Mercury smartgauges suck!!!!!!!!

When I bought my new Lund a year ago I thought the smart gauges were pretty cool and the troll mode was awesome. After this last week I changed my mind.I reset the fuel consumed mode on fourth of July and hadn’t paid much attention to it till last night.I put in $20 bucks worth of fuel and was out fishing.When I went to move I checked the fuel consumed.214 gallons since fourth of July.Really ruined the night realizing how much cool stuff I could have instead of $650 in burned fuel. But man would I have missed some great fishing. Hopefully it’s an open fall and I can burn another 100 gallon.I really do still like the smart gauges.

If makes you feel better my lowrance says I burnt 12 gallns since july. And I run a 200 yamaha, guess how much time I’ve been on the water?

My Suzuki is not very fuel efficient either. I am going to have to figure out how to use the Lowrance fuel economy thing to see what I get for mileage. What do you guys get with your motor

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I am going to have to figure out how to use the Lowrance fuel economy thing to see what I get for mileage. What do you guys get with your motor

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I have the Lowrance fuel usage sensor, and it’s absolutely wonderful to have. It’s an inline turbine that you install in the fuel line, and then it reads right on your graph, so you can see the fish AND what you’re using in fuel at the same time. I’ve got a Merc 115 ELPTO, and when using only 2 cylinders, it’ll read I’m using 2.0 GPH. When I open it wide out, I’ll use around 12.5-13.0 GPH. It’s very easy to use and install, and for the price, you just gotta have one.

Actually, I just found something disturbing on Cabela’s website. The fuel flow sensor is sold out. I wonder if Wade’s still got some?

The best I see on my boat and motor so far have been about 3.5 mpg, and that’s only in perfect conditions, normally 3.2 mpg is the best I can get on any other day.

Lets keep in mind I have a 19′ boat with a 200 yamaha ox66 motor on it, fuel injected, not an HPDI motor.

Now that being said, I do think my calibration is off, but frankly I haven’t had the time on the water to prove it yet. I have no calibrated it all it, it’s 100% stock settings, which tend to be fairly accurate, I just don’t know at this point.

Secondly I wouldn’t say my boat is set up perfect yet, I think I should be about to be in the 4+ range for mph and an average day. I think I could use a different prop and maybe some motor height.

And overall I’m not really concerned about the ultimate gas mileage at this point, to me it’s more of hey I gotta cover a bunch of ground, I’m not in a hurry, I’ll find a sweet spot and keep it there, I’ll get there when I get there. In most cases I just like going fast and WOT is never going to give you the best gas mileage, I think it says I use 22-24 gallons per hour at WOT That’s probably a little better than 2 mpg.

So I knew when I bought the boat gas mileage wasn’t going to be great, but 80% of my fishing is nothing more than me motoring out to a spot dropping the trolling motor and fishing, maybe motoring around a couple times to different spots, I bet I use 5 gallons or so on those trip, mainly for warming up the motor nice and easy, and a couple trip around the lake at the end to make sure the carbon got “blown out”

I here you on the Yami VMax. I have the 225 on my 620, and honestly don’t think I get 2 miles to the gallon. My first year owning the boat so it has been a challenge keeping the throttle anywhere but pinned.

Oh well, if I didn’t spend the money on gas I would just go and waste it on beer.

Last year before I sold my boat….. I had a 21′ Tracker w/ a 250 hp Verado. That thing could drink 60 gallons of fuel faster than I could back at a college mixer. I am actually glad I don’t have to filler up any more. Those gauges are pretty neat.

God this makes me happy to read…..my 90 Suzuki sips gas at about 3gph on average and about .5-.8 gph trolling. I guess those big boats aren’t always better.