First Outing - 2018 242X E-Series - Questions/Advise?

[Wyoboat]

Took the boat out for the first time yesterday. 2018 242x e-series coming from a 2000 19" Stingray I/O 4.3L. Outgrew the old boat, kids are getting bigger and more interested in watersports. The 242 seems like the all around ideal boat for playing and chilling.

Spent first two hours slowly trolling around between idle up to 2500 RPM range. Getting used controls, stereo, breaking in engine, etc. Overall very impressed with the boat, lots of room, lots of storage. This is our second boat so a lot of my comments below are in comparison to the old boat.

The Wet Sounds system was far and away superior to the old boat. Just had a basic deck powering two speakers, no amp, no sub. This system was outstanding, great highs, mids and lows. Very happy with the sound system.

Top speed was 38 MPH, two adults and 3 smallish kids (11,7,4). 3/4 tank of fuel and normal stuff on board, cooler, snacks, etc. Did not have the cover on the bimini. This top speed seems pretty low compared to spec top speed of 50+ MPH. Elevation of the lake is about 5300". Do I need different impellers?
The old boat with the 4.3L would hit 44 MPH on the same lake with the same load. The old boat was about 600lbs lighter but about 150 less horsepower.

GPS system worked great. Was worried I would have to update they system to add our Wyoming lakes in. But turned it on and it found our location on the lake with no issues.

One thing I did notice which was a huge difference from the old stern drive was when turning we would lose speed? Even at full throttle could not turn sharply without really slowing down. Is this typical with the jet drives or am I doing something wrong? With the old stern drive I could power through turns for tubing, I can see the new boat being less effective for this. Thoughts?
Also noticed steering was much stiffer with engines at mid to higher RPM's. Is this normal, just something to get used to?

Did not get in the water to play, still cold here. Water was 47°F. So did not mess with the Ballasts. Looking forward for warmer temps to try out wakeboarding and surfing.

The lake elevation we go to can fluctuate over the course of the summer with changing rocky hazards depending on how low it is so I like to use the depth alarm. Is there a way to acknowledge the alarm to silence it? When beaching or docking it would start going off but couldn't figure out how to silence it. So I just changed the setting to 0' to quiet it and set it back to 10' when we would go cruise around again.

I've been reading up on trim tabs. We only boat on freshwater lakes. Are tabs a must or only really necessary for bigger water? The new boat seemed to handle the little bit of wake we encountered from other boats much better than our older smaller boat.

After boating we wiped the boat down with 303 cleaner then followed by 303 UV protectant. Chose the 303 products based on reviews and comments from various Yamaha FB pages. Any one else use these, any issues?

Thanks in advance for any wisdom you care share. Good to know there is a large supportive community. I'm sure I will have more questions. Overall super happy with our purchase. Looking forward to many years of happy family memories.

 

[adrianp89]

As far as speed in turns, that is a common issue. Once I added my steering system (see sig), that completely went away, along with some other benefits.

Top speed does seem low, as I can hit 42-43 in my 210. Elevation might be a big factor, but also if your throttles aren't synced you may not be getting full RPMs.

I do not think trim tabs will solve anything you will ever have to worry about.

As far as alarm, there is a button on mine in the top right corner of the screen to mute it.

 

[jcyamaharider]

242X have electronic throttles so they are synced. That speed is common with the higher elevation. Slowing in turns is also common for these boats.

 

[Neutron]

What was you max rpms when you reached 38mph?

Hard steering is normal when rpms are up. Remember its a lot of thrust shooting out of the nozzles and the want to be straight. My jetski and boat are both harder to turn when rpms are higher than 5500/6000

 

[seanmclean]

Nice upgrade. I came from a 2003 version of the same boat. I also found steering to be considerably stiffer, but got used to it by the end of the day.

 

[Nauticajetter]

Search high elevation and you will see a lot of info about new impellers. I boat in Utah around 4000-6500 and when I bought my boat they stated that if you complain about lack of performance with standard impellers Yamaha will cover the cost to repitch for your elevation. My boat shop took care of it all for free and it changes the boat a lot. I highly recommend it. I have also removed the flame arrestor ribbons and changed to compliant air filters. That also made the boat feel more like the “fast” boat I purchased.

 

[Cobra Jet Steering LLC]

If you can install 5 point harnesses in your boat you can add the magnum A K steering with mega fangs and rock those turns. Just ask @swatski he has a 5 point on order lol!
I believe this is his video about high speed turns

 

[Wyoboat]

What was you max rpms when you reached 38mph?

Hard steering is normal when rpms are up. Remember its a lot of thrust shooting out of the nozzles and the want to be straight. My jetski and boat are both harder to turn when rpms are higher than 5500/6000

I recall RPM's in the 7500-7600 range but didn't spend much time there. Just long enough for the speed to top out at 37-38 MPH. I might be off a bit on the RPM's. Will pay more attention next outing.

 

[Wyoboat]

As far as speed in turns, that is a common issue. Once I added my steering system (see sig), that completely went away, along with some other benefits.

Top speed does seem low, as I can hit 42-43 in my 210. Elevation might be a big factor, but also if your throttles are synced you may not be getting full RPMs.

I do not think trim tabs are anything you will ever have to worry about.

As far as alarm, there is a button on mine in the top right corner of the screen to mute it.

Thanks for the feedback, will check out the Cobra Jet steering system. Sounds like it might be a good investment. Love being able to whip the older kids around on the tube then circle back to the wake and launch them.

 

[Wyoboat]

Search high elevation and you will see a lot of info about new impellers. I boat in Utah around 4000-6500 and when I bought my boat they stated that if you complain about lack of performance with standard impellers Yamaha will cover the cost to repitch for your elevation. My boat shop took care of it all for free and it changes the boat a lot. I highly recommend it. I have also removed the flame arrestor ribbons and changed to compliant air filters. That also made the boat feel more like the “fast” boat I purchased.

That is encouraging, similar elevations to the lakes around us here in Wyoming. 50+ MPH is not necessary but would be nice to be in the mid 40's for cruising across the lake to find a spot to set up base camp for the day. What was the difference in speed when you switched to high elevation impellers?

 

[Cobra Jet Steering LLC]

Just remember my experience with new Yamaha engines is that they seem to increase their top speed after you get the engine broken in around 10 hours so don't be surprised if the speed increases like magic after you hit 10 hours.

 

[Matt Phillips]

A couple of thoughts come to mind:

1). Elevation may be playing a factor. When I'm at sea level, my engines will turn max RPM. When I'm up at Tahoe, they will drop about 1,000 rpm off the top. It's just the thinner air up there. Another thing that can play a factor is wind...even a little can affect your speed quite a bit.

2). When pulling a tube, I generally keep one hand on the wheel and the other on the throttles. When going into a turn, she will bleed off some speed so I'll just add throttle to it to keep it up. I've always attributed that to the keel down there. I do have Cobra fins & fangs on my boat and as soon as I touch that wheel either direction, I feel them bite in.

3). Lake Tahoe is big water...they get small craft warnings on the lake. One thing to take note of on these boats is that the bow when at an idle is really low and it doesn't take much wave action to get some over the bow when idling into the waves. Luckily the correction to this is add some throttle to keep the bow up. Do this and she will ride over most waves you'll encounter.

 

[Wyoboat]

Update - another outing today. Different lake, about 5800' elevation. The RPM's were at 6400 and topped out at 38MPH. Seems low, will discuss with the dealer when I go in for the 10 hour service.

May have found a glitch with the system that tracks engine hours. The Port engine has logged 4 hours and the Starboard only 0.9 hours. The majority of our time the throttles have been synced and only operate the Port throttle running both engines, push the Starboard throttle all the way down out of the way. Seems like the computer is only tracking hours on one side even through both engines were operating.

Pretty bummed found a crack in the fiberglass in the anchor locker in the front of the boat. Hopefully it will be covered by the warranty.

 

[Dan_NC]

@Wyoboat I would take her in before your 10 hour service. Something is definitely off.

 

[haknslash]

I wonder if it's a California/ 4 star Ultra Low Emissions model? Wasn't there a few members on here with the newer CA boats and their top speed was a little lower than others? You can check by the stickers and also if there is a fill hose running down the intermediate bearing housing zerk fitting.

 

[Nauticajetter]

@Wyoboat, sorry I have been offline for so long. Did you ever get things figured out? Have you tried repitched impellars? Definitely want to stress changing pitch and possibly deleting the ribbons ( and changing filters to stay compliant) if you want that quick rev feeling. These changes transformed our boat to what we were expecting. I am not sure our max speed now.. lower 40s if I remember correctly. But she gets there quicker pulls harder.

 

[Wyoboat]

Haven't made any changes to the boat yet, still only at about 5 hours... seems like we have a 7 day cycle for rain/storms each week. Nice during the week and rain on the weekends. Waiting for the 10 hour service to take it to the dealer. He had to send away for re-pitched impellers, should have some in stock next week. I was researching the ribbon delete and air filter, this will be my first modification to the boat. I was on K&N's site but couldn't find a filter for Yamaha boats. Do you have any suggestions on the correct filter I need?

 

[haknslash]

https://rivaracing.com/i-22118784-riva-yamaha-svho-sho-ho-replacement-performance-air-filter.html

 

[Nauticajetter]

I went with no spacers and added the riva filters. Works great.

 

[NorfolkJames]

I’ll add that 303 is awesome. I have used it on my cars for years and now on my boat.