Rick's H180 mods

jml4012 · **Joined:** Tue Sep 07, 2010 6:29 pm **Posts:** 6

Ric, ur steering wheel column, was it smooth or splined? Pulled my old wheel today and was planning on installed the new chrome model from jegs. Jegs wheel is smooth and my steering column in spline. Did u see same issue?

ric · **Posted:** Fri Mar 23, 2012 9:05 pm

jml4012 wrote:

Ric, ur steering wheel column, was it smooth or splined? Pulled my old wheel today and was planning on installed the new chrome model from jegs. Jegs wheel is smooth and my steering column in spline. Did u see same issue?

Mine is smooth. What year is your boat?

Graham R · **Posted:** Sat Mar 24, 2012 3:25 am

If the wheel has a separate hub, you can swap over the new wheel onto a splined hub. ( does your original wheel have a separate hub ?). If not, "Great Lakes Skipper" has them. Most use 6 bolts to attach the wheel to the hub, 60 deg. apart and the PCD seems pretty standard. Some wheels however use 5 bolts/ 72 deg. spacing, but in the case of the "Victor" brand I bought the PCD is the same as that of the 6 bolt ones, so it was easy to redrill the wheel centre.

jml4012 · **Joined:** Tue Sep 07, 2010 6:29 pm **Posts:** 6

Ric, 2001 Horizon 180

Graham, thanks for the Great Lakes web site. I do believe I can buy a splined wheel hub and make it work.

ric · **Posted:** Tue Mar 27, 2012 9:05 pm

I know they changed the hub, but not that early.

Ordered some Rick upgrades that are boat related today..
Cool "boat" shortsin zinc gray
Ray-Bans

The shorts are "boardshort" material so they dry fast but shaped and have pockets like regular shorts. They are getting tons of good reviews AND it's time to kill the aviators and get a new style for 2012. I spent 20 minutes at the Sunglass Hut with a girl friend of mine to get a good style/fit then went on Amazon.com and got them overnighted for half price. Also my bday is in April so renewed all the tags, registrations, licenses, etc.

ric · **Posted:** Fri Apr 06, 2012 10:41 am

Happy Friday!

Just ordered Faria 6 gauge set in Cheaspeake SS Black. I did a bunch of photoshop with different style gauges and white or silver face looks to garish/boy racer.

and instead of a trim gauge (pointless on an 18ft boat), battery condition gauge!

They should look good in the cluster. When I do the gauge swap I will overlay the gray plastic with carbon fiber

Eventually I will swap the switches out for ones that have labels on them (and blue LED).

Next mod (since my engine oil pressure/alternator is good was just bad gauges no more freaking out and saving $$)... tilt steering column!

PDACPA · **Posted:** Fri Apr 06, 2012 11:03 am

Rick where did you get the gauges. My volt and trim gauges are not working and those look nice.

Is that them installed on your boat or did you photoshop them?

ric · **Posted:** Fri Apr 06, 2012 12:43 pm

Those are the factory black ring VDO gauges. Nothing photoshopped that's how it currently looks right now. In a week or so I'll post the updated pictures with those new gauges/carbon fiber dash installed. They should look good with the stainless steel rim to match the SS cup holders I recently installed.

Got em from
http://www.boatersland.com/farktf003.html

PDACPA · **Posted:** Fri Apr 06, 2012 12:45 pm

Are the connectors on the rear of the gauges the same? Ie plug and play?

ric · **Posted:** Fri Apr 06, 2012 1:17 pm

PDACPA wrote:

Are the connectors on the rear of the gauges the same? Ie plug and play?

It will be dang close. The factory gauges are VDO 'Vision' series and take blade style connectors. The Faria take ring. The only difference is the lighting circuit/plugs.

So basically every VDO gauge has:
Positive gauge power
Negative gauge ground
Signal wire
light positive
light negative

Faria:
Positive gauge power
Negative gauge ground*
Signal wire
light positive*
*shared

No soldering or anything will need to be done. Just remove blade female terminals, install ring.. cut light socket off, put female blade terminal on positive wire. Done

Senders are universal, not gauge specific except for the SX trim sensor which I'm not using anymore. I can just turn my head back and look where it is and use that hole for something more important.. like battery charge level so I actually know after listening to the radio for hours where my charge is instead of guessing and not knowing if my boat will start or not. No extra wiring for that either cause it already has power/ground

ric · **Posted:** Fri Apr 06, 2012 2:06 pm

Crappy photoshop comparison of gauges.

BartsPlace · **Posted:** Fri Apr 06, 2012 5:10 pm

Sweet!

fiznuka · **Posted:** Wed Apr 11, 2012 7:06 pm

ric wrote:

It's the older OMC stainless steel prop part # 3850308, not the newer VP 3850308-2 that's aluminum. Makes no difference really, it's beat up and sold. The boat performs much smoother, quieter and crisper with the 14x21 Solas.

"Makes no difference really, it's beat up and sold "

But still not shipped :evil:

ric · **Posted:** Wed Apr 11, 2012 7:35 pm

oh shit you're right

ric · **Posted:** Thu Apr 12, 2012 7:15 am

www.iFourWinns.com

Rick's H180 mods

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