www.iFourWinns.com

ok, I'll throw out one rant but thats it!

the port holes on the 1995's all have an upward angle, catching water at the base. then when opening the window it lets that excess water in.

bad design, fixed I believe in 99

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1995 258 Vista

Nope! 1999 and they still slope inwards. I have to hold a towel underneath them on the inside to catch the cup or 2 of water that fills the window cavity. Its because our windows are above the rubrail, and on 268's and the new 258's the portlights are below the rubrail, hence "tilting" outwards.

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1997 Four Winns Vista 278
T - 4.3l EFI
Kohler 4esz Genset
379 hours as of 8/8/21

I've noticed that, I don't know what year they changed that.


but I still love my boat.


I guess the only other concern of mine is the OMC outdrive.

I haven't had any problems yet but have read many a story about how bad they were.

keeping my fingers crossed!!

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1995 258 Vista

Well OMC isnt bad unless you had a 1987-1990-ish OMC Cobra with a clutch dog and mis-adjusted shift cable. As long as you dont have the OMC King Cobra drive that came with the 7.4 454 engine, you should be fine. Just hard to find parts for (King Cobra). After 1990 I believe they revised the clutch dog with deeper "teeth", or so to speak, the degree angle of the depth of the gears was deepened, so the clutch dog would engage better.
Anyhoo just remember that Volvo took over OMC and a lot of the technology on our Volvo outdrives is from OMC. They actually used the cast outdrive casings for Volvo's for a while and just rebadged it at Volvo.

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1997 Four Winns Vista 278
T - 4.3l EFI
Kohler 4esz Genset
379 hours as of 8/8/21

I remember reading quit a lot on that issue. An to stay away from the King Cobra.

I'm going to have the shift cable replaced when I have the outdrive serviced this fall. The shifting from neutral to forward and reverse is getting to hard. I've read that it should be easy to shift.

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1995 258 Vista

Port windows
The port windows on the 238 and 258 vistas (pre 248 and 268 models) all had the port window issue. Yes they catch water and many of the windows leaked due to the sitting water. Mine had the same issue. My port windows were replaced by FW with a new style that removed this collection area. This was done by making the screen area smaller. This increased the amount of trim around the screen and water drains off now. These windows work very well and I like them a lot. You can take out the screens as well if you want. They seem better built than the original ones that FW used. They may have started using them in late 99 or 2000 but my 99 did not have them from the factory.

Hatch screen
The hatch screen has been hard to put on for years. We found a trick that makes it much easier. After attaching the 3 snaps on the screen, we now take a small binder clip and clip the elastic in place at one of the snaps. Then just start tucking the elastic around and take the binder clip off when done. This keeps the elastic from pulling off. System is much much better now.

holding tank
One complaint I had on the 238 was the size of the holding tank. It is 8 gallons. IMO that is way too small. I replaced mine with a 15 gallon and that size is workable.

There are other things but overall I love my boat. FW has to balance cost and features to not make the boat too expensive. They are improving as they go and the comments reflect that as well. Of course the newer Vista's with newer and more features are also more $$ as well.
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Scott Wood
1999 238 Vista
Trailer Boating on the Great Lakes

I have owned 2-258 Vistas. An early production 1994 and on of the last ones manufactured in 1999. I bought both of them new. We like the 94 so much that we bought the 99 before the stopped production. I have the same concerns that have been mentioned with tank gauges or lack there of. Our ports are the kind with screens and do not collect water. The Lewmar Concept hatch was a bad design. The hinges come unglued and I had a latch freeze.(It was repaired under warranty.) The biggest problem on the 99 was the factory AC. A 5,000 BTU unit with only 1 outlet in the center cabin step. It would not cool the boat adequately. FW said there engineers said that this was sufficient and would not help with the problem. I contacted Cruise air and they agreed to exchange it for a 10,000 BTU unit for the price difference. A friend who had installed several units made the switch and we added 2 outlets, 1 in the aft and 1 in the vee berth. This took care of the problem.

I have looked at a lot of boats in this size range and I would still choose the Vista. Consider ease of operation and visibility and comfort. A vee berth and a aft that are both big enough to sleep average sized people. There is a lot packed into 25 feet. Besides the AC problem I have found FW customer service to be outstanding. They once compensated me for a vacation that was missed because of a problem that they could not find. Even paid for a rental boat.

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Inboard, outboard, onboard never bored
KUT 'N LOOSE
'99 258 VISTA

Could not agree more with the customer service at FW. They are top notch in my book as well. The design of the Vista's is still our favorite. Don't like any of the side entrance aft cabins. Too hard to get into and out of. we also store a lot of gear in this area and haveing to crawl around to get at this is just a pain.

Forgot to add something about the aft cabin ventilation. We made up a set of 2 small computer box fans for the aft cabin window. These are placed side by side and surrounded them with foam. This fits in the aft cabin window on the top deck side. The foam compresses and keeps the fans in place. They are 12 v fans so we just plug them into the lighter plug at the helm and you get air movement.

These are quiet and they don't move a lot of air but it works well at changing the air in the aft cabin. We like it a lot. We also have a few marine 12 v fans for the cabin area that work great. These are very efficient and somewhat costly but we stay on the hook a lot and doing anything to save the battery power is beneficial to us.

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Scott Wood
1999 238 Vista
Trailer Boating on the Great Lakes

GREAT IDEA!!!

We make the aft cabin our sleepng qtrs so we don't have to mess with making up the forward birth every night.

Question -

Do have the info on the new style screens you installed to keep the water from collecting on the port windows? Model #'s? pics maybe?

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1995 258 Vista

I will have pics for you on Wed. PM me your Email

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Inboard, outboard, onboard never bored
KUT 'N LOOSE
'99 258 VISTA

The whole port window needs to be replaced. Think of taking your old port windows and extending the trim on the outside to make a larger angle and making the screen area smaller. Here is the information I have on these

Bomar Bomonette Port light , Tracy (cust service) 603 826-5768, part number G621-18SS.

You may be able to get these from FW as well. I think they look and function a lot better than the original ones. Good luck

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Scott Wood
1999 238 Vista
Trailer Boating on the Great Lakes

For those with older boats with OMCs, the 86-93 models years were the original OMC Cobras with the dog clutch shifting. The problems these had were not the gears per se, even though there was a recall on the gears, but rather sticky and mis adjusted shift cables that allowed them to jump out of gear which ruined the dog clutch. When they are adjusted correctly with a good shift cable they shift fine, as good or better than a Merc Alpha drive.
The 94 and up models were built as part of the joint venture with Volvo, they used some Cobra castings, but with the Volvo cone clutch and a bigger lower gear housing. If you have one of these, it is for all practical purposes the same as a similar year Volvo SX, you should be able to get it serviced at any Volvo dealer.
You always need to check the actual year of the power package, it is possible to have a 93 engine/drive in a 94 boat.

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88 Four Winns 200 Horizon
4.3 OMC Cobra-4bbl
2002 Walker Bay 10/2012 Suzuki 2.5
2008 Walker Bay 8

1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4.0/Selectrac
2007 Jeep Grand Cherokee 5.7 Hemi/Quadradrive II