afratki

I'm going to sea trial a 2005 370 SS (496 HO's) soon, it's a fresh water, 300 hr, lift and under cover kept boat. I don't anticipate any problems and haven't heard of anything specific but is there anything I should keep an eye out for with this model/year boat? TIA

From the Helm

I'm not an expert:
I did just buy a used 2005 370SS fresh water that matches your description nearly exactly. We really like the boat.
I had a print-out of the original build sheet from Formula to check over on the boat, call formula vintage with HIN.
I did all the normal pre-purchase checks, made easier on the lift too. Everything checked out visually (and there's a ton of lockers, hatches, access ports to inspect with your phone camera and flashlight).
You should be able to reach 53-54 MPH @ 4900-5000 RPM to know drive train health.
Covers/isenglass take a while to run through, be patient if they aren't all up, take time to check through all of them. Easy to get new ones BTW.
Enjoy the quest, these are great boats.

afratki

Thanks for the reply. I had already requested the build sheet from Formula, they have great customer service. I'm planning to fly and go see the boat in a couple of weeks and have already started putting together a checklist of things to go over. I figure that will makes thing easier once I'm there since my time will be limited. I'll also have my brother in-law there to give me a hand.

I'm curious, what part of the country did you find your 370? Did you have a survey done? My insurance company says it's not required to insure the boat and I'm pretty knowledgeable so I'm considering forgoing the survey if the condition is on par with how it's been described.

From the Helm

Bought in Oklahoma, shipped to Michigan, pretty painless really.
The boat I looked at was a bit dirty, but obviously light use.
I didn't do a survey, it was a risk, but I've looked at and bought a lot of used boats. Lift stored, clean oil, clean drive oil, bilge was just dirty, not oily or showing coolant/metal/mold.
So far all the issues I've been solving were known to me when I agreed on the price.

Nauti Hoff

Good luck and keep us posted. My experience has been similar to previous posts.. No survey but boat came out of the Ozarks in 2012 with just over 100 hours, dust cover and under a covered slip, I was confident of condition after sea trial and detailed inspection (also been around boats a long time). If you have reserves, have a 3rd party mechanic look over engine/drives. A scanner will show how the engines have been exercised (hours per rpm range). I think the only thing to be aware of, which might be harder to catch, are the drive conditions with power and weight ratio. Been told not to barrel out of the hole with the boat as you will tear out the upper gears... actually had that happen to a buddy on his 40ss which is ~2k heavier with same power/drives.

afratki

Will definitely keep you posted, I'm going out this weekend to look at the boat and can't wait! I have a mechanical background and while I'm confident I could can access the condition of the boat, I figure a survey is a little bit of cheap extra insurance. I heard the same about being easy on the drives given the weight of these boats and the main reason I wanted the 370 over the 400. Besides the incremental increase in expenses for a bigger boat (3' more at marina, fuel, insurance, etc.), I seem to see a lot more drive problems with the 400 that I equate to pushing around 2K to 3K lbs more all the time.