Looking at a 2005 230 (240) Anything I need to know?

rpengr · **Posted:** Mon Jan 04, 2016 4:49 pm

formulax wrote:

I'm almost 40ft deep with an 8ft tall door. If the sales lady gave me correct ground-to-tallest-point measurements the boat should fit with 3in to spare. Fingers crossed.

Awesome garage! Mine is only 7' door. According to the FW "Fast Facts" your height on trailer should be 7'9" (no tower). I assume that would be with a level trailer. It would be a little lower with the tongue lowered onto a short dolly.

formulax · **Posted:** Mon Jan 04, 2016 5:08 pm

We built almost 2 years ago, I told my wife I don't care what you want as long as I can extend the garage. It is 3 car wide but the double door side is just shy of 40ft deep and the single door is about 24ft deep. I still wish I had gone bigger

TX H210SS · **Joined:** Thu May 27, 2010 9:10 am **Posts:** 1488

Nice looking boat...that model as the 240s give you much much better engine access than the 210s. I know as I have the 210. You also have the remote oil filter which you will appreciate more than you will ever know.

The 2008 and prior models don't have the catalytic converter, which is good to not have. As for the 5.7, I have one with single prop and can pull skiers, boarders or tubers all day long. The duo prop will help in tat regard as that boat is bigger than mine. These are good all round boats and equal out ride and performance.

The big blocks have more power and torque but the 5,7 will do fine for water sports. If your wanting competition type performance then wrong boat. You can get a wake boat but get a kidney sling and second job to go with it.

Bow cushions are snap in....many remove them as that is a common step area for docking and anchor access. May get lucky and it could be stowed away in boat somewhere.

In short...have them splash it for trial and I imagine you will be surprised with performance....I agree the Tundra will tow it fine...you will know she's back there, but the tundra has better antisway system than other makes. If tundra squats, just get some airbags that are cheap and effective.

I know nothing about sea ray trailers, but Four Winns trailers aren't that good in my opinion anyway. Just check to make sure its properly fitted to boat.

230 Mike · **Posted:** Tue Jan 05, 2016 12:48 am

Ours is now stored near the lake but until 2 years ago we towed it 200 miles each way. The FW trailers have some things to love and some to hate, but they do pull well. Ours weighs exactly 6,500 lbs. with full fuel & water tanks, anchors, and a few small toys.

The biggest knock on the FW trailers is that they came from the factory with NO stainless hardware; some of mine was rotting away almost from delivery day. Over time I've replaced about every bolt and nut with stainless. I also replaced all the lights with high quality LED's - a huge improvement and only around $100 to do every light on the trailer. Also the side guides are worthless and will bend from even slight contact with the boat during loading.

The 5.7 / DP-SM on these boats tops out at just under 50mph when running well and properly trimmed. For some that isn't enough, for others (like us) it's more than enough. What I've always noticed is that ours gets on plane VERY quickly with little bow rise, can make max speed easily, and doesn't seem to care whether there's one person aboard, or 6. We tow everything from 1-man tubes to a 3-man Mabel and have never lacked power.

LouC · **Posted:** Tue Jan 05, 2016 7:39 am

The boat looks great, you just have to find that cushion for the front and a cooler. You may be able to order one from an F/W dealer, or have an upholstery shop make one up to match the rest of the bow cushions.
I like the wide engine compartment and the remote oil filter mount.
On these boats, is there enough room to get at the impeller housing on the engine? If not can the rear seat be removed with out too much work? The reason I ask is that replacing the impeller is a fairly frequent maintenance job, you do it about every 2 seasons.
The other thing I'd do right away, is have the drive pulled and check the bellows for water, and check the gimble bearing and u joints. I'd do that on any new to me I/O boat unless you know for sure that those things were checked recently.
About the trailer, I have no doubt that the Tundra will pull it fine. Just make sure the brakes, bearings, tires and springs are in good shape. Brakes on both axles? I'd want that for sure, pulling 6500 lbs.

230 Mike · **Posted:** Tue Jan 05, 2016 8:42 am

The impeller isn't hard to get to at all, aside from being down low relative to the floor, so it can be hard on a bad back.

Typically these trailers have brakes on the rear axle only. Mine have been terrific as long as there wasn't something wrong in the coupler. When working right, my trailer will stop the truck.

GottWhat · **Posted:** Tue Jan 05, 2016 10:06 am

rpengr wrote:

(but don't try to race GottWhat's boat that has 385HP :lol:

)

After reading the fast facts, I think the 5.7Gi in the H230 will be just fine

formulax · **Posted:** Sun Jan 10, 2016 4:38 pm

Went and looked at the boat yesterday. I was not quite as clean as it looks in the photos but is still in pretty good shape. on small tear on the cushion back that meets up with the sink and a few scuffs on another cushion. They did not do a very good job of getting it cleaned up before I came so I think that had a lot to do with the overall impression we had. They are supposed to detail it better before I come back to lake test it next week. The big thing my wife did not like was the carpet just looked a little old and dirty so she has already told me that will need to replaced. No complaints there as I am getting quotes on SeaDek and Gatorstep to do swim platform, where carpet was and bow anchor door.

I think the faux teak mats would look great in that boat. If all goes well with the lake test I'll should be buying next Thursday.

GottWhat · **Posted:** Mon Jan 11, 2016 10:00 am

You could also go with SeaDek throughout instead of carpet.

formulax · **Posted:** Mon Jan 11, 2016 10:08 am

GottWhat wrote:

You could also go with SeaDek throughout instead of carpet.

formulax wrote:

No complaints there as I am getting quotes on SeaDek and Gatorstep to do swim platform, where carpet was and bow anchor door.

I think the faux teak mats would look great in that boat.

formulax · **Posted:** Mon Jan 11, 2016 11:13 am

The blue stripe around the top was chipped away in a few spots. This appears to just be vinyl and not part of the gel coat. Have any of you touched this up before? I see on the Four Winns parts site that you can get blue gel coat touch up paint, or blue tape. I would think the tape would not look very good. I figure I could mask and use the gel-coat touch up to fill in the bad spots to get a decent result. Just curious if anyone has any better methods.

230 Mike · **Posted:** Tue Jan 12, 2016 12:37 am

That tape is very expensive. I couldn't find a dealer who would sell me less than something like 25' of it (at I want to say $3.00/foot).

formulax · **Posted:** Tue Jan 12, 2016 12:46 am

Dang, that is crazy. I figured the tape would not look good it you just put small strips here and there. Seems like you would almost need to place one long continuous band to get a good result.

230 Mike · **Posted:** Wed Jan 13, 2016 9:44 pm

To a degree that's true. If the existing tape is badly torn up in a particular spot, it'll look better to patch it with a short piece of new tape. But if it's just a small bit of dock rash that doesn't look too bad, you may be better off leaving it. Note that on this model, that tape is right in the danger zone for rash from your lines when in a slip - so you can patch it and it may get damaged again.

formulax · **Posted:** Wed Jan 13, 2016 11:25 pm

Got the boat today. I've got some questions but I'll save those for another post. Here she is all loaded up ready for the ~100 mile trip home. The Tundra pulled it good but was thirsty. I averaged 10mpg on the way back, but the turnpike is constant up and down hills.

Fit in the garage with no issues, still room for two other cars plus storage and work bench up front.

I've got the template kit from Gatorstep on the way, I'll be sure to post progress on that process once I start to get into it.

www.iFourWinns.com

Looking at a 2005 230 (240) Anything I need to know?

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