I have a radio again !
 

Sooo this past Saturday the gf and I went out for a boat ride around our lake, what a beauty day it turned out to be. It wasn't looking too promising in the morning but as Environment Canada said, " it will clear up around noon" and ... it did!

The one good part about boating this time of year,... no one on the lakes! :wink_thumbup:

So after we spent about an hour or so booting around the lake, I head back to shore to head in for some dinner. My gf went off to go read her Cosmo magazine in the truck and me .. well being ... me, decided to see what was wrong w/ the radio.

So I crawl under and start pulling down wires and seeing what was connected and not connected. Everything turned out to be connected, but connected with electrical tape (yeah I will be fixing that wiring). So as im poking around I notice this orange wire with a plastic housing that looks like it "may" hold a fuse. So I held it up to the sun that was coming into the boat and it looked like there wasn't a fuse in there at all. Sure enough, there was, but the wire was snapped.

I know my local marine supply store is open for another hour (its only a 2min drive down the road), so off we go to get a new 3amp fuse. Sure enough pop it in, turn on the radio, nothing happens. So I try flicking the ACC switch, nothing happens. One more thing to try, grab the keys and switch to the "run" position and see if that powers it up. Sure enough ... that worked! Looks like my radio is wired directly to power up w/ the ignition switch only in run position.

I heard the speakers "thump" as I turned it on the first time. I turned the radio off and back on again to confirm what I was hearing that sounded like the speakers powering up, sure enough, thats what it was. I turned up the volume louder and and heard lots of static (good sign). Once I moved the dial to a station with reception... I was one happy boater! :wink_thumbup:

Next weekend my gf is going to bring up her mp3 player with the tape adapter and see if we can play some mp3s from the deck. I need to upgrade to a digital display one now... lol. No real need for a cd player to be honest.


Side note: In our travels this weekend we passed 2-3 Mariah boats and I noticed something kind of funny. We both were staring and checking out each others Mariah boat. You could definately tell they were saying something like " Hey .. check it out the Mariah he has"... ROFL!! So for the rest of the ride home, we were looking at the boat manufacturer on the sides to see if it one was a Mariah.

Congrats on getting your radio to work! In my old Sea Ray, I had a pretty pricy CD player head unit and somebody tried to steal it, so I went to Wal-Mart and picked up a $39 replacement. It just had a tape deck, station dial and a volume knob, but the most important thing, it had an aux input right on the front for hooking up the Sirius or the iPod. No one ever tried to steal that radio because it didn't look like anything special, but it served my purpose nicely. Cheap, and practical! Tunes are absolutely essential on the water!

That's funny you mention checking out other Mariahs. There's a guy at my harbor that has an older 180 or 190, and every time I pass him on the way out, he's always doing the same thing. When I'm out on the water, I can usually spot the Mariah's from afar from the side graphics. They're pretty unique. I've only seen 4 on the water this year, but they all seem to be staring at mine as I stare back... We're a loyal bunch, i guess!

It came with a simple "Craig" tape deck. Two knob design for bass/treble and balance etc. Yeah I would be afraid of someone seeing the flashy cd player sitting there and trying to steal it. I have no problems with tapes still.. lol.

Yeah I need to get an updated digital one w/ AUX on it. I dont even know if the tape unit even works. Time to find some Golden oldies tapes in the basement that my parents have ... or Roy Orbison?! :rolling_laugh:


There is one boat down the river from me, I SWEAR is a Mariah, but there is no name markings on the side. Honestly, the hull looks very similar to your boat. Similar graphics .. the .. umm swoop that is on yours. The boat looks to be very long, possibly a bowrider / cuddy.

If it still in water next weekend (and I remember) I should snap a pic and see what you guys think. I could even be that manufacturer that took all the big hull design mariah hulls.

I had a similar problem with my depth sounder when I first bought the boat. I found the inline fuse was toast. Replaced that and I was good to go.

The radio in my boat is wired to work on both the run and accessory postions of the key switch. Good to use the accessory position of the ignition if you are mooring for a while and want to listen to tunes (w/o powering up all your gauges.)

I'm the only Mariah in (and that I've ever seen) in my home port. I get plenty of looks though. :cool:

The radio that came standard with my 2006 SX18 was the Clarion Sirius capable one with a detachable face.
It is hidden in the glove box behind a slide down plastic cover (to hide from prying eyes!).
Its not bad but distorts when you pump it up, perhaps I need bigger speakers or something, it does have a "bass boost" which is kind of cool.
Hardly any Mariahs in Perth, and we always get complimentary comments from other boaties about the looks of our boat (this is even from Bayliners, SeaRays, etc).
So dont I feel like a big man??:worshippy:

Doin a lil update here,..

Originally I had this problem posted on "another boating forum" and one of the members there was saying that by having to turn the key to the run position to get the radio to turn on, was a bad thing.

I thought it was good because that means my radio is off when the key is off.

Now what I want to double check is, does the radio really work when I flip my ACC switch (or not). I know I tried to turn the radio on using that switch and nothing happened, but im unsure if I turned it up loud enough to hear it OR I had it on on a station that didn't have reception.

Any boating electrically inclined people wish to chime in..?

I would love to take a pic of what it looks like under there... but that probably wouldnt solve much. I might give it a try tho.

Like I said above, my radio is wired to run on the accessory position of the KEY switch. (i.e. turn the key ccw instead of cw). In my case this only powers up the radio, and not all of the gauges. Of course it also works in the RUN position of the key switch but when in that postion my engine is usually running, so I'm not worried about draining the battery...

Wow, I didn't know there was even an accessory position till now. I have never tried turning the key that way before. I guess this weekend I will be putting that to the test.

Yeah when its in "run" (aka CW one turn) the gauges are active, but not illuminated, which also powers up the radio.

I wonder now, if turning the key to accessory mode and then flipping the ACC switch on my dash would make my radio work .... hmmmmmmmmmmm

You shouldn't have to hit an accessory switch. Simply key on to the accessory position (ccw) on the ignition keyswitch. Just like in any automobile.

Well I will find out on saturday when i head back up to the cottage and go for one of the remaining days of boating up here.