Hello from Cumming, Georgia. We just purchased the Carver 400 and excited to join the Carver community.

OK, I'm not seeing any engine room lights on my 356. Owners manual says I have them and there are 2 switches in the galley I assume would turn them on and off. Where are they hidden?

Unfortunately the unthinkable happened!
The transmission oil cooler failed and I have a tranny that has to be replaced.
I had come back from a 2 hr cruise and checked the oil levels on the transmissions. The port side required 1/2 quart while the starboard read empty. I checked again and did not get a read so I tried adding fluid. As I was adding, the fluid was finding its way to the bilge and I knew something unfortunate was going on. My mechanic came down and determined that the fluid was not leaking out but rather the tranny was filled with water and the fluid had no where to go. Per the area marine transmission specialist, I pumped out the water, filled to top with fluid and flushed 2x going into forward and reverse. It seemed to be working and thought that I dodged a bullet.
I took her out for a run in order to change the fluid yet again but after about 20 minutes, it quit.
How does one avoid this mess in the future? Do any of you folks preemptively change the oil coolers for both transmissions and engines? I owned my last boat for 19 years, never changed the coolers and never had an issue.
All I know is that the lousy $140.00 oil cooler is gonna cost me about 5K!
I would be interested in knowing how you guys approach this.
Thanks.

Hi! New Carlingtonswitch breaker (left) does not match the connections on the old one (right). The new one has wider plates on it which the old connections don’t fit on to. This panel has the bus bar thing on it that connects all the breakers with a single metal bar, so modifying it to work is a PITA. I’ve looked everywhere. Does Carlingtonswitch have a different 10amp part number with the old, smaller plates, connection types on it? Thanks

Hi! The drama continues. I was on shore power using a heat gun to shrink wrap some butt connectors and the main AC breaker tripped. It tripped again when I tried to turn it back on. I turned off all breakers in that circuit and tried the main again, and it stays on. I show 120v when doing that. If I turn on ANY breaker in that circuit, even if it’s not being used, the main breaker trips again. I did that all on shore power. As a test, I started the gen set, and tried switching to ship power. Everything works fine on ship power. Breakers all work. I do the same sequence for shore power again and it still doesn’t work, does the same thing. Uuuh, what do I do now? Is the switch that controls ship/off/shore power bad now or something?

I had the marine air conditioning guy out to my boat yesterday. After checking everything out the diagnosis is the electronic card that controls the unit is bad.

We headed up to a local marine store. He had me order a new card and a new thermostat. By my paying for it I did save some markup that he would have charged had he ordered the parts. My unit is a 1996 model Cruiseair. While I could have adapted the current thermostat to the new card I chose to get both new as like I said the unit is 22 years old. Also, there are some electronics in the thermostat.

He did make sure that the rest of the unit is functioning as it should. He jumpered out the electrical to by-pass the electronics. He did both running both the A/C and the heat cycle. Both cycles worked as they should. The A/C blew cold 54* air out the vent and the heat side worked too.

The parts cost $678.40 so that will be added to my how much I spent this season total. I was prepared to go possibly with a new unit but the old one is working as it should. The parts + labor will be less than a new unit. Fingers are crossed that this will fully repair the unit. Parts should be in hopefully next week. I could be sleeping aboard soon. It's just to warm aboard without the working A/C.

Of course I will have to pay for his labor once the job is complete. Probably another $400 to $500 depending on his hourly rate.

B.O.A.T. Break out another thousand.

Hi all.....I am Eddie from Lauderdale and am picking up my 86 Carver Santa Cruz 26 next Saturday. Question....Does the Santa Cruz use a steering cable between the two helms? Would it still be available??

2000 326 Aft that periodically an alarm sounds when I throttle up to get up on plane. When I back off to idle speed the alarm stops but I have to throttle down to zero power (although I leave in gear).

Once I completely throttle down I can take off fine with no alarm.

Doesn’t happen every time either....any ideas?

Thanks guys

Okay friends so my boat is in the Galveston/Houston Texas area and I need to get her home. I have been quoted some crazy shipping prices to get her home, one was even comical to my broker and my mechanic in the area. So after speaking with an experienced captain/mechanic who has made this trip numerous times and I am told he could almost do it with his eyes closed.
Here we go!!!!!!!!!!!

Lets drive this baby home or as far home as I can come with her. I mean all the maintenance is done on the engines and generator, so why not? Props are being finished and polished so they should work as designed.

Boat is going to stay on a reservoir that is 16 miles wide and 7 miles long that is land locked. I am not exactly going to have room to stretch her legs so to speak if I don't take this trip. Besides can't I call this a bucket list trip because how often do with get to do something like this trip? Just going to use the boat for my daughter and her friends to jet ski back up too. At 17, she isn't going to want to hang around her 51 year old daddy and mother much longer, so I am hoping this will entice her too

So I have some concerns and simply wanted your input on how you would plan for this trip. We are going to bring the boat to New Orleans and up the Mississippi River to a old town called Vicksburg MS. From there it is only an hour to where my boat slip is located.

So my concerns are the fuel that is in the fuel tanks currently. Not sure how much fuel is in the tanks, but wouldn't it be wise to pour some additive in them to dry up any water that might have accumulated over these past few years and maybe some octane boost as well?

I would prefer to run them almost to empty on this trip to clean out the tanks as best as possible. In doing this I was going to pick up 2 new fuel water separators and new fuel filters even though they will be brand new at the start of this journey. Who knows what they will get clogged up with on this 3 or 4 day trip.

For my experienced boating friends in the forum, can you give me some advice on how you would prepare for this trip? I will have plenty of refreshments on board, supplies, all the tools I can possibly bring with me, cell phones if they will even work and the navionics boating app as a back up. It will only be the captain and a buddy of mine on this trip.

Thank you for your responses and happy boating

Well everyone, I plan on learning as much as possible from everyone and then sharing as much as possible as well in the coming months/years.

I have found this forum to be extremely valuable and we should ALL DONATE and CONTRIBUTE to the ones making our boating lives easier. Especially considering how much time and money they save us.

I am a complete newbie here but I have learned so much already.

Just wanted to say thank you to everyone in this post.