www.iFourWinns.com

hello,

my vhf antenna is out of order.
I just purchased a new one.

question, how do you remove the Raymarine VHF on a V358 2008 ?
There are no bolts anywhere! Any idea?

thanks

To the best of my knowledge, all of the Vista's with the Raymarine 215 are flush mounted and everything is done from the back side. I have found pulling the chart plotter and using a small mirror is your best method. If you happen to have a very tiny arm with long fingers and a double jointed elbow,the job will be much easier.

I have not actually pulled the radio but re-purposed several dash switches so I have a bit of time digging through those tight quarters. According to the 215 manual, it should be a larger thumb screw on each side that would need to be removed and then it could be pulled out. If you google the 215 flush mount kit, you will find pictures that should help visualize where you are looking to get at.

Good Luck.

_________________
Jnizi

2007 Vista 338 "Better Yet"
Previously:
2007 Vista 258 " Just Right"
2005 Horizon 230

Thanks Jnizi, will check for pictures on the web.

I do not see any bolts on my dash.
is it clipped?

They appear to be on the side about middle. The flush mount frame shows it can be mounted from the front or back.

Let me know how this works. I can pull my C80 the next time I'm working on the boat. It you have any success, please post a few pictures.

_________________
Jnizi

2007 Vista 338 "Better Yet"
Previously:
2007 Vista 258 " Just Right"
2005 Horizon 230

boat is presently in storage, will get access to it in 3weeks.
Will have a try and will post pictures if I have issues
thanks


boat season 2013 is almost there......

I was out at our marina yesterday and was speaking to our mechanic who was working on pulling the ray marine from our friends 358. He confirmed that it is held in the flush mount by one Philips head screw on each side. He used a Philips head bit taped into a box wrench. He said a normal socket would not fit. You need to keep pressure on the bit while you turn it. A slow process but doable.

I would think a ratcheting offset screwdriver should work as long as you can wedge a finger onto the driver to keep it pressed against the radio. Good luck.

_________________
Jnizi

2007 Vista 338 "Better Yet"
Previously:
2007 Vista 258 " Just Right"
2005 Horizon 230

Thanks Jnizi.

will post you some pics once remove! its gonna be usefull for everyone.


Yannick

Why are you removing the vhf radio to change the ant?? The ant. just screws on the back of the unit. It you pop the face off of the chart plotter the mounting screws are revealed. You can remove the chart plotter and then reach down and unscrew the ant cable off of the radio. You have to put the end on the new cable anyway since you have to snake it through the boat. It's a little time consuming but no need to remove the radio for this type of job

_________________
Bryan Mutter

http://www.twincitymarine.com
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your right I will only have to remove my raymarine GPS.

my new concern is to pass the wire from the arch to the dash. I hope there are no tierap in the wall so I can you the actual wire.

What about cutting the actual wire and make a female connector in the arch. And the male connector of the new ant connected to it ?
so I do not have to pass the new wire in the wall from the engine room to the dash etc.. but im I gona lost some signal power with a second connector connector in serie ?
good question.

The less conntions you have the better. I would use the old wire to snake the new wire though. On some ant., you can take off the large ring that threads on the female coax connector to make this job easier.

When I needed to install a new VHF antenna on our 328 Vista I used the snake to run from radar arch to helm. It was not to difficult to do since you could make runs in sections. For example from the inspection plate on underside of arch (in centre of arch directly under anchor light) down to the inspection plate on inside of arch as arch meets sidedeck. Then snake from there to under gear shift, as you can remove a speaker to get snake. Then from there to behind helm. I taped rope to snake so I had a one piece rope run from arch to helm, then attached VHF cable to rope and pulled entire VHF cable thru.

Mike.

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Current Boat
- 2001 Four Winns 328 Vista "Hour Decision"
- 2010 310 Mercury Inflatable

Previous Boats
- 30' Doral Prestancia
- 25' Doral Citation