SW4200 - Control cable and steering cable lengths

[Darbio]

Hi all,

Just after some information from the brains trust. How do I calculate the correct length for control cable and steering cable for a boat?

I am getting ready to take delivery of a SW4200 CC (centre console) and need to make sure I have the right length cables. Any tips? How long are these cables?

Cheers!

[The Mariner]

Howdy,

Had a look at my cables and I can't see any markings indicating length. On the weekend I'll do some measuring.

[The Mariner]

Hi,

OK, the approx. lengths I have measured are:

Throttle - 3.0m from the control box to the motor.
Steering - 3.7m from the steering hub to the steering tube ion the motor.

Better to be a bit longer than shorter as there is room underfloor for any excess cable.

Hope this helps

[Darbio]

That's great. Thank you for that The Mariner!

[ianferg]

Hi,

I have just purchased a SW 4.2 centre console from Capacity Sports in Melb. A 40hp Honda is being fitted at Sirocco marine + console, steering etc. I can't really help with length of cables yet but my question is how people have found the position of the centre console - it looks a long way fwd. I also have to transport back to Tas as no one here sells SW and will probably need to lay console down because it may be too high. It is a pity SW didn't make them a touch lower so they can go into a standard garage (2.1). I also saw a post in the trailer section. I have a SW 3.5 tiller steer, 15 HP Yamaha and it has the three rollers on the bottom (Dunbier Nipper) but just used for launch and retrieve. I made long skids covered with carpet to take the weight of the hull near the chines - they extend 60mm at the back to ensure they support transom and then have a downturn. It works well and supports the boat well, no issues. I have the boat 10 years and it is a cracker. I am upgrading to 4.2 for more comfort and to handle a bigger sea. I hope it is as good as the 3.5. I am in Bicheno so it is open water. I stay within 3k's of the coast anyway. Any one with any advice in fine tuning the boat, sounder would be appreciated.

Ian (new member)

[The Mariner]

Hi Ian,

Congratulations on your new SW I don't find the console too far forward at all. In fact, any further rearward and it would compromise the fishing room at the rear of the boat and limit walking room around the esky seat. As a guide, the rear edge of my console is about 60mm in front of the back edge of the front floor panel.

The 4200's benefit from a foil on the motor to help lift the stern, and if the console location pushes weight further rearward the tail-dragging would be worse I reckon.

My console just squeezes under my garage roller door so depending on your trailer you may be lucky. If not, it wouldn't take much work to trim a bit off the screen and re-mount the tube screen surround a bit lower.

Regards,
Phil.

[ianferg]

Thanks for the reply Phil. Sirocco marine are setting up the console and Smartwave steering so they will go with the factory spec which sounds like it is way to go. I was a bit conscious of hanging 100kg on the back - considered the Honda 30 to reduce it by 20kg but thought it would be underpowered so stayed with the 4o. Do you know if the top grabrail is removable? I need to get my boat back on the Spirit and they are booked solid for anything over 2.1.

I'll look at taking a little off the screen and adjust bar if i need to/its possible.

cheers Ian

[The Mariner]

Hi Ian,

A 30hp would certainly be underpowered, so good thing you went with a 40. Smartwave's transom capacity is 115kg & I have a 50hp Mercury on mine which the stern supports fine. Regardless of motor make/size the various forums on the WWW all seem to agree that a foil is very worthwhile on a SW4200 and my own experience agrees.

The grab rail is bolted to the console with 2 cup-head bolts on either end. The screen is bolted also. You'll need to be a bit of a contortionist (removing the esky seat makes it easier) but they shouldn't be too hard to remove... just a bit fiddly. Swearing will help !

Now, what may complicate it is that on mine, the throttle control box is fitted over the top of the uppermost bolt on the RHS, so I'd suggest asking Sirocco to leave the control box a bit loose so it's easier to remove when you need to. The guy who did my fit-out rounded-out the phillips head in all the control box screws (bloody rattle-guns !)so if I ever need to remove mine it'll be a bigger job

In the early days I considered making the screen & grab rail a fold-down to help with fitting in the garage & to reduce frontal area when trailering. but as soon as I found out I didn't need to do anything to get it in my garage I abandoned the whole idea.

Regards,

Phil.

[ianferg]

Hello Phil,
sorry for the late reply. Yes. was able to remove the grab rail easily. Sirocco did a good job of setting it all up. Spirit didn't measure and seemed to have plenty of capacity so don't know what they were on about.... Now have the boat in Bicheno. More questions; Dunbier were meant to set up the trailer up for the boat (4.2) but have only put on 1500 skids so not sure that is adequate. Hard edges everywhere as well.... I put 2200 carpet skids on my 3.5 which work well. I was hoping to avoid all that this time around. The weight on the tow ball is very high as well - I can't lift the front of the trailer so it is probably 100 Kg +. Makes it hard to manoeuver when it is off the car. I'll have to upgrade the jockey wheel I guess.

Boat certainly looks terrific - I do the registration tomorrow and will then drop it in and see how it goes before I consider foil etc. BTW How do you find the low transom height? Take much water in over the back? It is actually a touch lower than my 3.5.

regards,

Ian

[The Mariner]

Hi mate,

My turn to apologise for the slow reply this time

Good to hear you have your new bany home. There was another discussion about trailers for SW4200's on the forum here and I posted some measurements from my setup, so have a read.

Mine has a towball weight around 90kg, so much the same as yours. The piddly wheel on the OEM jockey wheel always dug into dirt or gravel surfaces so I fitted a new ARK unit with a 10" wheel.

The low transom height bothered me too and I used to have a lot of water in the bilge at the end of a day out, so I fitted an automatic bilge pump to get rid of it. My battery is in the stbd. side back seat so it was easily wired (and fused) directly to the battery without any switch on the console.

Regards,

Phil.