1982 Ex DFO 24 foot double eagle

This is one of the coolest boats I’ve seen. Looks like a tank!
Are you gonna “pretty it up” or leave it as the a$$ whooping killing machine looker it is?
What you thinking? Pink paisley vinyl wrap and some streamers off the radar arch? 🤪
 
Yes DSS built the pod,

And yeah I’ve read the kicker won’t keep up to the verado pump, the way I have it wired is with the main key on the kicker will run the pump, key off it won’t since the pump signal voltage is still coming from the main,
It steers decent from the rear helm with the pump off, front helm is a little stiffer being so far away.

I’ll finish painting the deck area when the weather warms up, it’s been a pain with the wet cold weather, today I was wiring in snow.

I’ll be painting the bottom with Interprotect 2000 gray and then that will probably be it for the year, got other projects that need to happen ugh…
 
Boat looks good.

Another thing you could do which would be cheaper than replacing the Merc power steering system, would be to put a solar system on the roof... That'll give you lots of power on decent days to help the battery system keep up. If I recall correctly I have one large panel on my boat (rigid panel - 160W?) with a Victron MPPT controller. On sunny days I see about 14A feeding into the batteries... cloudy days about half... But it helps and it's less than $1000 for the whole kit including panel, wiring harness, controller, etc.

The Merc power steering pump is loud to listen to all day fishing. In past boats we built a box to put over it to keep the noise down. That helps with noise. Try to run the power steering lines as long as you can and don't coil up the excess line. If you can, you want to use the full length of the steering lime runs to help cool the fluid and keep the pump happy. Coiled up you lose the benefit of shedding some of the heat along the run.
 
Or you could put in an auto pilot. That’s how I fixed mine. I just steer with the auto pilot remote.

Autopilot on the main with the kicker tie-bar to the main will still use the Verado pump (at least the last few I did w/ twin V300s in the past did). Maybe it could turn a single without the Verado pump but I would worry about the pressures in the system. It's not like a normal SeaStar system.

Standalone autopilot on the kicker would work without the Verado pump, but you won't be getting benefit of the main acting as a rudder, and you won't have a steering wheel to control the kicker...
 
There’s a splitter off the pump that connects to the kicker that you just need to disconnect. I talked to the guys at Lowrance when I installed mine and they said it would work with no issues. I’ve had it this way for 2 years now with zero issues. That being said, if my power steering pump fails again, I’m ripping out the whole system and putting in a sea star.
 
Ah I see you have a splitter to isolate the kicker for that purpose. That makes sense.

Yeah lots of guys having good luck w/ the SeaStar system even though Merc says you can't do it...
 
Ah I see you have a splitter to isolate the kicker for that purpose. That makes sense.

Yeah lots of guys having good luck w/ the SeaStar system even though Merc says you can't do it...
The splitter is just 2 wires that make sure the pump doesn’t turn on when the kicker is on
 
Let me rephrase that. There’s some wires and connectors that come out of the main harness and into the pump. I have 2 set of wires that lead into 2 waterproof connectors. I disconnect the one plug that leads to the kicker so the pump doesn’t turn on when the kicker is running.
 
First few runs with the podded 24’ are complete! Even caught a few fishes!

Sits dead level in the water, with the 300hp verado and 15p mirage plus prop it does 42mph with 11.5% slip and it cruises at 29-30 best mpg with slip at 16%, might try one more hole as I can barely see the end of the ride plate and I can’t make it ventilate at full trim. It’s currently 1.25” above the keel.

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Weight is about 5700lbs with half a tank of fuel (100 gal tank)

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