Does this 340 have the newer step
 

I have read on here about the location of the hooks on the hull to tell which hull the boat has. What do you think?[ATTACH=CONFIG]505224[/ATTACH]

What year is the boat

It is a 99. I thought it was the old step for sure until an 01 I am looking at has the hooks in the same place.

99 is the old design, 01 and newer is the newer design, im not sure about the location of the hooks but the difference is in the strakes

old design,,,the lifting hooks are lower about a inch from the bottom on the new design,,

[ATTACH=CONFIG]505231[/ATTACH]The whole lifting hook placement confuses me a bit. Attached pic is an '02 (air intake on the gunwale) and the lifting hook looks the same as the above pic.

The strakes would be my determination if the hull has been updated.

Boatnt, do you know if the steps themselves are different on the early hulls?

The u bolts, lifting hooks, tie downs...whatever you want to call them have less room to the top of them and more room to the bottom. They are not closer to the bottom. The boat in the top projects outward for the swim platform...it is close to this. The old bottom it is more centered.

As fish stated in late 01 they started on the bottoms but there were also changes in the deck with more reinforcements in 02. This is my understanding from my boats PO and 2 of his buddies that had them built in succession.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]505250[/ATTACH]

You can see how high the hooks are....the old bottom the hook will be lower and a bigger gap on the top side. Am I making sense?

Is that a Vyper or avenger?? Totally different. It was my understanding the bottom changes never went into production and they were modifying the boats bottoms of owners that complained.

You can see how the hook is centered....old bottom.