tender charger from the bike and move it to the boat for the time being. Once it is in the water, my tentative goal is to just make sure that I crank it up and ride a bit once a week or so. However, as with the bike, once life starts to really happen, some things fall by the wayside.
So I assume that once I give up the dream, just mount a marine specific charger into the battery compartment, run electricity to the dock (my next quarantine project), and plug in as needed? When that time comes I'll probably ask it in the proper area.

I appreciate all of the responses, the information from this forum is one that helped confirm our decision to get a jet boat, and the generosity and activity here are what has helped me make the leap to join in the fun!

 

[Dixie Highway]

So I assume that once I give up the dream, just mount a marine specific charger into the battery compartment, run electricity to the dock (my next quarantine project), and plug in as needed

That is pretty much what most do I’d say. I’m strictly on a trailer, so if it sits for more than a few weeks I plug in the charger overnight before the trip.

 

[PJ73]

 

[2kwik4u]

If you have a certain type of trickle charger/maintainer you use, you could always wire a plug to your batteries that you’d plug into your charger at home, such as with a Battery Tender or the like.

This is what I do with my overly simplified single battery setup. Have a cord and tender setup, just have to clip the leads onto the battery.

I can certainly see the appeal of having an onboard if you are travelling, or have a more extensive (2+) battery setup.

 

[anmut]

Welcome! I went with two small Battery Tenders, installed the "permanent" battery cables that unhook and self-cap themselves. Yes I have to bring a power strip onto the boat to run that and the fans so it's not as easy/clean as installing a permanent onboard solution, but whatever.

 

[Murf'n'surf]

Welcome!

Sounds like your bucking issue might be the vehicles transmission jumping between gears. Are you using the towing mode to prevent that?

Hitch height needs to be at the level where the trailer frame is level to the ground as shown in your driveway pic. Your best bet is to buy a hitch with adjustable heights to accommodate both of your tow rigs.

 

[biglar155]

Welcome!

 

[grywlfbg]

Your boat has 2 batteries. A "Start" battery to start the engines and a "House" battery for everything else. You also have a small solar panel in the Bimini cover that is wired directly to the Start battery. It will supply a trickle charge to the Start battery when it's in the sun.

You also have a little gizmo called a DVSR. It is the 4th circle thing where your battery switches are. What this does is bridge the Start and House batteries after the Start battery is fully charged.

This means that if you put battery chargers on both batteries they can fight with each other once the DVSR bridges the connection. You basically have 3 options:

1) If the boat is stored outside, do nothing. Solar Panel will trickle charge the Start battery and then DVSR will bridge to trickle the House battery also. If you have a voltmeter, set it to VDC and check that you are seeing 13V+ on the Start battery when the solar is exposed to sun. Once the Start battery is charged the red LED on the DVSR will turn on and you should see voltage rise on the House battery.

2) If the solar panel will be shaded, you need a battery charger. You can put one on the Start battery and let the DVSR bridge and it will keep both topped up. As long as both batteries are the same age, size, etc this will be fine.

3) If you are OCD and want to charge/maintain the batteries separately, you need the disable the DVSR. You can do this by installing a switch in the tiny black wire running from the DVSR to one of the negative battery terminals. When that wire is broken by the switch the DVSR will not activate. When you unplug the chargers you should switch the DVDSR back on so the House battery can be charged.

 

[BigAbe75]

Your boat has 2 batteries. A "Start" battery to start the engines and a "House" battery for everything else. You also have a small solar panel in the Bimini cover that is wired directly to the Start battery. It will supply a trickle charge to the Start battery when it's in the sun.

You also have a little gizmo called a DVSR. It is the 4th circle thing where your battery switches are. What this does is bridge the Start and House batteries after the Start battery is fully charged.

This means that if you put battery chargers on both batteries they can fight with each other once the DVSR bridges the connection. You basically have 3 options:

1) If the boat is stored outside, do nothing. Solar Panel will trickle charge the Start battery and then DVSR will bridge to trickle the House battery also. If you have a voltmeter, set it to VDC and check that you are seeing 13V+ on the Start battery when the solar is exposed to sun. Once the Start battery is charged the red LED on the DVSR will turn on and you should see voltage rise on the House battery.

2) If the solar panel will be shaded, you need a battery charger. You can put one on the Start battery and let the DVSR bridge and it will keep both topped up. As long as both batteries are the same age, size, etc this will be fine.

3) If you are OCD and want to charge/maintain the batteries separately, you need the disable the DVSR. You can do this by installing a switch in the tiny black wire running from the DVSR to one of the negative battery terminals. When that wire is broken by the switch the DVSR will not activate. When you unplug the chargers you should switch the DVDSR back on so the House battery can be charged.

This is the first time I have seen this explained in a way that I easily understood!! Thanks for that!

My dealer installed my dual bank charger. I asked about the DVSR, and he was like - “nah, don’t worry about that”. It’s been working for a year, and have never disconnected the dvsr, but I’ve never felt right about it. Should I go ahead and wire in that switch, or just snip it?