As I mentioned in this thread, the maiden voyage on the new boat was awesome. It wasn't without some issues though. It's sad to say, but my dealer is less than helpful when it comes to Bennington boats, outboard motors or anything of the sort. They do Malibu and Cobalt and everything else seems like such a bother to them. My biggest complaint about Bennington is that I'm stuck with one dealer and they seem to have no motivation to do better (once the sale is done) and Bennington seems to do nothing to gauge customer satisfaction with dealers. Just to give you an idea, they told me that the only difference between an S and G was the number of metal rails on the back end, and that the three tube package with the elliptical tube is called 'PSP', amongst many, many other things. So yeah... not a lot of faith there. So before I go to them, I like to try and figure it out myself. I'd love any input from others on the forum on these things.
Our new boat has the full Sea Star power assist hydraulic steering upgrade. According to the build site, I was expecting something like this:
"Power-Assist Steering is powered by an electronically controlled hydraulic pump connected to the SeaStar® System. The electric pump "does the work for you" so the driver can expect incredible handing and turning with little effort. Recommended for engines rated 150 hp or greater."
The reality was that it felt pretty much like the steering on my 22 SSX with the F90 with no power steering whatsoever. It took lots of work to turn. I see the Sea Star thing on the motor, and there is a pump under the seat in front of the helm. How do I make sure it is working? Is there a switch to turn it on? It was quite a bit of work to turn that wheel. Not even close to "does the work for you: or "turning with little effort" as described. Knowing that this boat has sat in my dealer's showroom since Feb 2013, I wouldn't be surprised at all if something just isn't connected or no fluid or something else stupid. Thoughts?
Performance wise, things were really fun and everyone was impressed, but still way below my expectations. I had a full 50+ gallon tank of gas and 11 people on board. Of those, there were only 6 adults and the rest were kids between 14 and 5. Not a lot of other gear on board, just a couple small coolers, snacks, tubes, jackets, etc. When I first opened it up, I started trimming it up and had bad cavitation. I'd never even experienced anything like it. The boat seemed like it was just dying in the water until I slowed down, trimmed down and tried again. I thought there was a real problem at first. I figured out if I just left the motor all the way down, then it ran pretty good, but my max speed was still about 28 mph. I forget RPMs, but it was in the high 5's. The prop is an aluminum Quicksilver 15.25 x 15p at around 5k altitude. I'm going to take it out in the next day or two without any people and see how it performs, but it is a little concerning.
When I pulled the boat from the water, I found the trailer bunks were way off. I didn't pay attention when we took delivery, but my wife says she saw that the toons were pushing the outside edges of the bunks. When we loaded, we would have one toon in line, and the other on top of the outer bunk. After several tries, we finally got it so that it was just pushing the outside edge of both bunks. I'm torn on whether to ask the dealer to fix this or just do it myself. Seems as simple as measuring the centers on the toons and then readjusting the bunks. Bizarre how that didn't get done right to begin with. I should probably cover up the carpet while I'm at it.
And in the not-so-concerning category, we had an armrest break off the captains chair while my wife was sitting in it. That's the second maiden voyage this year that this happened to us. Bennington said last time that they had a 'bad batch' and quickly replaced it. I suppose this was in the same batch, but thought I'd mention it in case anyone else has that issue.
Sounds like complaining, but I get that there are little issues. I just wish I had a dealer that knew more than I did about these boats. I'd appreciate any input you guys might have.
Our new boat has the full Sea Star power assist hydraulic steering upgrade. According to the build site, I was expecting something like this:
"Power-Assist Steering is powered by an electronically controlled hydraulic pump connected to the SeaStar® System. The electric pump "does the work for you" so the driver can expect incredible handing and turning with little effort. Recommended for engines rated 150 hp or greater."
The reality was that it felt pretty much like the steering on my 22 SSX with the F90 with no power steering whatsoever. It took lots of work to turn. I see the Sea Star thing on the motor, and there is a pump under the seat in front of the helm. How do I make sure it is working? Is there a switch to turn it on? It was quite a bit of work to turn that wheel. Not even close to "does the work for you: or "turning with little effort" as described. Knowing that this boat has sat in my dealer's showroom since Feb 2013, I wouldn't be surprised at all if something just isn't connected or no fluid or something else stupid. Thoughts?
Performance wise, things were really fun and everyone was impressed, but still way below my expectations. I had a full 50+ gallon tank of gas and 11 people on board. Of those, there were only 6 adults and the rest were kids between 14 and 5. Not a lot of other gear on board, just a couple small coolers, snacks, tubes, jackets, etc. When I first opened it up, I started trimming it up and had bad cavitation. I'd never even experienced anything like it. The boat seemed like it was just dying in the water until I slowed down, trimmed down and tried again. I thought there was a real problem at first. I figured out if I just left the motor all the way down, then it ran pretty good, but my max speed was still about 28 mph. I forget RPMs, but it was in the high 5's. The prop is an aluminum Quicksilver 15.25 x 15p at around 5k altitude. I'm going to take it out in the next day or two without any people and see how it performs, but it is a little concerning.
When I pulled the boat from the water, I found the trailer bunks were way off. I didn't pay attention when we took delivery, but my wife says she saw that the toons were pushing the outside edges of the bunks. When we loaded, we would have one toon in line, and the other on top of the outer bunk. After several tries, we finally got it so that it was just pushing the outside edge of both bunks. I'm torn on whether to ask the dealer to fix this or just do it myself. Seems as simple as measuring the centers on the toons and then readjusting the bunks. Bizarre how that didn't get done right to begin with. I should probably cover up the carpet while I'm at it.
And in the not-so-concerning category, we had an armrest break off the captains chair while my wife was sitting in it. That's the second maiden voyage this year that this happened to us. Bennington said last time that they had a 'bad batch' and quickly replaced it. I suppose this was in the same batch, but thought I'd mention it in case anyone else has that issue.
Sounds like complaining, but I get that there are little issues. I just wish I had a dealer that knew more than I did about these boats. I'd appreciate any input you guys might have.
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