Trojan Boat Forum

maybe you have never seen an oil line come off, but I have in a car. Line came out of gauge and at a bad time when warming car in winter. Went back to leave with vehicle and the drivers floorboard had an inch of oil in it. Stinky nasty mess to clean up and could have ran out of oil and damaged engine. Wiring is a lot easier to run and will not leak oil. +

From a resale perspective, not sure how oil lines running to helm stations would be seen in a survey. This would be enough for me to look at another boat or reduce offer knowing I would want it redone.

No big deal if you plan to keep the boat forever, but you may want to run it by a surveyor to see how they would treat it.

I do on occasion see oil. gauges in the engine rooms but they are mount directly in the engines , no tubing . Mostly larger yachts where you would be able to start and stop the engine there too . Did work on one that had electric gauges on a panel in the engine room . Electric gauge are fine , and if there off a little what ? You learn what is normal and look for changes . I can tell you from years of working on engine that mechanical gauges can be wrong too .

Not against mechanical gauges at all just feel that Electric ones are better suited for most boats .

Also engine alarms are a nice thing to have but that would be another thread .

One more thing to add ....about gauge accuracy....mechanical gauges installed higher than their source pressure will read less depending on their height above.....so fly bridge would possibly read 3 to 4 psi less than at the engine, maybe more depending on the gauge quality....now I know that is no big deal but just a little more info.....I recently installed 4 new oil gauges with new senders and resolved a long standing problem I had with mis-matched stuff.....the fear of having some 35 to 40 feet of oil filled pressurized tubing vibrating in a boat would stop me....Mike

All good points on mechanical gauges. Im not to concerned about future surveys as I cant imagine anyone having this boat surveyed, especially considering what its worth.

To get insurance that many marinas require . To get a opinion on a boat from a someone that knows about boats