Comfort Upgrades - 2800 SCR

[cbswaim]

Tired of shoving towels in the hatches? Hard to get out of the aft berth? No place to put the cooler? Here's what we did... Backed out the hatch screws and added male ends of snap sets with vinyl covers. No sewing needed to make these using HH-66 vinyl cement. We then added a stainless steel grab rail in a vertical position that makes getting out of the aft berth much easier. For the cooler, we pulled out the cockpit seat and replaced it with a high efficiency Engel cooler (sorry Yeti, but it saved $100) with a snap-on seat cushion.

[cbswaim]

I'm not an NBA player, but tall enough that the helm seat was not working for me. On top of that, we boat in a lot of rivers and the ICW, so you really need to be on the lookout for floating logs and debris which means needing to look over the windshield rather than through it. So I raised the helm seat while retaining the same forward/back slide mechanism and added a drop down footrest. The height of the seat also works as a leaning post. I used PVC lumber from Lowes for the height build, foot rest panels, and backing plate. This was less expensive than "marine" lumber and very easy to work with.

[cbswaim]

The standard head is the compact version of the Jabsco toilet. This drove me crazy. For $175 through Amazon, you can replace the unit with the regular size Jabsco unit. The difference is significant and really did not change the feeling of space in the head compartment.

[cbswaim]

Our fridge needed to be replaced and it took a bit of research to find one that would fit the counter cut-out without too much modification. We found this Isotherm unit that only required a little trim out for the hinges. Had to add a 2x4 section for some mounting backing, but that was it and it works great. What is different about this fridge is that it is 12v only - no 110v switch option, which tend to make it more reliable since that relay won't fry.

If you go with this option you will see behind the fridge an inaccessible 110v outlet. Only problems are how to get to it and it is connected to a 2 amp (that's not a typo) breaker. I replaced the breaker with a 20 amp and drilled an access hole behind the galley so I could run a surge strip that powers the microwave and provides multiple additional outlets that are otherwise in short supply.

Also added 12v cigarette lighter and USB outlets at the helm.

[cbswaim]

The aft berth does not have any electrical service. I use a CPAP that needs 110v and I like to charge my cellphone overnight while keeping it within arm's reach, so an outlet was really needed.

The solution was to tap off of the outlet in the head which is pretty easy. The head outlet under the medicine cabinet is GFI protected so no additional GFI outlet is needed in the berth. I found that pulling the medicine cabinet insert was very helpful for this installation, as well as others such as running the cable to the searchlight (another post). Ina previous post you will also see tht I rewrapped the aft berth headliner with foam-backed vinyl and using automotive headliner adhesive spray.

[Hunter30g]

So if you could please respond with how you removed the helm seat to mount the platform, I would appreciate the advise ahead of my project. Thanks