Mercury Ocean Runner 430 Build Thread

[Ian M]

Originally Posted by ba_fisher

What's wrong with the UK? Cold fingers? :-)

Exactly. I do not recall ever seeing a bare stainless wheel on a UK RIB. I am envious of your weather where you do not have to worry about such things

[matt h]

Good build. nice one

[ba_fisher]

Close to the end game now. Hooked up the fish finder with the motor using an NMEA 2000 network



I can see the motor has 0 hour 12 minutes on it, probably testing by the factory or by the dealer. I haven't turned on the motor myself yet.



Here's the network, with 3 wires - power, fish finder and motor. I will mount it on the inner walls of the console.



The motor side of the NMEA cables. Suzuki really messed up by using so many cables that are so long. Given this is a newly designed motor, they should have the whole NMEA support built into the motor.

[ba_fisher]

Took the boat to the water for the first time. Everything went OK --

Well, not quite. I didn't lock the hitch coupler correctly, and the hitch fell off when I was doing 60mph on the freeway! Anyway, I was able to slow down and stop on the side of the road.

The bottom of the trailer's tongue had a metal bracket that probably was designed to protect the tongue in this case -- well it worked. The bracket made a long scratch on the freeway, and part of it melted, but the tongue itself, and the tongue jack, was not damaged.

My friend and I were scared to death, but such a small incidence was not enough to stop our boat launch. So we hitched up the trailer, this time to make sure that it was locked in place. And we went to Redwood City to launch the boat.

The boat drive itself was uneventful. I had to limit the rev to under 3000rpm since the motor is still in break-in period.

When we recovered the boat we couldn't back down the trailer straight into the water. After a few times we gave up and winched the boat in while the trailer was jackknifed.

If you think this was fun enough, well it wasn't. We managed to lock ourselves out of the car, with the car's engine running, and a tide coming in. We called my insurance company and someone came to unlock the car, when the water rose to about 1 inch below my car's tail pipe.

So, I will call this a successful event!

[ba_fisher]

Here's a "how hard could it be?" moment.

[ba_fisher]

Anyhoo, I am now officially ribbed. Yay!

[ncp]

Sure makes for a good story!

(we need pics from on the water!)

[ba_fisher]

We didn't take a whole lot of photos, as we focused on making mistakes ...

We did take a video to prove the boat actually floated ....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgDc2EZzpVA

[Bigtalljv]

well now that you got all that out of the way...

glad everything worked out. I have found that when I am running around doing boat or trailer stuff I usually roll a window down, never locked out and it's easier to hear people yell if you miss something.

First time I took my first rib to Monterrey after breaking it in at the lakes I forgot there are swells at the boat ramp, put a few inches of water in the back of my minivan.

a good tip when i was learning trailers was to hold the steering wheel at the bottom, move hand right trailer goes right, left left. helps make it easier when you start to stress.

Jason

[ba_fisher]

By the way, while we were waiting for the tide to kill my van's engine, a cop drove by and stayed in the shade for his donut time. Luckily the boat was too low in the ramp so he didn't see it. Otherwise he might have given us a ticket for blocking traffic.

We picked a quiet day and no one else was using the launch ramp. A few canoers were amused by the the scene, though.

[tworotorturbo]

Good to see you made it on the water. Throw some guide poles on the trailer and it will make backing up the trailer 100 times easier since you will be able to see them. They sell a kit at WM but you can also make your own with about $10 worth of PVC pipe.

So how does that console feel? Nice and solid?

[ba_fisher]

Console is pretty solid. I can grab it and shake the boat on the trailer without the console flexing or anything.

I practiced a lot of backing up today in a parking lot. I found it easiest if I look into the side mirror and use my boat letters as a guide. But without the boat on the trailer I need something else as a guide. I already bought a set of guide posts from Amazon. Will try to install them before the next water outing.

[office888]

Very cool!

+1 for guide poles...they make landing the boat on the bunks a lot easier. I use them as a pivot point when I'm trying to land my boat perpendicular to the current of the river.

I'll be curious to know what performance testing reveals.

[ba_fisher]

More misadventures :-)

We took the boat to Alviso a.k.a. the City of the Stink, and had a fun time in the Alviso Slough.

Anyway, we got relaxed after a while, and my two friends started eating their lunch, at which point I promptly grounded the boat. The motor was stuck in mud, and the tell-tale stopped peeing. I shut off the motor immediately to avoid overheating, used a paddle to unstuck the boat, and dropped the anchor to keep the boat at deeper water.

While my friends kept eating their lunch and laughing at me, unaware of the possibility that they might have to paddle the boat back for 2 miles, I frantically slapped the water intake with a sock soaked in water to clean the mud. I also used a beverage straw to clear out mud from the tell-tale outlet. Thank goodness that only blowing was required, not sucking ....

With the motor back in order, we went out for a short spin on the bay. On the way back, we went over a part that was pretty shallow, and the motor hit a big sting ray lying on the bottom. I was sitting at the bow looking backwards, and saw a huge wing flapping in the boat's wake. That was quite a scene.

Back on land, we flushed the motor for a good while. Today, I flushed the motor again with a garden hose and the pee seemed pretty strong. Hopefully this means I don't have to open up the lower unit and clean out the water impeller.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAn1kGugUZo

[tworotorturbo]

Motor should be fine. Don't be too embarrassed, I did the same thing with my first SIB going around Alameda. Got the motor stuck in the mud big time. I also slammed the skeg into a large rock at about 20mph on the way to Napa. Surprisingly the motor didn't break.

So how do you like it so far? Keep us updated if you do any fishing trips. I just bought a pole and am trying to learn how to fish. Tried going for Halibut but all we caught were bat rays

[Roadkill]

Nice job. Enjoyed the posts. What would you do different next time?

[ba_fisher]

Originally Posted by Roadkill

Nice job. Enjoyed the posts. What would you do different next time?

Overall, I am pretty happy so far -- granted I have done only 4 trips and my motor is still 4 hours, so haven't tested full speed yet.

One thing I would have done differently is to skip the cooler seat to save weight on the back. The console is pretty good for driving standing up. Also, for fishing, there would be much more space without the seat.

If the bow tips up too much, I'll probably add a fin to the motor to lift the stern. Not sure yet. Will do that after the 10 hour motor break-in period.

Of course, I already wish I had a bigger boat, but I guess that's a whole different story :-)

[jyasaki]

Originally Posted by ba_fisher

Of course, I already wish I had a bigger boat, but I guess that's a whole different story :-)

2Foot-itis. Happens no matter what size boat you buy.

Congrats on getting out. How was the water down Alviso way? Never been there (and frankly, not really seeing much reason to go.)

Oh, and on the mud grounding thing, I did the same my first time out with the SIB, by getting too close to the channel markers coming out of San Leandro. Went from about 9 feet in the middle to about 6 inches at the markers. Mud isn't too much of a problem as it washes out easily. Gravel and sand can stay in there for a while.

jky

[Timch]

Thanks for the detailed write-up and pictures. It's very helpful.

I'm planning to upgrade my SIB to a RIB for next season and trying to decide whether to buy a decked-out version or get empty platform(like you) and then build up on it.
Does going DIY route provided substantial saving?

I spent significant amount of time designing and building my own trailer and electric hoist for the whole thing that lifts it to my garage ceiling. Unfortunately I haven't tracked the cost of every little thing, so I'm debating for myself if DIY route offers any saving.

My garage configuration restricts me to RIBs that cannot exceed 14ft and 800lb. However because it will need to be suspended, height is also important for me.

Do you know the weight of your rig?
What about height (when boat is on trailer) from the ground to the highest point (excluding antennae)?

It should give me a good idea what I should expect. Although I fear I may have to design my own console to keep the height within limits.

[Roadkill]

I was wondering if I should do the ocean 460 if you think the 430 a little small? I was thinking maybe a small leaning post instead of a seat. Maybe even one I could pull out of the base for more deck space when not needed