Re: Future Hydrodyne Drivers Jim Great. I'd love more close ups. I am still at the stage where I'm trying to get ideas for the rigging and finishing stage. I had seen a close of Daniel's boat before and have essentially copied his panel. I had to do actual size carboard cut-outs and put them where I want them for the finish fiberglass guy. He's reglassing the panel and then cutting new holes. There was no particular thought given to where the holes were cut in the dash on my boat by whoever put in the guages that were there. Odd. You'd think someone might have bothered to actually take some measurements before going at it with the hole saw. Interesting issue on these Hydrodyne 18 panels: When doing your layout, do you keep the instruments level with the earth or do you follow the slope of the instrument bubble - because it slopes down hill a bit as you go from left to right, looking at it from the driver's seat. I've seen instruments placed level and I've seen panels where they have been lined up with the slope of the dash. Ultimately, if you are trying to fit a lot of guages on that panel, you've got to follow the slope of the panel or they won't all fit.
Re: Future Hydrodyne Drivers ps Daniel - that shot of the dash looking out at the water sure gets the blood pumping. Makes me wish like hell I were sitting in the business seat behind that dash so I could slam those hammers down on those twin 1500s. I'd probably sell at least one of my souls to have the chance to drive that thing. <img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_twisted.gif" border="0" alt="Twisted Evil" title="Twisted Evil" />
Re: Future Hydrodyne Drivers Mark, Mine are actually the original cutouts and they are not level with the horizon. I added the one between the tachs for a fathometer because I was going to a lot of unfamiliar places with the tournaments and various practise spots. The tach is between and below the speedos. There are three instruments on each side arranged in sort of a pyramid. The three on the right are head temp, water pressure, and trim. The three on the left are fuel level, oil level, and volts. I premix fuel now so the oil level will get replaced with another head temp so I will have temp on both heads. The panel is full. jim
Re: Future Hydrodyne Drivers Sounds similar to Daniel's set up. I'd love to see a full picture of it at some point. Also - I need advice as to what to use for an electical panel. I want to run just one set of power wires from the battery and then have fused switches or something along those lines. Are there any products out there that you could recommend for an accessory switch panel?
Re: Future Hydrodyne Drivers Mark, Mine are the same way. Original cutouts that are right up to the fiberglass so they are not leveled. The three in the triangle are Tach, Water Pressure and Charge Rate. The two in the center are Fuel Gauges And I have an hour meter mounted on the side by the controls. The two black Panels on the center dash are Trim Controls. The gauges have been replaced with Lavorsi II sets and the Speedos are Airguides that were replaced in 1990 when the originals started leaking. Daniel
Re: Future Hydrodyne Drivers Mark, I think you can buy or build a 12 v bus and a ground bus. That will get everything you need in place just like an airplane. Personally I like individual switches and inline fuses because you can get waterproof inline fuses. There are probably some new products out there that i am not aware of. I would use a battery switch back by the battery. I would crimp, solder and shrink tube each connection. I did not rewire mine so it is done in the traditional way but I did insist that they cut off the extra wire. jim
Here's what I have to go into my panel: Two airguide speedos. Faria 80MPH speedo to go off the shaft pitot on the engine Faria tach Faria depth guage Faria oil level Faria water pressure Faria volts Faria ammeter Faria trim guage Faria hours meter The four large guages will go across the top with the Airguides at the outsides. The two middle large guages will sit up a little higher than the two airguides to make use of space. The seven 2" guages will go along the bottom. I also need to buy a Mercury engine monitoring guage (with the idiot lights) that will go somewhere down on the lower dash. I have been told that the ammeter is not a good idea because of heat build up by my airplane mechanic says he can help me install it with a shunt to get rid of heat. I can't wait to start putting this thing together. Hopefully it will look something like you guys have set up. I'd love to get all these boats in one place at one time. Don't know how the heck that could happen given we're spread all over the continent but you never know...
