Smartcraft to VV

taylor1

My new to me 2008 400 EC came with a smartcraft mercmonitor with eco screen. I wish to upgrade to VV7. Is it a plug and play procedure? Any advice would be most helpful!
Thanks

Cableguy Greg

It should be plug and play. I am sure that others will chime in if it isn't.

taylor1

Great, thanks Greg!

LaRea

The MercMonitor means you already have a SmartCraft junction box at the helm, so yes - installing VV7 should be relatively easy.

taylor1

Thank you

Stodge

I'm curious, do you consider the switch to a VV7 an upgrade because of the size of the display versus the MercMonitor, or is there a function that the VV has and MM lacks?  I thought the MercMonitor was pretty functional from what I read.  But ended up going VV because of the cost (of a used gen 1 VV4).

LaRea

MM can only show three pieces of data at once, and there's not much choice of format.  Also, you need one MM per engine (which is what I have).  And if you have fuel levels, VV can compute range and other useful fuel calculations.  MM only does miles per gallon (assuming you have a GPS attached, which I do).  

A minor gripe about MM:  the display of miles per gallon only shows one digit.  For my boat, it shows 0.7 mpg regardless of whether I'm getting 0.70 or 0.79 (a difference of 12%).  That's not very useful.  

Cableguy Greg

I noticed that since VV502 and VV702 have been released, VV4 and VV7 have come down in price. I might be imagining things, but I saw a VV4 kit for under $900. I could be wrong...