srhoffman

Thank you...I'm a neat freak so spend a lot of time keeping things looking nice...and of course biting my lip when friends come aboard and let their kids do whatever they want... We used the boat a ton in all reality but we only Boarded/Surfed for about an hour a pop in total and would spend lots of time floating off the deck listening to music and enjoying frozen treats (the second battery, a magic bullet and high wattage inverter do just the trick). It's only the last two seasons that usage dropped way off mainly as our kids got older and demanded more of our time for their activities.

Yup, that's me. It's a little early for the casual buyer but my wife was nagging me to get it listed so I started with a CL add to show her some good faith as opposed to the national boards. Truth be told I don't want to sell the boat but I want to buy a small plane and this was the concession I had to make.

Thanks! I will do that but I have to scrub the ad of all the corny stuff that this board already knows about Centurions!

Are you set on a 2006? We're selling our 2007 Avy C4 which has been an awesome boat for us (skiing, tubing, boarding and surfing). It's been a while since I posted here so not sure the etiquette anymore but PM me if you're interested and I'll send you the Craigslist add. Steve

There isn't a ton in that area...one Motel near the lake and a handful of campgrounds (I've stayed at one RV park there, Lake Gaston RV Camping Resort, no complaints). House rentals are the way to go but I don't know if you can get a house for just a weekend. We are just coming up for the day and I'll have to stay sober enough to drive home.

I went with Evolution Covers back in 2011..we have a 2007 C4 and it's a glove like fit that wraps around the rub rail (so no more fading by the sun!). It was a little steep in price (~$850 or so) but considering we have to park the boat outside it was worth it. Still looks as new today as it did when we got it. Very high quality, water repelling and towable cover and I didn't have any issues when dealing with them.

After seeing the bimini top that tuneman showed off over here I've been trying to get one made by the manufacturer as that's exactly what we need to get rid of the stock bimini that came with the boat. I like that it mounts above the tower so that little bit of extra clearance will reduce the number of dents in my forehead! Only I have a problem...Custom Covers doesn't have a template for my tower (the old school Xtreme swoop) and the measurements I provided him don't match what he has from Centurion. I guess the whole east coast/west coast thing meant different suppliers of parts...not sure. Anyway, I was wondering if anyone living in the SLC area would be willing to take a measurement or two of their tower and if somone has a match, take their boat to them to have the tower templated...I will of course compensate you for your troubles! Here are some basic measurements (and a picture with some...well...markups...) from outside of tower bolt to outside of other side tower bolt is 90 3/4" from outside of tower mounting post to outside of other side tower mounting post is 89 7/8" from the top of the mounting post to the top of the top side cross member is ~36" from outside of top cross member to outside of otherside top cross member is ~64" *note I had the wife helping with measurements so they could be off by up to a half inch...but I was 3+ inches off what Custom Covers was expecting Our boat is a 2007 Avy C4, and as I mentioned the tower is the Xtreme swoop according to Shell at fineline (there's a sticker on the tower that says 05-06 Avalanche so it was clearly used for a few model years). I'm also reaching out to centurion to see if they have specs on this "East coast" tower but wanted to see if anyone out west had similar measurements on their towers before I talk to them. Thanks!! Steve

I wished we had a more formal sitting area in our MBR...and the master closet should have functional shelving to start...not the garbage builder grade wire crap. I saw some other folks mention wiring...aside from the TV you will no doubt hang over the fireplace (with cable, HDMI, power and ethernet right there) plan on adding multiple cable/phone/internet jacks to each room...I wish I had pictured every wall I "might" put the tv on instead of the one I was sure I would...had to make small cuts in the carpet to go under to get cable to the wall between door and closet because I only put one jack on the other side of the room...just a pain. If it's multi story with crawl space have a "home run" tube installed (pvc pipe between stories to fish wire after the fact (only for low voltage stuff) For your main areas do two cable jacks...if you have cable TV now you only need one connection for HD DVR, but if you're directv I understand they need two to be able to DVR and watch something else at the same time (confirmed with DirecTV in the last 3 months so *might* have changed) so I've been tied to Time Warner because of this. Your driveway should be wider then you think you need...drives me crazy that both our SUV's fit in the driveway but I have to park on the left because I have to walk in the grass to get in the drivers seat (gets wet grass on my shoes, but the wife won't park there because her toes get wet). Don't skimp on the kitchen now...I thought it would save me big bucks to go builder grade then upgrade later...all it did was give me heartburn to throw out perfectly good (cheap) cabinets when the wife decided it was time to step up...and just as expensive as having it done up front..oh and if you want under cabinet lighting for the kitchen..do that now..that's a real mean woman to add after the fact. Oh, imagine yourself walking into a room in the dark from every conceivable entrance...and put a light switch to the room right there...we have two entrances to kitchen only one with a switch and wouldn't you know we use the switchless one more often then the other (same with the outside to garage entrance and garage to house door). Ceiling fan pre-wires/boxes are cheap put them in every room! I think that's all the lessons we learned...basically the theme is that surface crap can be added at any time...anything that runs in the walls..do it now! Steve

Ok, let me try this...I'll explain each of the positions of the switch and if you wire it as the instructions say on page 4 of the pdf manual you'll get: 1) Off...obvious 2) Battery 1 In this position you have two completely isolated power sources...battery 1 will power the motor for starting. Only this battery will charge when the alternator is active. Battery 2 will power any accessories hooked up directly to it (i.e. wired directly to battery 2) but will NOT be charging when the boat is running. The relay is not doing anything in position 1 (even if you wire in the "Start Isolation Switch"). 3) Combined In this position both batteries will be charged when the boat is running. With the "start isolation switch" wired up, the combined amps of both batteries 1 and 2 will be used AFTER an attempt to start the boat is made and to provide (theoretically) twice the amps for anything that runs off battery 1. The accessories wired to battery 2 will only have access to the amps made available by battery 2. The relay comes in to play when one of two conditions are met, the first is that you wired the "start isolation switch" to your ignition and second when your total volts from the combined batteries 1 and 2 drops below 10.8V, in either event the relay will temporarily put you back into "Battery 1 Mode" by removing battery 2 and hopefully allow the boat to start then when you release the key or the alternator kicks in, the relay will put you back into combined mode and start charging both batteries again. Ok (and if you got all that already I don't mean to insult you..not my intent..just explain for all if I can). The problem with that solution is that...what if it's battery 1 that is too weak to allow for starting...but battery 2 has a full charge (this will happen closer to the end of the batteries life obviously). This solution assumes that it's battery 2's fault that there's not enough juice to crank the engine and cuts it out of the loop...but if it's the other way around, you'll need to manually swap the batteries. Furthermore, if you wire in the "start isolation switch" then you'll not have the benefit of the combined amps on starting...only after start. Does that explain it better? I like the four position switch (off, 1, 2, 1+2) and leave mine in 1+2 all the time. Everything but the amps (stereo, lights, starting, ballast, etc.) are wired to the selector switch but I do not have any further accessory isolation so my dilema will be (knock on wood) that if the combined batt's 1 and 2 don't have the juice and 1 or 2 by themselves don't have enough juice I can't try it again with no accessories...but at that point I've pretty much turned everything off anyway and started praying. Lets hope it doesn't come to that ever! Hope this helps! Steve

By the way, Bojik, next time you pass through Dillon, please apologize to the town for me as I "cheated" on it this year. For the past 10 years we've gone to Dillon to enjoy Colorado's finest snowboarding and decided to mix it up and head to SLC this year...and here I sit back east recovering from a torn MCL and will be the designated driver on the water for at least three more weeks!!

That will do what you want...if what you want is what I think (place to wire accessories separate from starting)... the purpose of the relay is to take two batteries and use them for starting...BUT if the combination of the two batteries is not sufficient amps to start the boat, it will trigger the relay to remove the accessories from the current draw on start and when the alternator takes over and suppliments the amps the batteries didn't have, will re-enable the accessories. If you have a newer car, when you turn the key forward to start, you may notice the stereo and headlights shut off then come right back on after starting...the purpose is the inital drop in available amps triggers the relay to isolate the accessories from the mix leaving all the amps for the starting. I don't know about your boat but mine already has the relay built in (07 Avy C4) and when I stepped up to a two battery config with the switch on 1+2 I have enough amps that the relay never opens to disable the accessories so the stereo keeps on playing during starting. What I am not sure about on that combo unit is it appears to only have a position 1 and position 1+2...but not a position 2? If I make it to Overtons this weekend I'll see if they have it in stock and look...but the picture or description doesn't show it. If your batteries are of two different ages then being able to charge them independantly is needed without more (expensive) equipment. If you're looking for an automatic charging isolator/integrator (that more expensive equipment I just mentioned)...that's not it! Steve

The boat will start in position 1, 2 and 1+2 just fine (this of course assumes that there's sufficient charge in either battery 1 or 2 or the two of them combined). I have mine wired such that all accessories are driven from the perko except the amps (not the whole stereo) which go directly to the non-starting battery. I also have two batteries of the same age with a conditioner so I run in 1+2 mode always (plenty of amps to keep stereo running through a start surge..so no cutting out mid song because it's time to make a fool of myself on the water again!). Carpet is not a conductor of electricity BUT is a conductor of fire! It only takes one small spark from something that is (stray shard of metal or drops of water) so I would definitely get the carpet out of the way or use the construction adhesive others have mentioned to make a mounting block on (I'm using a painted piece of 3/4" plywood). Also, there was a misconception from earlier that the engine block is the ground...nope! The engine block is in the back of the boat and the ground is secretly lurking more towards center under your flip up observers seat cleverly disguised as the negative battery terminal. The reason(s) you run ground to the battery is that it's A) a convenient place at the back of the boat to tie other grounds into without making another "home run" to the battery and B ) it "energizes" the metal of the block to aid in corrosion prevention and C) since lightning is looking for the shortest path to ground through the most conductive object it can find...engineers decided the block was better then you...ok so that doesn't happen often so the other benefit is for static discharge. There are others but I don't want a reputation for writing technical books on this site. The other question about the breaker...the perko is ONLY a selector switch, it will provide you NO surge protection while a breaker will...leave the breaker where it is and just tie it in off the "combined" post on the perko (aka the one you'll have hooked your 2AWG red wire to)! Hope this helps! Steve

Ok, First of all, you're two pictures are technically identical, you've drawn your negative connections to reflect the physical connections but that's identical to the technical drawing from perko. Second you are doing parallel wiring (which is good and precisely what you want) as opposed to series wiring (which is what you mention doing to the negative wires)...parallel wiring doubles your amps and keeps voltage the same (minus to minus and plus to plus). Conversely, series wiring doubles your voltage but keeps amps the same (+ of bat A to - of bat B with + of B and - of A to power devices and complete circuit)...do that (series) in a car/boat and VERY bad things can happen! I'll spare you the EE101 course regurgitation but suffice it to say the biggest factors you have to worry about in gauge selection is the distance your wires will run and the amps you intend to push through them. Typically 2AWG wire is rated for a nominal amount of amps (like 130A) with minimal loss over the distance you run (bigger wires, less loss and more amps can be run through over longer distances), can you run more amps through it? Yes! but there comes a point where too many amps in too high a gauge will generate enough heat to melt the wire jacket and cause the wire to become brittle. Ok, enough school...here are your answers: - Will I have any issues with 1 battery draining/not recharging correctly with 2-gauge going into 1 and then having it piggy-back connected to battery 2's negative terminal (or should I use ALL 2-gauge)? from - to - I would use the 2AWG just to be safe but you'd have to put one heck of a load on it for a long time to draw all 2000 amps that those combined blue tops will put out and damage the 4AWG...if you ran EVERY single accessory at max plus crank the starter continuously you might get there but I would hope some of the other failsafe's would kick in. -Should I attempt to connect/splice the ground wire together, as the Perko manual shows? If so, what's the best connection to use here to ensure proper connections? No...you have it right...that's just a technical schematic of wiring...means it doesn't matter which you connect (-) to first it has the same net effect. -Does anyone see any issue with me running 2-gauge in from the Starter/ground, but then using 4-gauge to connect the batteries in negative parallel (and the 4-gauge from the Perko switch to the + battery terminals) No issue per se, definitely not a problem on the (+) side and most likely will never cause you an issue on the (-) side. -I plan to use the Optima Battery for accessories. If we call this battery #2 in the diagram I drew, do I connect my amp/accessory +/- wires to battery #2 just as I would without this new Perko? What's the best way to connect these wires with the new Perko in place? connecting the (+) to the battery of choice will only draw power from that battery no matter where you ground it to (either battery (-) or the engine block for that matter) The only thing you have to be cautious of is running the perko in "combined" mode (batt's 1 and 2 at the same time). Your stock battery is older and therefore not as efficient, but there's no telling what reading the alternator will get back from the combined good (new) and bad (just my way of saying old) battery and it may prematurely cut off the charging cycle leaving your bad battery dead and your good battery fully charged or worse yet...charging at the rate the bad battery reports which means overcharging and damaging your good battery. There are accessories for this that monitor both batteries and distribute the charge as required by each battery and when they're both good it stops the charging but running only one battery at a time should resolve this for free! (I over simplified how those devices work but I'm tired of typing and the Flyers have pretty much locked this one up! so I can go to bed) Hope this helps... Steve

I went with "cubby cam" and love it...we have an 06 Avy and the mount is right at the hitch and looks factory...have hooked up the boat in all conditions with no help and am usually within an inch every time. Since it's aftermarket I put a toggle in the cab as well so I can flip it on while motoring down the road as well or at a light when I get that annoying tailgater. I had to add mine to the factory nav system but yours is backup cam ready so should be an exercise in tapping into power, reverse wire for relay switching and plugging video RCA. I installed mine in about an hour and the guy that runs that site (a fellow avalanche owner) gave me his cell number when I had a question about the wiring harness locations. Wasn't the cheapest but not the most expensive either. Had it installed since the truck was 2 weeks old so it's been working worry free for 5+ years. Steve

I have the Skylon Axis swivels and Love 'em. They have one lock point at about 95-100° and another closer to 180° but I never hit that one because of my canopy when there's a board in the rack. When I bought it I already had the skylon board rack so it was just unscrew from the old aftershock and screw to the Axis...it was expensive enough for the swivel so while I'm sure there is a price for the pair...it won't be cheap (figure $400-$500 or so for both). Steve