Cobaltchat.com

I am a new R3 owner and excited to get on the water! I have read where many posters on here have had to repair their swim platform step upon being damaged by interfering with prop when outdrive is raised up. Does anyone have a good system to prevent this from happening? Seems like this will eventually happen otherwise. Thanks in advance.

Triple check before you leave every time

I'm very surprised there is not some sort of safety switch installed making it so the engine can not be put in gear with the swim step deployed

Whippled263 wrote: Sun Mar 29, 2020 6:55 am I'm very surprised there is not some sort of safety switch installed making it so the engine can not be put in gear with the swim step deployed

I agree. I’ve not had a problem with contacting the props - I never have my drive up and step down at the same time, but I’m embarrassed to say how many times I’ve weighed anchor after being in a cove and started out and had to stop after remembering I left the step down. I’m not sure how you get a micro switch to work in the water, but I note that the engine itself doesn’t start with the drive up.

As aj writes, I think we just have to triple check before we start our engines.

Didn't some guys put a thing on the dash check step, maybe put it next to the blower switch.

.
Hey TF. Welcome to the Cobaltchat forum. So glad you found us!

I don’t think it would be too difficult to wire a micro switch with a light on the dash as a reminder. Some type of outdrive lockout to keep you from raising the outdrive above a certain limit would be even better.

Or you could use a poor man’s system and throw on an outdrive ram protector every time you put the platform down. Tedious but it would be effective.

Any pics??

Again welcome aboard mate!

.

I did a bit of reading - turns out there are companies that make immersable switches that can operate 20,000' below the surface. My vote is for a switch on the swim step that doesn't allow the motor to start with the step down. There is already a switch that won't let the motor start with the drive full up. It's the kind of dummy proof system that would be perfect for a guy like me.

I like those ideas. Thanks for the welcome. I agree with triple check too. Hopefully we will be able to get our boats out of quarantine soon. This 5 month wait to get this beauty christened is killing me.

BobRae99 wrote: Sun Mar 29, 2020 12:34 pm I did a bit of reading - turns out there are companies that make immersable switches that can operate 20,000' below the surface. My vote is for a switch on the swim step that doesn't allow the motor to start with the step down. There is already a switch that won't let the motor start with the drive full up. It's the kind of dummy proof system that would be perfect for a guy like me.

Not a fan of that. Some times in deep coves you might need to reposition boat when getting close to something. I like light on dash idea

ajcampen wrote: Sun Mar 29, 2020 1:10 pm

BobRae99 wrote: Sun Mar 29, 2020 12:34 pm I did a bit of reading - turns out there are companies that make immersable switches that can operate 20,000' below the surface. My vote is for a switch on the swim step that doesn't allow the motor to start with the step down. There is already a switch that won't let the motor start with the drive full up. It's the kind of dummy proof system that would be perfect for a guy like me.

Not a fan of that. Some times in deep coves you might need to reposition boat when getting close to something. I like light on dash idea

OK, Lets tell them to add a caution display when the swim step is down and the engine is started. It could come up as a warning on the 7607s

TFortier wrote: Sun Mar 29, 2020 12:41 pm I like those ideas. Thanks for the welcome. I agree with triple check too. Hopefully we will be able to get our boats out of quarantine soon. This 5 month wait to get this beauty christened is killing me.

Beautiful boat! I'm biased though, I have the same colour combination, but with a white tower. What did you power it with?

Not much of a problem for us as we almost never put the drive up until we pull out at the ramp. I didn’t even notice this situation until we got the boat home. It seemed strange to me that Cobalt hadn’t installed some type of a kill switch to prevent damage. But if you beach the boat a lot & want to enter & exit the boat from the rear, it would be a problem.

Dub

Yes at TRL this wouldn't even be a issue your Always in deep water but here at home I could see it happening. We are always beach in the shallows. The good thing is normally I'm the last one in the boat and give it the dive off so I should catch it.

TF Love the color combo. We are brothers!!

I don't have a swim platform otherwise I'd gladly come up with a little mounting bracket, but all you need is a submersible reed switch. Something like this:
http://www.hydracon.com/wp-content/uplo ... 1-202a.pdf

Wire it back to be inline (serial) with the safety tether switch and you're good to go. I guess you'd need to drill a tiny hole through the back of the boat (GASP!) to run the wire, but that's easy-peasy.