255 fsh disappointment

[Cobra Jet Steering LLC]

Well it is a fact that your jet pump is a big vacuum under the boat , the intake is just forward of the pump so when you go in reverse you are redirecting the jet water under the boat at an angle down and forward to push the boat backward this thrust stirs up the bottom very badly and over more than 2 decades I have read and reread of people sucking up the bottom when backing off the beach or their trailer because of this.
Also if you are at the beach and any floating trash or weeds get washed up on your pump nozzle when you put the boat reverse bucket down it can easily get stuck from that trash being compressed in between the reverse and the pump the code you had was probably caused by that and when the trash or weeds were free the reverse worked just fine so next time you are on the water place something in between the reverse bucket and the pump and try to reenact the issue I bet it does the same thing until you remove the obstruction. It is a common problem so be careful backing off trailers and beaches because it could be a lot worse if things get in the impeller.

 

[FSH 210 Sport]

There was no indication that I sucked up any sand. I find it crazy how the convo steered to this after just mentioning the beach tho. Clearly these boats are packing a major weakness lol. I'll have to watch the beach.. I get it. Not convinced the bcu code was related to sand tho. Have u guys ever sucked up sand and been dead in the water only to have your boat miraculously start working again?

Edit: Hat sunk.

There was a recent post about a guy a who has a 255 X model, ran it aground and had the same issues as you did.

The indication that you sucked up sand because of the issue you had, and yes the “convo” changed when you mentioned the beaching, not once but twice and because you powered off the beach, twice, BECAUSE that is going to be THE cause of your problem.

This is from your owners manual.



As others have said the BCU code comes from the actuator sensing that the reverse buckets would not move due to restrictions to keep from breaking stuff it locks the system out.

 

[255fishguy]

I appreciate the info.

 

[gthorson]

In case you didn't notice, there is a SWAT team dedicated to this issue. It probably ranks in the top 3 issues new jet boat owners encounter. Your experience and posts is pretty typical. Some owners argue even more emphatically against such a simple and annoying quirk. Stick around for advice when you encounter the other typical nuances to jet boat ownership.

 

[drewkaree]

We parked ON a sandbar for like approximately 5 hours went to reverse OFF and a hat fell into the water so I re-beached the boat.

There was no indication that I sucked up any sand. I find it crazy how the convo steered to this after just mentioning the beach tho.

You've no idea how it would have steered to this?

 

[255fishguy]

I don't really understand no, as the lowest depth was 3.6 feet but the average depth behind the boat was 7 feet deep. It gets deep fast it's basically in the channel. Which the core of engineers have to maintain a depth of a minimum of 9 feet deep for shipping. But it gets much much deeper 40 feet off the sandbar and your looking at nearly 30 feet deep. Hence the nature of the Mississippi River. Don't get sucked away!

 

[NeoBrew]

I'll just chime in to say the intake of debris is real. My boneheaded newb mistakes included a tow rope, which was thankfully easy to unwind as I caught the problem and shut down the engine quickly.

The really bad one was going over a pretty shallow rock reef and sucking up a few fist size rocks into the impeller. My arrogance of being a jet boat bit me pretty hard on that one. I was going pretty slow and figured there is no way it would pick up the big rocks. Turns out it was shallower than I had thought and the rocks were just barely small enough to fit between the grates of the intakes. That is when I learned what the cost of a new impeller was! Sadly I realize the damage when I loaded up the boat in a remote spot for a camping trip.

What I learned from my lesson, "With great jet comes great suction!" Use it responsibly.

 

[FSH 210 Sport]

I don't really understand no, as the lowest depth was 3.6 feet but the average depth behind the boat was 7 feet deep. It gets deep fast it's basically in the channel. Which the core of engineers have to maintain a depth of a minimum of 9 feet deep for shipping. But it gets much much deeper 40 feet off the sandbar and your looking at nearly 30 feet deep. Hence the nature of the Mississippi River. Don't get sucked away!

You, a self admitted “first experience with jet boats” owner, came here looking for help for your problem, you received help from this site in the form of documented evidence from owners of boats that have similar drives as your boat does and these other owners have had similar issues, as well as a video from JBP illustrating what happens at a standstill in 3’ of water, not to mention that you reverse thrusted your way off of the sand bar, TWICE IN VERY SHORT ORDER in 3.6’ of water, which is like squirting two fire hoses underwater down and forward which acts like a dredge churning up the bottom. @gthorson gave an eloquent description of what has happened to him on a few occasions with his X drive boat, the cause of his problems-backing off a sandbar which packed the gates with debris, his solution-hanging off the swim deck to jiggle the buckets to release the debris, and his preventative measures-don’t power off of a sandbar. Your response was that Yamaha should have left more slop in the mechanism? And as I mentioned you’re flooding the engines cooling passages with sand filled water. This isn’t limited to jet powered boats by the way, my dealer has told me about having to tear down outboard engines who’s cooling passages are packed with sand from people backing off of sandbars.

Yet you still think this is not the cause and would rather blame it on a non existent design flaw instead of your actions. Fascinating… sounds like cognitive dissonance.

You really should take the advice given here to heart so that you have an enjoyable experience with a very fine boat going forward. Hopefully you will have a great day on the water today without any issues and can chalk this up to experience.

experience /ĭk-spîr′ē-əns/ Verb, Definition; Experience is what you get when you don’t get what you want.

 

[Beachbummer]

Generally jamming of the gates is more related to bigger rocks than just sand. The sand issue sometimes comes up in relation to overheat as the sand might block some passages in the cooling system.

The ready thing to check is to manually shake the gates and look for any debris jamming the mechanism. Mine is cable operated to the helm so it's easier to troubleshoot, but if you can help it move and detect any rocks or debris in the way of movement, you might be able to clear it on the spot.

There is the possibility that the electrical actuator or other part somehow unrelated to the beaching is involved, but the important thing is to troubleshoot as much as possible on your own so you are not wasting valuable boating time at the dealer for resolution.

 

[Cobra Jet Steering LLC]

Generally jamming of the gates is more related to bigger rocks than just sand. The sand issue sometimes comes up in relation to overheat as the sand might block some passages in the cooling system.

The ready thing to check is to manually shake the gates and look for any debris jamming the mechanism. Mine is cable operated to the helm so it's easier to troubleshoot, but if you can help it move and detect any rocks or debris in the way of movement, you might be able to clear it on the spot.

There is the possibility that the electrical actuator or other part somehow unrelated to the beaching is involved, but the important thing is to troubleshoot as much as possible on your own so you are not wasting valuable boating time at the dealer for resolution.

Yes sticks, rocks, weeds or even hats LOL.

 

[TommyMcK]

For what it's worth, I'm in the "probably wasn't sand" camp, and am guessing it was something more substantial gumming up the works that ended up getting dislodged. Having said that, powering off of a sandbar in reverse is still a very bad idea, because you will indeed be sucking sand or other muck up into the intakes.

In the "your mileage may vary" category, I regularly operate through waters at or less than 3' (indicated), in spite of the owner's manual guidance. I just do it very slowly. Part of the utility of a Yamaha jet boat is its small draft that lets you get places other boats can't. I've had these boats since 2003 and have operated regularly in less than 3' to no ill effect. Though I have no proof of it, I'm fairly certain that you're not vacuuming the sea floor while at or near idle speed. When I pull up to sand bars, I don't actually fully beach it, using a stern anchor to keep things from swinging and pull a bow anchor onto the sandbar. When I leave, I push myself out and idle away.