Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

Anybody got one of these smartcraft gauges? Which one and How do you like it and what don't you like about it? Thinking of getting one for my 06 opti 75.

I asked my dealer to quote adding one: $1k plus labor, which is probably why I didn't order one when I built the boat.

I had smart gauges on my former center console for the twin Yami's and loved them. The best features for me:
All digital readouts, no analog anything,
The rate of fuel consumption (per hour).
Total fuel consumed per trip.

I knew how much gas I was going to need before I returned to the fuel dock.

$1K? Was that the whole set?

I see lots of tachs on the web for ~ $250 complete with cabling. That's really all I'm interested in just to get engine info and trolling speed control. I can install it myself for the cost of a six pack. I have a nice GPS to give me speed IF I need to see how fast I'm running.

I have them. Love them! They tell you everything the motor is doing. Fuel consumption, fuel used. Just like a car. Took me a long time to get used to them. I even have it hook up to GPS for speed. You can do more with them than I can tell you. They were a $1600 option on my Premier that the original owner paid for. Are they worth it? From this gearheads point of view...Yep!

I know they start at 250 for the basic, then 350ish for the sc1000, then upwards of 1000 for the mercmonitor. I was wondering if anyone had some of the cheaper ones and his they liked them

This is the unit I had installed. The unit itself runs around $200 plus wiring and installation is about $450 total.

It tells everything I need to know about the engine. Engine hours, RPM, oil press, oil temp, air temp, water temp, water press, fuel press, etc.

This is the least expensive Smartcraft gauge, and you have to "toggle" through the read-outs, but it pretty much meets the needs of a small outboard application, like most of us have.

It's "plug and play", meaning that any outboard that it will work on already has the connector on the engine. The only installation is for the gauge itself and running the wire(s).

If you had a Premier high performance tritoon with a Verado motor (like Bryan's), the investment would be warranted.

For two stroke twin pontoon boat with a relatively small engine, it'd really be over kill.

I'd prefer to invest my money in a good color GPS/depthfinder/fishfinder with weather radar.

We live on a 16 mile lake, and we don't even have a large fuel tank. Smartcraft type gauges would be a waste of money for me too. I know how far I am from home and how much fuel is in my tank.