Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

Last night, we took the boat out for the first time. Picked it up at the end of last week and due to all the rain, I was unable to get the Shark Hide done until Sunday.

It is a Sylvan Mirage 8522 LES with a Yamaha 150 that I bought from Eagle Marine. Unfortunately they are about 1 hour a way. There are a few things that are warranty items, but if I can quickly fix them my self that would save me a trip to dealer. I am a little disappointed that these were not found before delivery.

Here are the issues:

The speedo doesn't work at any speed. I pulled the rubber hose off the back of the speedo and it is completely dry. So either the pickup is completely clogged or the hose is pinched somewhere.

The trim gauge reads 1/4 when the drive is tucked all the way in. As you could guess, the trim gauge reads 100% long before the trim is all the way up when using the trim button on the throttles. I assume the sender could be calibrated but I am not familiar with Yahamas (all Mercs in the past).

The depth gauge only reads when the boat is not on plane. I had go fast boats that would read the depth at speeds in excess of 75 mph. The transponder is on the back of the port toon whereas my go fast boats had the shoot thru the hull transponder.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Dealer should come to you and fix they should have done a test ride with you?

jadeboy wrote:Dealer should come to you and fix they should have done a test ride with you?

yes the dealer is not blameless. However, I picked it up in the rain and they didn't offer a test and I assumed they tested everything for delivery.

I will eventually take it back for warranty issues but if i can fix these gauge issues in the meantime, that would be awesome!

rsscoggins wrote:
The depth gauge only reads when the boat is not on plane. I had go fast boats that would read the depth at speeds in excess of 75 mph. The transponder is on the back of the port toon whereas my go fast boats had the shoot thru the hull transponder.

Transom mountedtransponders are notoriously finicky while under way and less forgiving than the shoot thru hull transponders your used to. That is not to say you can't get them to work while underway, however. The challenge is making sure they are sitting in "clean" water without a lot of turbulence and bubbles while under way. This may mean mounting a little lower, or an inch to either side trying to find the sweet spot. You may also have to play with the angle it sits at since the relationship between the transponder and the bottom changes somewhat between idling speed and while underway.

A google search on fishing forums looking at transponder setups while on plane will give you some further advice.

Mine won't work over 20mph. I didn't think there was any solution, guess I'll give it a shot.

My speedometer will not read speed until the boat is running almost 20. So, for slower speeds I refer to the GPS.

GPS is a Lowrance Elite 3 that also reads the bottom depth. My boat has a Faria depth guage too, so I offest it by 18", so the Faria reads depth under the prop, while the Lowrance reads depth from the surface.

Too many gadgets, ... so many choices. I didn't enable the skinny water alarm, damn thing just about drove me crazy.

My transducer is mounted to a bracket that is welded to the back of one of the pontoons. The sensor sits slightly lower than the tube and is positioned at an angle so that it is shooting straight down when in the water. Your water line on the toons can give you a good handle as to what angle to transducer should be mounted at. I've never had a problem with it there.

C_M_25 wrote:My transducer is mounted to a bracket that is welded to the back of one of the pontoons. The sensor sits slightly lower than the tube and is positioned at an angle so that it is shooting straight down when in the water. Your water line on the toons can give you a good handle as to what angle to transducer should be mounted at. I've never had a problem with it there.

My transducer is situated just as C_M_25 describes and while it generally works great the other day it really started acting up badly. Expecting that I would find it either fowled with growth or knocked out of its snap bracket which is designed to save it in the event of an impact. Dang it it was better but still not quite right; looking at it through the water I could see nothing wrong. Finally while running my hand over it I realized that it is now sitting crocked to the side, I've hit something that knocked it hard enough to pivot it on the mount screws and point it an outward angle where the water is much too turbulent....

I had a few electrical glitches on my new Bennington. Trim gauge would work and then not work. Lighted cup holders and lighted speakers would work and not work. Navigation lights same thing. I finally got up under console, and found the wire harness connections to the switches were not completely seated. Everything seems to work OK for now. Saved me a 90 minute trip to the dealer. Something you might consider looking at.

So I moved the depth finder transducer as far down as the adjustment allows and it still will only read when putting along. On plane or anything above 10 mph and it gives me the - - - reading.

I was able to adjust the trim gauge - that was an easy fix.

The speedometer is still an issue and I will probably leave it to the dealer to fix. The line is clear to the speedo - I pulled the hose off the back of the speedo and I can blow air through the line from the junction at the motor. I put the hose back on the speedo and blew lightly with my mouth and the speedo responded. HOWEVER, getting water or even air through the lower unit to that connection for the speedo hose is problematic. I ran a small drill bit in the lower unit pickup by hand and it was clear. I had a can of compressed air and can get air through the line from the junction to the lower unit but it requires me to pinch the hose around the air can plastic tube and it requires a lot of pressure - more pressure than water would exert to get through the pickup/hose I am afraid. I should be able to blow air through the line with my mouth but that isn't possible. So my take is that the line is pinched somewhere in the lower unit. I unplugged the hose from the junction at the speedo hose and ran the boat to see if any water was coming out of it. Nope, nada and the line to the speedo is still bone dry which confirms my suspicion that the issue is in the lower unit.

I have the RPT tubes and ended up having to drill holes as far down the pontoon transducer bracket as possible. It's now in clean water and works great at all speeds.

Kramfam wrote:I have the RPT tubes and ended up having to drill holes as far down the pontoon transducer bracket as possible. It's now in clean water and works great at all speeds.

I will see how the dealer resolves it and if no, I can always do that. Thanks for getting back to me.

What kind of speeds are you seeing out of your Sylvan? Tritoon or Pontoon?

My motor isn't broken it all the way yet but I did do a short "speed blast" last night on smooth water. So with the bimini closed, my wife and I in the boat, and 3/4 tank of gas, I was 33 MPH on the Speed Box app on my iPhone. This app is as accurate as my Garmin GPS that I use on the motorcycle. RPMs were at 5800. It appears that this boat likes a lot of trim - I was almost fully trimmed up!

The motor is at the second hole from the bottom, so I could maybe go up one more hole but don't kknow if that is really worth it.

Mine is an 8522 Tritoon with RPT tubes and the "performance shield".

I can do 28-29 mph with just me and a full tank of gas, bimini down, 6000 rpm. I only lose 2-3mph when the boat is loaded with 4 people. I have the 27" tubes, just 2, don't know what the "performance shield" is.

If I can attain those speeds with a 115hp, 2 tubes and 26' compared to 22', you should do much better than 33mph?

rsscoggins wrote:

Kramfam wrote:I have the RPT tubes and ended up having to drill holes as far down the pontoon transducer bracket as possible. It's now in clean water and works great at all speeds.

I will see how the dealer resolves it and if no, I can always do that. Thanks for getting back to me.

What kind of speeds are you seeing out of your Sylvan? Tritoon or Pontoon?

My motor isn't broken it all the way yet but I did do a short "speed blast" last night on smooth water. So with the bimini closed, my wife and I in the boat, and 3/4 tank of gas, I was 33 MPH on the Speed Box app on my iPhone. This app is as accurate as my Garmin GPS that I use on the motorcycle. RPMs were at 5800. It appears that this boat likes a lot of trim - I was almost fully trimmed up!

The motor is at the second hole from the bottom, so I could maybe go up one more hole but don't kknow if that is really worth it.

Mine is an 8522 Tritoon with RPT tubes and the "performance shield".

You should be @ or slightly above 40mph with that set up, especially if there claims are true with the RPT Tri-toon. I think you said 150hp? Were you wide open throttle?

How did you fix the trim gauge? Mine is off as well, I have an 8520 with 115 yamaha. When I'm all the way down it shows I'm at 1/4 on the gauge. Thanks for the help!