gferdon

I am posting this for anyone thinking of installing a Mercury Smartcraft system on their boat. It is a bit premature since I have not quite finished but I hope it provides some of you with decent information. I will start from the beginning:

I own a new 29 Fountain Fever and decided I needed a fuel flow system to keep track of my fuel consumption. Anyone with a Fountain knows how inaccurate the fuel gauge is, Reggie even addresses it on the owners video! In any case, after much research, I chose the Smartcraft over a Flowscan or similar system because it was easier to install and provided much more information at a very similar price. I purchased the Livorsi/Smartcraft system which is basically the Merc setup that Livorsi mods the gauge face to match their standard gauges which were installed as original equipment in my boat. The colors matched perfectly and although not as nice looking as their gauge, are more matched than the plain white of the Merc system. I bought the system from Fred (Too Old) at Trick Marine and now I understand why no one ever has anything bad or even slightly negative to say about this guy! This was easily the best experience I have had with a marine dealer. No B.S., said right up front that he had little experience with the system since there has been little call for it up to now. We both agreed that it would probably get more accepted with time and went from there. Fred is a super guy to deal with and very attentive to his clients. Also, it was the best deal, period! That said, the equipment was shipped standard delivery and arrived in 3 business days. There are two install problems that I will pass along. First, if you have a twin engine installation, you must have the respective ECM-555 computers programmed to tell the system that there is a port and starboard engine. The engines are shipped and programmed as "port" engines from the factory. This re-programming is done by using a diagnostic tool or special software and a laptop computer. After much searching, I found a local dealer who understood what needed to be done and will set me up. The only problem was this is the 4th weekend and he did not have the time to do the work. At this time I do not have any idea of time or price on this settup procedure, I cannot imagine it can take very long. If you have a single engine, everything is automatic and the system works immediately with no programming required.

The second issue I ran into was the way the gauges are mounted. Instead of the normal U bracket on the back, Merc uses a sleeve that screws on to the gauge from the rear. In my Fountain this posed several problems. First, the hole for my Livorsi GPS speedo was slightly larger than standard and I had to fabricate a backing ring for the sleeve setup to work. I made it out 1/8" aluminum stock and it worked fine but took a lot of time. The tachs were standard holes and would have been a non-issue except for the clearance. On my dash there were dash mount bolts that were in the way and made the sleeve difficult to turn (skinned knuckles, etc.), it did work eventually but took some fooling around. My suggestion to Merc was to at least provide two holes for studs allowing use of the U brackets used on most gauges...this would have saved me hours of time.

The rest of the install was a piece of cake, everything was plug and play and worked great. For now, I installed one tach and the speedo and left the 2nd harness unplugged. This gives me info for the one engine and I use the stock tach to keep track of #2 till I get it programmed. At that point I will install the tach and plug in the existing harness and it will be done. Lots of information provided in a great format.

More to come when I get the whole system hooked up...PM me if anyone needs further information.

GF

gferdon

Picture of the finished product.

Reckless32

So you got the speedo and the tachs? Is the speedo GPS? Is the diagnostic/special hardware something any Merc shop would have, or is it specific to the port/starboard thing you mentioned?

gferdon

The speedo is gps and is fed from the NEMA output from any gps unit (even handhelds), you also get course, waypoint, miles per gallon, etc. Lots of stuff.

Turns out all the shops have the tool but most were unfamiliar with the smartcraft system and were timid about helping me out. Turns out it was a 5 minute job, very easy and not necessary if you only have one engine. Let me know if you need more information.

G-