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.

Yes, the pic I psoted is an Avenger...

Yup I see it now. What is the biggest complaint of the old hull? I know the new hull is a bit faster, anything else?

Faster and better handling. Maybe better resale....most people that know PQ will want the newer bottom.

What 99 are you looking at??

I will pm you

Got it.

When I was looking for a PQ it was for the huge cabin (wife and 2 year old when I bought it) and the amenities. I wanted black power with closed cooling for zero maintenance.

What is important to you? Besides no salt, no in water storage, 502s or bigger.

Well I am not after the extra mph the new hull adds. I want the space but not a cruiser. Well of coarse it has to be a PQ too... But I have 2 kids ages 3 and 1 so like I said if it goes 70 with the older step or 78 with new is not important to me. I just don't want a boat that handles like chit and that I would hate...

I got ya.

You won't hate it....but you will hate not having a sink with 2 small kids. I think if you are patient you can find a boat with more amenities than that boat for similar money. It might also have a newer paint colors than that boat.

I've found the sink a bit too small. I will be replacing the 'bowl' sink with a cylinder style, deeper with a flat bottom. I have the sink, along with all my other add ons yet to be installed...

Headed to the lake this weekend...for a week...finally!!!

Funny, I agree, the sink is small and I planned to install a little bigger and deeper but got veto from my wife. She likes all the room in the storage area underneath and doesn't want a deeper sink. If I can't go deeper I don't want to go wider.....so it will stay.

Curious to see how yours turns out.

PS. I use the table all the time, you'll love it!

Now I am confuzzled. I *thought* their were two-ish versions of the 380 step bottom, the early version (99-01?) that had some issues and a later version (02-on) that pretty much addressed the problems. Main fix being removal of the strakes toward the rear of the boat. At that time the location of the lifting hooks was also changed during this time.

My further understanding is that these changes did not impact the 340s - they were always "right" no matter where the hooks were located. Of course, a lot of you guys were a lot closer to this stuff and probably have a much better idea of what was going on than me! :)

This information is confusing
 

I just bought an 2002 model HIN but it was actually assembled in 01 has the tie down hooks in the newer location accordingto HIN it's the 92nd vyper built.

If your transom tie-down hooks are in the same location/orientation as the models with the improved hull, then you do have the updated hull.

Even though yours was built in 01 but 02 "model year", they are referring to the late 01 "model years" being corrected, anything titled as an 02 would have fix incorporated.

My 2000 380 was actually built in 1999 but had changes to the bottom strakes that the 99 model years didn't.