370 SS Sea Trial & Inspection Results
 

I just finished looking at a 2005 370 SS and while there are a few more nit picky things wrong with the boat then I would prefer, it's a solid boat and I'm probably going to buy it. The only area of concern are as follows:

1. The steering has a little more play than I think it should, about 3" side to side total when rocking the steering wheel back and forth. The gimbals are good (no play), is this play excessive or should I not be worried about this.

2. The boat is missing the back portion of the cockpit enclosure (has the front isinglass and side curtains). Owner says he never had it, didn't this come standard on all 370's? Does anyone know how much this is new from Formula?

3. Last and the only real concern is the ceiling in the aft cabin in coming down at one of the seams. Has anyone seen this and know how to repair this? (I can't post a picture now, I'll try later)

PS - I'll be on a flight back home most of the rest of the evening so I might not respond right away. Thanks in advance for everyone's help, I love this forum!

Head liners are kind of common. I will let some of the guys that have done it chime in on how big of a job it is.

The head liners are made of foam padded upholstery glued onto 1/8" plywood backing. The plywood is usually screwed into the deck above it at the light fixtures, so as to hide them. I would check there first to see if the screws have come loose or pulled out.

Not the best design IMO, and it seems that they need attention after about 10 years.

Thanks for the replies guys. tpenfield, the plywood is not coming down, only the vinyl upholstery.

I can't seem to insert the pictures directly but below is a link you should be able to view them on.

https://1drv.ms/f/s!Am_PhN5tNRAAjdtFlKQwUDlkfY6GkQ

Searching this online I've come across a few threads in other forums that suggest the vinyl ceiling material just needs to be tucked back in. Formula even makes a tool for doing this. Anyone have any experience with this and know the tool #?

I apologize if this has already been covered before

This looks like a different material than what I had. See post 165 here http://www.offshoreonly.com/forums/f...rd-nest-6.html

1. The steering has a little more play than I think it should, about 3" side to side total when rocking the steering wheel back and forth. The gimbals are good (no play), is this play excessive or should I not be worried about this.

My boat had the same issue in the before the warranty was up. Unfortunately it was not covered by Brunswick. The Gimble ring ovals out. It's been a while but I thinkitwas the Gimble ring. A square hole gets some slop in it causing sloppy steering.

Engines and drives have to be removed to replace this part, I wasn't happy about this. I complained to formula about hydraulic steering should of been installed from the factory on such big heavy boat.

Mercury racing only recommends hydraulic steering over 60mph. Mandatory over 70mph.

Since this happened in a couple hundred hours I decided to install Latham hydraulic steering. What a difference this makes, totally different driving boat.

Formula kicked in a bit and let me purchase the parts through them at their cost.

The fabric is supposed to be adhered to the foam backing, so you could try a little bit of 3M spray adhesive on the foam to get the fabric to stick. You will want to mask off the surrounding areas with drop cloth if you use the spray adhesive.

The 'special tool' is probably nothing more than a putty knife with rounded edges.

As already stated above, I'll agree, the play in the steering is probably worn steering arms where they attach to the steering pin in the gimbal ring. I would check further into this because it is not an easy or cheap fix.

If they are worn, going to full external steering is what I would do rather than fix a poor design to begin with.

Yeah, I read some of those problems people were having. Seems like all were with the black foam backing and like you noted, mine is different.

Wow, not what I really want to hear but I guess better to know about it now. If you don't mind me asking, how much was the Latham steering? Did you install it yourself?

That was kind of my plan at the moment and I agree about the tool. Probably just a plastic putty knife with a dull rounded blade.