Looking for a 180, some questions?

[AV8TR]

I test drove a 2008 180SE today, it was my firs time on one. I have a some questions or concerns from what I saw.

1) The max RPM the boat was developing was 7300-7400RPM. Is that normal? I saw it jump to 7800 one time out of the hole very briefly.

2) The boat seemed to pull a little to the right at high power and low power settings. Is that normal?

3) I occasionally heard a little whine from the engine and I assume that was just the turbo charger, does that sound accurate?

4) The boat has 75 hours on it, what is the maintenance schedule from here?

5) It seemed to bleed speed fairly quickly in turns, I assume that is normal since you are using the thrust for steering?

Thanks for any help.

Thanks for any input.

 

[timhood]

Max RPM for this boat is 8100 RPM. It should have no trouble hitting that RPM. So there is an issue there.

I don't notice my boat pulling so much, but it is easier to steer to the right than to the left. I attribute that to the direction the impeller spins. You will lose speed in turns. If I want to maintain speed (for example, when I'm towing a tube), I'll add some throttle through the turn and back it off after I've reached the apex. If you turn it really hard, you can lose more speed than you can hold. You can turn this boat so hard and sharp that you can do a hard 180, jet ski style, and pretty-much wipe out all of your speed. Before you try that, make sure everyone is holding on for dear life, because the boat can grab the water and turn like a big ski.

As for maintenance, the first thing would be to get verification (i.e., paperwork) that the ceramic washers in the supercharger were replaced with the stainless steel type. Yours is an '08 like mine, so it's 50/50 whether it came with ceramic from the factory. The cutoff seems to be somewhere around a mid '08 manufacturing date. You can check the manufacturing date using the HIN. The last four characters of the IN represent the manufacture month and year and model year. The first of those is the manufacture month as a letter code, where A = January. For example, mine is E8, meaning May, '08.

At 100 hours, the supercharger is due for a rebuild, which is something that some people do themselves, others have shipped theirs in and paid $75 in labor to do, and others have the dealer do. I'm told the parts can cost close to $400. When the supercharger starts to go out, you'll notice slipping, where you get RPMs but reduced thrust. That may be an indication that it's time for a service. (However, you should check that the problem isn't because you sucked in some junk and have some nice grooves in your wear rings.)

When I got mine, they did the service at 50 hours because the washers were getting replaced anyway, so I'm good until about 150 hours. The supercharger services are the only "biggies." The rest is normal boat stuff, oil changes and winterizing, which can easily be done by yourself if you want to save money.

The big issue for this boat is why aren't you getting 8100 RPM. I've never had that issue so hopefully someone else can help there.

 

[AV8TR]

Thanks. That was my biggest concern as well he offered to take it to a dealer so I could have it looked over which I will do before I buy it. But if this is a big issue I don't want to proceed and throw money at something I won't buy.

 

[AV8TR]

The one I drove is an E8 as well so it may have the ceramic washers I will have to look into it a bit more.