www.iFourWinns.com

This our second summer with our Four Winns Horizon 180 and we're getting frustrated at the number of times we've had to have it towed out of the water for repairs. The first summer, it got progressively worse at stalling as soon as we'd put it in reverse to pull away from the pier - no matter how long we warmed it up. Our dealer said the carbuerator needed "tweaking" and it had a bad belt. This summer, the stalling problem returned, the reverse and trim/tilt just stopped working - had to have a new ignition switch installed and the carbuerator rebuilt. Is this normal for a new boat?[/img]

I wonder if it's some sort of electrical problem, not the carburetor? I have no idea what sort of controls are on that model boat. But I have heard others having trouble in other boats due to the throttle/shifter control not being setup properly. The trim/tilt might be electrical too. If there's a single connector for the wiring there might be some corrosion in it that's causing it to cut out. It might be worth digging around a bit to get a look at the wiring connectors and make sure they're not rusty looking or corroded.

Belts do fail, that wouldn't be out of the ordinary. That's why it's a good idea to always have spare ones on board. Make sure you have the right belt(s) along with the right tools to put them on.

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-Bill Kearney, 2005 348 Vista

It's normal for belts on a brand new boat to fail? The serpentine belt specifically...

Well, anything can be defective and fail quickly. Belts included. I'd want to know why the belt failed. If there's a bent or misaligned pulley that's causing excessive wear on the belt then that would need to be fixed asap. Or else it'd just chew through another one. But otherwise there's not much that'd make a belt go bad. If it wasn't made right then the layers could separate and fail. I've seen than happen on automobile belts.

Regardless of why it failed I'd take that as a sign to make sure you keep a spare on board. While it's annoying to have to fix something yourself on the water that might make the difference between interrupting your day for an hour versus ending it completely and getting towed back to port.

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-Bill Kearney, 2005 348 Vista

Two things my dealer mentioned even before i bought my H190. Volvo penta has had some issues with carbs and some of the belts are bad.

I have a brand new carb on my boat we bought this year. My belts are okay.

My guess is you need the new carb. Tell your dealer I want a new carb.

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Guns kill people like spoons make people fat.
2007 Horizon 190 Gxi
97 Pathfinder SE 4x4
73 International Scout II

Check your ground. The past few weeks my boat has been acting weird and the temp guage was higher than normal so I changed the impellar and nothin. guages would cut out etc. Then I checked all the wires behind the guage cluster and checked all the fuse box wired all were ok so I was thinking bad fuse box. The boat would still run but nothing else worked then it would come back on. Then I decided to check the battery conditions and low and behold the wing nut that volvo says not to use that of course fourwinns and every other dealer uses was loose. tightened it with pliers and everything was great.

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Four winns 180 horizon

Depends on the dealer. Four Winns does not install the batteries, they are supplied by the dealer and they do the install. Mine were anchored with nylon/SS nuts.

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Jvalich
http://www.badcock.com

'04 FW 288 Vista "Mental Floss"

Man my dealer SUX

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Four winns 180 horizon

My dealer did the wingnut on the positive terminal, but not on the negative. Wierd. Of course, they also installed a dual purpose battery but that's another thread.

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2007 Horizon 200
4.3L GXi/ SX 225 HP

You will probably find the "dropped" nyla-nut" in the bilge sometime next year. My guess is they were too lazy to go fetch another one so they substituted the wing nut that came with the battery.

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Jvalich
http://www.badcock.com

'04 FW 288 Vista "Mental Floss"

I have the wing nuts on my battery. What is the issue with using those, that Volvo cautions against or reasons for using the nylon nuts?

Mine was delivered with stainless wing nuts also. However, I believe it's against USCG regs to use wing nuts due to the possibility of them coming loose. I replaced my wing nuts with stainless nylock nuts.

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Mike
2005 Four Winns 230/240
VP 5.7GXi/DP
1998 F-150 XLT
Boat Pic

I've replaced every nut in my boat with aviation nuts.

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Paul
2007 Four Winns Horizon 220
Mercruiser 350 Mag MPI w/ Bravo III Drive
2004 Ford Explorer Limited (V8-AWD)
Pomme de Terre Lake (Southwest Missouri)

With safety wire?

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Mike
2005 Four Winns 230/240
VP 5.7GXi/DP
1998 F-150 XLT
Boat Pic

Absolutely, I've also put Thread Lock on all the threads, and then touched the ends with solder. Brilliant!!!:idea:

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Paul
2007 Four Winns Horizon 220
Mercruiser 350 Mag MPI w/ Bravo III Drive
2004 Ford Explorer Limited (V8-AWD)
Pomme de Terre Lake (Southwest Missouri)