Officially a jet boater

[paleus]

I just picked up our 2016 AR240.


It's got about 240 hours on it and has been very well taken care of by the previous owner. It came with the wake booster, a ski locker ballast bag, and a transom bag. The stereo has been upgraded with all JL and has a sub next to the driver seat and tower speakers added. The kids are very excited, but maybe not as much as I am.

Now for some questions I'd love some help with:

Are there any things in particular that I need to check on or address?

The boat did pull to starboard a little when I test drove it. It wasn't wind, it did it both directions. The port side nozzle was toed in slightly. I used a 4 ft level and adjusted that nozzle to be parallel with the other nozzle and the rudder. Going to test it today. Any other things to check here?

The owner says they did suck up a rope in the port jet, but that was 4 years ago and haven't had any problems after clearing it. Any potential issues caused by this?

The boat wants to spin to port in neutral, are there any specs for what the gap should be on the reverse gates when in neutral? Or is that something that just has to be played with to balance it out?

I'm thinking I want to remove the graphics and change to something more classic looking or just leave it all white. Am I in for a pain the butt removing the decals on an almost 10 year old boat? Would I be able to buff out the gel coat to remove any ghosting left from them?

Pretty sure the tires are original so I'll be replacing them ASAP. They're also bias ply. Just glad I didn't have any trouble from them on the 3 hour drive home.

Probably going to put a Ridesteady in over the winter.

I thought about adding TVs or Cobra fins, but I want to drive it how it is for a little bit. The lateral thrusters look like they'd help more than anything for docking. I've heard fins can make for a less good surf wake as well.

Definitely going to add some guide poles on the trailer. Maybe steps on the front of the trailer.

What products do you recommend to clean the vinyl? Would simple green be safe to use? I'll put 303 protectant on it after cleaning too.

Overall, the whole family is completely pumped over it. Hope to get quite a few years of great memories with the kids on this boat.

 

[FSH 210 Sport]

Congrats and welcome!

If you use the search engine in this site you’ll probably find many answers to your questions.

Get a service manual.

There are several things that need to be checked, the first in my mind is whether or not the factory scupper for the deck drain has been replaced. The oem one is plastic and they can become brittle and break leaving a 1.5” hole either at the water line or just below it. Just give it a gander and see if it’s plastic, if it is look more closely for cracking. Order a replacement scupper from GemLux, lots of folks use the Atwood one but they’re huge / too long. Use plenty of 3M 5200 when you install the new scupper.

If you’re getting a lot of water out of the boat at the end of the day there are several solutions to this that aren’t that difficult and you’ll have a dry bilge. The two easiest solutions to this are to seal the clean out tray to the deck, and if you have the newer style clean out plugs, twist lock as opposed to the push button style, get a couple O rings from @spooky pants, also, check the clean out plug seals for wear, get replacement kits if they look at all worn. The anchor locker drain can also be a source of water intrusion. Check all the cup holders for drains and or the drains are connected, seal the cup holders with a high quality silicone sealer like Three Bond 1211, this sealer doesn’t get hard like regular silicone sealer. Check the deck drain fitting for a proper seal job as well.

The pulling under way, in my experience, is weight distribution. If there is too much weight on the port side the boat will pull to starboard and visa versa.

The spinning in neutral is going to be a fiddling game, while you’re on the water, at idle, using the throttles and or one engine at a time you need to determine which gate needs to be adjusted. You can find a very close true neutral but it’s trial and error to get it right.

Check the impellers for dings and dents and the gap between the impellers and the wear ring, it should be between .014”-.017”

Goodyear Endurance tires are the best choice for tires.

You towed it three hours home so the wheel bearings must not be too bad. Jack each wheel up and check for excessive play, there should be a tiny bit of noticeable play, they’re trailer wheels and that’s normal. Check the bearing buddies for proper grease level when cold.you should be able to rock the piston by pushing on one side of the piston, this indicates it’s floating on grease, if not add grease until it does rock, don’t over fill them, there needs to be room for the grease to expand when the hub gets hot, check bearing buddies website for proper greasing. Get a heat gun to check bearing temps while you’re towing, this will illustrate a looming problem. Having said all that, if temps are good and you don’t see any leaks, in the coming off season you should service all the wheel bearings, take the hubs off replace all the existing grease with marine grease, inspect the bearings and races, I would recommend changing out the wear sleeves and servicing the calipers, check my signature for the thread I did on this. Flush and bleed the surge brake system for the trailer, brake fluid is extremely hydroscopic, it absorbs water easily.

Post a picture of your jet nozzles. Yamaha made a change to the buckets at some point in the not too distant past. If you have the newer style buckets, in your manual, it will talk about the TDE position, or thrust directional enhancer. This is the first detent as you go forward, if you use that position and no wake modes levels two and three your steering response will be brisk. If they’re the older style nozzles, it may not have that feature. I’m not sure. Just read your owners manual and it should tell you about that. If they don’t then thrust vector directional enhancers from jet boat pilot would be the hot ticket. I do like your Outlook that you’re going to test it first to see again check the owner spaniel to see if it talks about the TDE position. On my boat, I’ve never felt the need to add fins of any kind to the jets nozzles.

I use Starbrite products on my vinyl, they have the vinyl polisher which you put on a rag and use a little elbow grease to clean the vinyl, and their vinyl protector seems to work very well, and I use that on the inside of my car as well.

I use water and vinegar mixed at one to one and a spray bottle to remove water spots off the boat, just spray it on and use a soft brush to gently rub it in and all of the hard water spots will come off. Rinse often and thoroughly when you do this, then dry it and then wax it. I like this wax it spray on and wipe off. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07N8GBHTS?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_3

I can’t give any recommendations on the graphics or the removal or whether or not it will leave a ghost image. Others can chime in with info on that.

Unless the previous owner had recently changed the oil, you might consider changing the oil. Also, these engines seem to go through spark plugs, so if the boat ever starts to not run right that’s your first thing to change. Be sure to gap the plugs before you install them.

By the way, are you boating in fresh or saltwater?

I have a big fan of Techron fuel system cleaner, I’m pretty sure there is a marine specific Techron one but the regular will work too. Check the size of your fuel tank and add the correct amount of cleanup just before you fill up of those additives then go out and burn a tank of fuel. If there is a lot of existing fuel in the tank run that out and refill with fresh Top Tier gasoline and add the fuel system cleaner. Check the manual and run whatever octane fuel the manual calls for, some people think that running higher than required octane is a benefit and it’s not it actually hurts performance if the engine doesn’t require it. If you have access to non-ethanol fuel, I highly recommend running that whenever possible, if you don’t be sure and run Star Tron additive religiously, and that will prevent the ethanol fuel from phase separation.

In the not too distant future you should check the grease cones

Thread 'Jet Pump Cone Grease amount'

Jan 12, 2025

Two years ago I service the grease cones on my boat, I was behind one year on that service (boo FSH 210 Sport Boo). I remember the first time I pulled the cones that I thought there was not enough grease in them to be able to migrate up into the bearing carrier and into the front bearing.

Here is what they looked like in April of 2023 after I had serviced them in 2021. I had filled the cones up about 2/3 of the way with grease.
Port


Starboard


When I serviced them in 2023 I filled the cones up with grease after much thought and research, again my thinking was...

• FSH 210 Sport
• Replies: 18
• Forum: General Discussion

• 
• 

And the intermediate bearings

Post in thread 'Intermediate bearing greasing advice'

Mar 30, 2025

You can make up something like this to help you reach those hard to reach places in your engine bay.

I like what @steveinmd says about removing the hose at the intermediate bearing and pumping out all the old grease until fresh grease comes out.

I’d suggest that once you have removed the house / tubing from the bearing, use a bright light and a piece of line trimmer / weed wacker line to stick down inside the bearing to see just how much grease is in the bearing before adding any grease.

My boat did not come with...

• FSH 210 Sport

Looks like you could use a Stolz bow roller too… Jet Boat Pilot has them.


Go out and burn a lot of fuel and have fun with your family.

 

[paleus]

That is a ton of great info. Thank you so much.

I will reply to your questions later. We're about to head to the lake.

 

[FSH 210 Sport]

That is a ton of great info. Thank you so much.

I will reply to your questions later. We're about to head to the lake.

Awesome! Hope you have a great day on the lake and burn a lot of fuel!

 

[tdonoughue]

Well, rats. He didn't leave us anything to say! Lol.

Welcome to the club and congratulations, @paleus ! Only thing I will add is that the FAQ at the top consolidates the 'best of' the site under handy questions. I would start there before you start searching, just for efficiency. Lots of fine info all in one place.

 

[paleus]

Had an excellent day out. The boat did great and we had no issues other than some learning about how it handles at slow speed and how deep the trailer should be to load it.

I don't think I'll need any fins. I thought it handled great once I bumped it up to no wake 2 or 3. I would like some more steering authority in reverse though so I might look into the lateral thrusters without the fins.

The nozzle adjustments I made seems to have fixed the right pull and the spinning at idle.

We are exclusively freshwater @FSH 210

Not too much water in the bilge at the end of the day, but we did throw a wet tube in the ski locker so most of the water was probably from that.

I'm pretty sure the scupper drain check valve is rubber.

I'll probably have the shop pull and repack the trailer bearings when I have them mount the tires.

Definitely going to get Ridesteady. The throttles are super sensitive and definitely hard to keep synced and maintain speed at the same time.

I did peel up the edge of one of the decals where it was already starting to peel and it was less of a color difference under them than I thought, so maybe pulling the decals off won't be too big of a deal.

 

[FSH 210 Sport]

Had an excellent day out. The boat did great and we had no issues other than some learning about how it handles at slow speed and how deep the trailer should be to load it.

I don't think I'll need any fins. I thought it handled great once I bumped it up to no wake 2 or 3. I would like some more steering authority in reverse though so I might look into the lateral thrusters without the fins.

The nozzle adjustments I made seems to have fixed the right pull and the spinning at idle.

We are exclusively freshwater @FSH 210

Not too much water in the bilge at the end of the day, but we did throw a wet tube in the ski locker so most of the water was probably from that.

I'm pretty sure the scupper drain check valve is rubber.

I'll probably have the shop pull and repack the trailer bearings when I have them mount the tires.

Definitely going to get Ridesteady. The throttles are super sensitive and definitely hard to keep synced and maintain speed at the same time.

I did peel up the edge of one of the decals where it was already starting to peel and it was less of a color difference under them than I thought, so maybe pulling the decals off won't be too big of a deal.

Glad to hear of your excellent day on the water!

As far as reverse authority… there just isn’t that much reverse authority. On my boat the engine speed is limited to 3500 or 4500 rpm in reverse by the ECU, however, if the no wake / cruise assist is pressed up once that will remove the rpm limitation.

Speaking of cruise assist, were you using this feature whilst cruising? This is an excellent way to control throttle / speed whilst underway. It will be active from 3500 rpm on up, it provides 8 incremental steps up or down in engine speed from where the rpms are set, I set my throttles for say 7000 rpm and synch the engines, then use the cruise assist to increase or decrease engine speed as desired. The cruise assist is an excellent way to control engine speed when the water gets bumpy. If you move the throttles back to idle cruise assist is cancelled.

The throttles have adjustable friction level on the binnacle, two small screws under a rectangular access plate on the base of the binnacle.

Also glad to see you have found good low speed control with the no wake mode.

Regarding the scupper, it’s not the flap or check valve that is the issue, it is the plastic thru hull fitting itself. Best make a plan to replace this in the not too distant future. Some folks have come very close to losing their boat due to these plastic thru hulls breaking.

Thread 'Almost sunk my boat'

Aug 6, 2020

I was camped out on the lake this week. Stepped on the back of the boat. Hear a bunch of moving water and the bilge turns on. Figure its just 3 days of fun and rain draining. As it keeps running, I open the engine hatch to see water up to the carpet and oil filters! Stern plug is secure, no big gaping holes in the bottom..WTF! What are the biggest leak offenders, besides leaving the drain plug out. Just glad it happened this week and not when it was sitting at the marina for a week. Pretty sure the water got over the dipstick hole, so oil change and spark plug pull for sure. Any other...

• giroux68
• Replies: 104
• Forum: General Discussion

Excellent to hear the starboard pull and rotation at idle issues have been corrected. Good job!

That’s good that you’re planning on having the trailer wheel bearings serviced, but, if you didn’t read that thread about how to service them you should. The grease seals on the hubs ride on a replaceable stainless steel wear sleeve, a great concept really, the wear sleeve is held on with red loctite, and in my experience a couple of these came loose and began to spin on the spindles. This allowed grease to slip past and allowed water to get in. Over this last winter I serviced them all and found minimal red loctite on the wear sleeves that hadn’t started to spin so it was just a matter of time before they too would have become an issue. Time being the non renewable commodity it is, these are items that could steal time from your boating experience if not installed properly.

All in all sounds like you’re off to a great start!