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Bertram31.com General Bulletin Board
Re: New Gauges
Posted By: Bill Fuller In Response To: Re: New Gauges (Ernest)
Date: Thursday, 4 November 2004, at 10:44 p.m.
Hi Ernest,
I'm certainly glad you have decided to keep the superior boat (I just ducked) and I know you will love the Yanmars. As for guages, I think you first have to decide if you are going to use any of the Yanmar guages at all. When I bought my motors the "B" guage package came at no addional charge. This included the ignition switch, fuel shut-off, tachs, alarm system and idiot lights. Rather than buy the upgraded or digital Yanmar packages I used the parts form this package and Datcon guages for oil pressure, water temp, volt meters, and fuel and built a new dash. You can see pictures on the cumminsmarine.com site. Most of the commercial guys here in San Diego seem to prefer the Datcon guages. After 5 seasons I have only had to replace one sending unit. The dash was fabricated from 1/4 inch pultruded fiberglass (FRP), sanded smooth and painted with Oyster color Stirling LP. I decided to go white with black guages rather than the original black dash. If doing it again I might use different tachs although they have not had any problems. They are not accurate on the top of the scale so you must make sure of how they read with a photo tach. As you can see in the pictures I installed the Yanmar ignition switch, shut-off button, tachs and alarm system in the dash, along with the Datcon oil and water temp guages. I added a "drop down" extension of the dash for the volt meters and fuel guage. I used switches similar to the original Bertram swiches and had an ingraving shop make the labels which makes it look very original. If doing it again I think I would go without the ignition switch (no key) and have on/off, start, fuel shut-off as individual switches. All of these decissions depend on your personal preferrences. The one thing I would say is, don't buy cheap guages, it doesn't pay. Let me know if you would like some better pictures or have any questions.
Bill
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