Hello,
I just joined this forum yesterday and have been browsing through old posts. I purchased a new SD 225 in '98 and owned it until 2004 when I upgraded to a SD 245. In a lot of ways the 225 was a better boat. I do almost all of my own upgrades and repairs, so let me share with you the things that I found with the SD 225 that I thought were design shortcomings and things that were problematic.
1. I loved the built in cooler. It was easy to access and doubled as the step up to the front deck. However, it wasn't insulated worth crap. We would start off the day with cold drinks and ice and by the end of the day we would have sodas floating around in the water left over from the melted ice. To fix this, I took off the access "box" to the cooler from inside the cuddy. I found that the "insulation" on the cooler was the same fuzzy covering that they had used on the ceiling of the cuddy. I peeled back this covering from the cooler and used some spray-on insulation that you can buy at any home improvement "big box" store. This was a bit tricky because if I made it too thick, it would just peel back and fall off. With a little trial-and-error, I was able to find the right amount (about 1-2" of insulation) While it was drying, I put the fuzzy covering back on. After this fix, it worked much-much better.
2. Inside the engine compartment, they continued to use the carpet that is also on the deck of the cockpit. Over time, the fuzzy nature of the carpet would get stuck and clog the spark arrestor on engine air intake. There's no real way to prevent this, but you do need to be mindful and clean this out every season or so.
3. Inside the cockpit along the side of the boat there are two levels of storage. The top level is poorly secured. They used simple "L" brackets with very small screws that secure to the hull. There's one "L" bracket in the center that was constantly pulling loose along with 1-2 "L" brackets at either end. (It's been 10 year since I sold the boat, so my memory is a little fuzzy.) In the center, I used an oversized "L" bracket with through stainless bolts for the storage area and then some larger, but short screws for attaching to the hull. I also used the same oversized "L" brackets at either end. These worked well and I never had a problem again.
Feel free to reach out to me directly if you have other questions. I've owned 3 different Four Winns boats over the past 19 years.
Kevin Blatter
k_blatter@yahoo.com
|
.