o.k., so after 2 weekends and 6.7 hours on the new beast, here are some observations and things I've done...
1. way more power than my AR210. wow.
2. I did the water test with the boat having only the stock steering setup. I thought it was roughly equivalent to my AR210 that had the older, smaller cobra fins installed. The dealer installed the A.K. Magnums that I dropped off, so I drove it like that for the first weekend. Much more responsive than my AR210, but I wasn't that thrilled with extra effort of turning, and reverse still, well, sucked
. This past weekend I installed the Fangs; really happy with the outcome, i.e., much easier to steer at speed, and reverse improved, almost like real reverse in an I/O
.
3. a lot quieter than my AR210 (note that I had done a lot of sound deadening in the 210, so it was actually pretty quiet compared to stock) on the first weekend, so that alone was impressive, but I can say that after about the 6 hour mark, the boat got a lot quieter. The engines have a different tone after break-in, and I found having conversations while driving much easier than before. I can also hear a lot more "water noise".
4. While the RPM limited reverse is good for my better half, I don't like it. There are times when you want that extra instant "zap" to arrest forward movement, and the 4500 limiter just doesn't do that. I know you can defeat that, but honestly, you can't go through that when you need it in an instant.
5. I love the GPS speed control, even though I'm suffering from occasional "ERR" messages on the screen that correspond with 1/2 second throttle cuts. Definitely seems location dependent (same general spots on the lake), so think there is an issue with the GPS receiver sensitivity. But that aside, I can say that taking the kids tubing is way less work than before.
6. The kids and dog love the bow section, as well as the lower swim platform - getting out of the water no longer a chore
. However, I'm really unsure why the rubber ladder strap is so strong?!? Neither my kids nor my wife can get the strap on or off, so I'm constantly going back and forth to lower the ladder and of course to secure it before taking off.
7. Last night before leaving the lake, I opened up the drain plug to see if any water had gotten in, and of course saw the clumps of metal and fiberglass shavings. My problem is that my boat lift keeps the boat pretty level, so i'm a bit uncertain how I'm going to get that crap out of there. Any suggestions would be welcome.
8. The stock sound system is way better than it used to be (Seaworthy my ass
), but still pales to my old setup. So I ordered a JL XD800/8, 6 Polk M651UM's, and the usual wires, fuses, distribution blocks, etc., to get started on the upgrade path. Will put that in, then get a sub installed (I try to ease the mod shock to the better half by phasing in visible upgrades
). Oh, and I also disconnected the tower tweeters. Those things really suck.
9. I love the auto-blower
10. The solar-powered trickle chargers are more useful than I thought. My AR210 had an onboard dual-bank charger with a through-hull power inlet, so I was nervous about not having that setup yet on the 242. The trickle chargers, while of course not on par with a dedicated 20 amp charger, but has so far been able to top-up the batteries after using the stock stereo for a while.
Think that's it for now... will start a separate thread to show the stereo upgrade once I get around to it
.
Cheers!
Derek
. 
