www.iFourWinns.com

Hello All,
I am new to this forum...been watching this for about a month now...registered as a user then, but forgot to read the first message on the board....send in name via email...could not figure out for the past three weeks why I could not post. We lets all hope that I am a more experienced Four Winns Boater. My wife and I have been long time Four Winns owners, starting with a 160 Horizon, then 195 Sundowner, then 258 Vista, and now just got our new (to us) 06 318 Vista. THe boat is our dream boat, has all options we wanted including the 5.7 OSI-XDP outdrives.
My real question here is I really want to install a fuel flow meter. I know the boat has NMEA 2000 compliant VP engines. And it has the Raymarine C80 Chartplotter that has the capability to read engine data from the MNEA 2000 bus. Just not sure which way is better, go with a Lorance LMF 200 or 400 or try to figure out how to connect the engine into the existing Raymarine system. If I go with the stand alone FF meter, then where should I mount it. If you look at the 318 Vista helm, there is absolutely no where to mount the dial. My biggest complaint with the 318 Vista is that there is little room to expand the helm electronics.
Love the forum...any insight would be greatly appreciated.
Bob
06 318 Vista
"Not 2 SHABI"
Wabasha, MN

_________________
2008 378 Vista
"Not 2 SHABI"
IPS 500 Volvo-Penta D6

Previously
'06 318 Vista
'97 258 Vista
'98 195 Sundowner
'87 180 Horizon

I installed a NMEA2000 network in our 318 last winter. EP20, EP-15, Bennett Trim Tab sensor, LGC3000 all connected on the backbone with the factory RM C80 and two LM200's.
The LM200's are installed in the openings that held the trim indicators (these I removed and do without). This setup gives pretty good fuel management information and the trim tab indication is much more responsive on the LM200 than the C80 (less lag time).
Spent a bunch of time trying to undertand the ability to get NMEA2K or some compatable or convertable information off the VP 5.7's. In the end I was pretty convinced that these engines don't output data useful to the NMEA2K network. I'd love to learn differently.
Only "do over" for me would be to have waited and do the connections using all DeviceNET (red) connectors.
Best of luck with your project.

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318 Vista
"What Next?" (for sale)

Rich,
Thanks for the reply. Kind of what I figured about the helm. Good idea replacing the Trim indicators....my starboard trim indicator is not working right now. Was going to have the relay replaced. Was it difficult to run the wiring up the right side of the boat? How did you accomplish that.
Have you had any other issues with your boat. I am having some minor issues (outdrive trim indicators, sea strainers for Genset/AC cracked), and now starboard outdrive when trimmed all the way up leaks some sort of petroleum product (small amount) when I trim it down just a bit, it stops...pulling the boat next week to see what the problems are.
Thanks
Bob

_________________
2008 378 Vista
"Not 2 SHABI"
IPS 500 Volvo-Penta D6

Previously
'06 318 Vista
'97 258 Vista
'98 195 Sundowner
'87 180 Horizon

920richardf,
Why did you buy the LGC 3000 GPS antenna? Did the RM antenna that came with the boat not work with the system? Also, what is an EP-20, could not find that anywhere, thought maybe you had 2x EP-10's. How long did this project take you?
Thanks,
Bob

_________________
2008 378 Vista
"Not 2 SHABI"
IPS 500 Volvo-Penta D6

Previously
'06 318 Vista
'97 258 Vista
'98 195 Sundowner
'87 180 Horizon

You are correct about the EP10's - I'll claim a typo. I had a service tech pull the backbone when he installed wiring for an Accusync system (works great), but he did tell me it was a pain and he had to remove the backrest of the stbd cockpit seating to accomplish it.
I installed the LGC3000 after failing to get the LM200 to recognize the C80 GPs info. There are several threads that claim this can be done, but I ran out of ideas on how to make it work. Once the backbone was in the project was pretty simple. I worked on it over the winter in stages so I don't have a good estimate of total time.
I have had no mechanical issues with the 318. I did have some delamination of the paneling around the power panel, but Four Winns replaced without question (that had to be a big job). So far the dealer (Skipper Buds in Sturgeon Bay) and Four Winns customer service has been great. They also replaced the galley TV, forward hatch (I told them I broke it), door canvas and a couple of other minor things related to delamination.

_________________
318 Vista
"What Next?" (for sale)

Yep, pretty much what I figured with the 318, nothing will be too easy. I am thinking about a winter project as well, especially if it is a mild winter. So far this summer I have had a few problems. Most notably, both strainers (clear plastic cups) for AC and Genset are cracked, and am having to replace those. I had some minor delamination when we recieved the boat (galley drawers). Caught it early, and applied some marine epoxi and clamped it (set up very nicely).
I appreciate all your time and assistance with the original fuel flow thread. I hope to tackle this over the winter time.
BTW...have you had your boat bottom painted. The owner that I bought mine from did not have his done (he trailered this boat! ) Anyway, going to tackle that this fall and/or spring. Wondering if you did this yourself or had your dealer.
Thanks Bob

_________________
2008 378 Vista
"Not 2 SHABI"
IPS 500 Volvo-Penta D6

Previously
'06 318 Vista
'97 258 Vista
'98 195 Sundowner
'87 180 Horizon

Bob -

Happen to have any pics of the 318 on a trailer? I figure this is about as big as I can possibly go with any hopes of sliding a trailer underneath it!

Thanks,

Bren

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V475
Chris Craft Catalina 23 w/ 300 G2
Previously-V338, 248 Vista, H210