Time to upgrade my gauges?

rasbury

So.......brought the 270 home on the way home from work...truly the best time of the year for "cruizing"...I'm getting things organized below, tiddy up a bit- no music? Ah, forgot to turn the key- and still nothing. Dang, someone steal the batteries? Raised the hatch ( plugged in at home) they are there...what next? I turn my head, the whole dash/guages removed, wires all cut . So, I HOPE ther are plugs further down the harness so I can plug in and upgrade?

rasbury

I think I will need a little input from our top dash designer @LaRea on this one. I will need a new panel for the cluster which is gone. Further inspection, there are a crap load of wires to deal with, and with no information. Since these wires all go to engine gauges can I assume this is merc wires and not rinker? Dang, debth gauge gone too....also noticed the panel for the rocker switches half the screws are out, wonder if they were spooked- I have the mooring cover on it- good cover but not great to work under it . It is cracked- must have tries to yank it. What a mess.
So...
What do I want to look at for vessel view? Are there older versions available at a cheaper price?

This has to be merc wiring for the most part...I'm sure I can find the diagram- they are now aprox six inches to short- I can see if there is a loop in the harness..I would think the proper repair would be to add a plug to the wire ends and then make a jumper harness with a plug at the other end- I've never done this, what is the degree of difficulty 1 to 10? I will do a little searching as I'm sure I'm not the first to deal with this- and I want to give our insurance a real out to as well. The yard I store it at does not have any security but it is fenced and gated well in a very visible area. What really pisses me of is you know it was stolen by some crack head who thinks they have something of value- 2006 Faria gauges can't be worth that much...

Tips for making the pattern to cut out the new panel? Cutting out the other panel rocker switches? Material?

YYZRC

The harness is Rinker not Merc. 

If you go with a VesselView, you won’t need any of that wiring (except depth gauge). I eliminated almost the entire dash harness when I switched to VesselView. 

You will need a VV head unit and the fuel tank harness. 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/173898366937

YYZRC

Useful thread: https://rinkerboats.vanillacommunities.com/discussion/6599/vesselview-7-question

captkevin

That is awful that someone did that to your boat.

LaRea

Dang, that just stinks.  Gonna be a lot of work to rebuild it, and it will cost more than the deductible on your insurance.  Are you going to file a claim?

First place to look is GLS.  Is this the panel for your boat?
https://www.greatlakesskipper.com/rinker-boat-blank-instrument-panel-206601b-270-faux-woodgrain

Lake_Bum

File the claim, and let a shop replace it all.  Less headache 

rasbury

Thanks- I will look this over- crackheads, gotta love them. 

LaRea

Wild guess.  If you can even find a shop that will take the job, it'll be at least $4000 to restore it to original function.  The insurance company will jack your rate after a claim, but if you take the money and DIY, you'd come out ahead.  

davidbrooks

When I redid the instrument cluster the first time i yanked all the gauges to put in new ones.  As @LaRea recommended I did purchase a set that was already in a dash panel from GLS.  The panel was for a different year boat.  It did come with a wiring harness.  On the 342 the guages all fed back to one main plug.  It was tough to get to as i had some zip ties holding it in place.  The master plug matched up but the fittings on the back of the guages was all different.  So i had to write FARIA customer service and get pin out schematics on each guage.  Then match it up to the right wire in the bundle, cut and splice.  It was a nightmare.  

Moving over to Mercmonitor and NMEA2k was more straightforward.  The issue was then how to deal with items such as depth, trim, fuel, trim tabs etc...that arent run through the engine.  Each one needs its own sensor.  Either way this isn't terribly easy.  There is a lot of homework, documentation and wire tracing.  Not having the old connections just makes it that much more fun.

I just redid the guage cluster on my new boat this weekend.  Eliminated the old analog guages and put in a vesselview and 9in Garmin MFD.  I kept the old guages for depth and outdrive trim but have some troubleshooting to do.  Looks like they aren't getting power.  The one thing that i have that i am VERY lucky to have is a full detailed schematic.  A quick look showed me that they were tied into the other guages.  Likely for lighting but could of also been the negative connection.  So I have some wire tracing and trouble shooting.  Without that wiring diagram i would be sitting out there very carefully tracing wires.

rasbury

YYZRC said:

Useful thread: https://rinkerboats.vanillacerommunities.com/discussion/6599/vesselview-7-question

Wow- this looks waaaay over my abilities- I might be able to figure out the wires I have but would need to make a jumper harness for tge length. I would like to go vv but it sounds like to many variable for a novice like me...

Where will I find a diagram for my boat? Maybe by next summer I will have it figured out...

LaRea

@rasbury - here's a set of wiring diagrams for a 2007 280, which should be mostly the same.  

rasbury

Thanks @LaRea...I'm sure it will help.any on else with a 270/80:post a picture of the gauges- I don't recall **** tge depth gauge was placed on there...

rasbury

I'm not seeing anything in these diagrams that look like showing gauges...

captkevin

Last 2 pages

rasbury

captkevin said:

Last 2 pages

Yes I see that now...this will be good info for the shop I find...it's just going to be to much for me
 I have insurance through geico and I started a claim...we will see how this works out. 

rasbury

YYZRC said:

The harness is Rinker not Merc. 

If you go with a VesselView, you won’t need any of that wiring (except depth gauge). I eliminated almost the entire dash harness when I switched to VesselView. 

You will need a VV head unit and the fuel tank harness. 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/173898366937

Wow, tge vessel view looks really cool- isn't there a mobile version also? Guess that only works if you have cell service...my boat is 05, that particular one would not work. Seems I hit this walk before and would double check- I assume that one did not include harnesses. I'd for sure have to make it removable like my chart poltter- they took nothing else, odd.

rasbury

So I looked and can get VS for anything over 2000 and up. I see I can buy the mobile app for 300 or less with the components you plug into the motor- but that not giving you fuel level and such...I don't see any new or used full screen systems anywhere else, what's up with that?

rasbury

Little more digging tells me if I can buy a 502 for 1100 bucks...sounds like it comes with a cable for the engine,  read the comments here about the fuel...not sure how trim would plug in...but at the end of the day, does this seem like it would be half the cost of buying gages and figuring out rewiring? I may have to upgrade my chart plotter to get speed...just seems to make more sense? Not sure now if was just the base model but it could be bracket mounted so I'd assume removable....

YYZRC

502 would be good. I would look for a VV4 (older model) to save some money. 

Call Merc customer service and tell them you are buying a single engine VV 502. Give them your engine serial number. Ask them to tell you the part number for the 20’ data cable you need and the part number for the fuel sender cable (should be 84-864218) you need. 

You will also need a N2K starter kit. About $100. 

For the outdrive trim, you will need to switch the connection at the transom to the digital side or if you don’t have an analog/digital trim sender already, you will need to replace. Part number in thread below. 

https://rinkerboats.vanillacommunities.com/discussion/7115/vesselview-4-290ec

@diggin2day1 posted good info here including pics:

https://rinkerboats.vanillacommunities.com/discussion/comment/82916#Comment_82916

Lake_Bum

Before you create another can of worms, I would first suggest making sure the 502 will match up to your outdrive gearset.  It might have so much torque, it's not going to play nicely with your current drive.  Just something to factor in....

rasbury

@YYZRC, awesome info thanks! It's late for me to dive in but at a quick chance that should fac section for install instruction. I will call a dealer...I hate to waste anyone's time- wonder if I can email merc? I'll try that first..thanks for all the great tips to everyone. @Lake_Bum you totally lost me on the torque reference ?

Rich_

The 502 being referenced is the Vessel View 502 marine monitor, not a 502 engine. Going by just numbers made it confusing 

Lake_Bum

Ahhhh....okay.  I apologize for the confustion.  Carry on! 

MH342

Ras, this is truly awful, so sorry to hear you have to deal with this. People can really suck (except for members of this forum of course!). Hoping you find a fix that gets you out on the water this summer.

davidbrooks

There are so many pros and cons of each approach it is hard to keep them all straight.  The one piece of advice i would give is that before you buy anything start with the end in mind.  Create a full-size cardboard cutout of your dash panel real estate.  Then create full size cardboard circles or squares to put on the layout to see how they all fit together.  This was invaluable to me.  Once you have all your guages figured out and the layout looks good you can start to figure out the wiring and cost.  I am a fan of the merc monitor or vessel view as it was truly plug and play for me.  When i went the route of connecting my engine via a gateway to NMEA 2k i had a ton of setup to do...and redo untill i got it right.  One of the frustrating things about the NMEA approach is i felt like i had to keep re calibrating everything.  All of a sudden my view would just lose its mind and i would either not be able to read a fuel tank or an engine.  So while the analog guages are not as sophisticated...they didn't need to be reset.  

rasbury

Thanks @davidbrooks for the advice- I've submitted to insurance and see what they have. Seems like spend on vv or labor to figure out the wiring for gauges- what ever is cheaper is the way I will go- I really don't like the look of the blanked out dash with the screen- now ad radar, sonar,radios, now we talkin!

davidbrooks

This just popped up on my MSN page.  Big brother is always watching what you search for.  Rick is this the same guage arrangement that you had?  Here is a blank you may want to grab even if it is to use as a template. These are tough to find.  Guages to fit the holes are much easier.

rasbury

What @davidbrooks, nothing there?

rasbury

I really want to do vv....I don't recall on my trim wires seeing anything marked anolg or digital...and the senders in the thread are on the out drive right? I put new ones on when I had the motor out but managed to mess up the little splines..never could get it to work..

YYZRC

Trim position is the least important of all the vv features. Don’t get hung up on it.