I need help - Participation with Older Carvers

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I wanted to approach you older Carver owners out there to see if you are comfortable that your needs are being met on this forum. The majority of posts are on boats since about 1985 or so, which is of course a pretty long time, but there are quite a few of us who own boats back from Carver's "ancient" history...

My concern stems from the fact that there are other places on the Web where you can find a significant amount of detailed information on older boats than you can here. As you should know, linking to other such forums is not permissible under the rules here on Boater Ed (to be clear, that's FORUMS, not Manufacturer or Vendor sites, which can be linked to with no problem). So if there's an answer out THERE to a question that's posted HERE, I'm at a quandary as to how to answer it...

Since BoaterEd is the premier forum for boater education and information around, I would like to find a way to encourage more participation in this forum from people who otherwise only post on other forums, so that maybe they will share more of their insight here. Any suggestions on how to do this???

And please tell me if I'm making a mountain out of a molehill. Do any of you feel that information on the older boats is lacking, or are you satisfied with the responses you are getting here? Are you finding yourself looking elsewhere or is BoaterEd your main source for information on your Carver, or on boating in general? Please feel free to share whatever is on your mind...

PS - I don't mean to leave out the newer Carver owners either! If you have any issues with the content here on this forum please speak up. It just seemed to me that there are (1) more of you, and (2) thanks to people like Kenny you're able to get your answers more quickly than some of us with the old scows we ride around in...
 
LOL! Oh come on now. I seriously want to see how everybody feels around here. If we're going to make this forum better we need some input!!!
 
Pete and everyone,

I will try hard to help anyone with any age Carver. I've worked for the same dealer for 27 years, so I'm pretty up on anything 1981 and newer. We have also sold some earlier Carvers so I've had some limited experience with them as well. If I do not know the answer, I will ask people...even as far as calling the people I know at Carver. I just hope that on this Carver forum...people actually believe me when I say something, unlike the guy in the one engine forum, who basically told me he has a one of a kind Mercruiser (couldn't happen)
 
LOL! Having been in the business so long I'm sure you see an awful lot of those people from time to time, eh???

I hope we get to meet/talk someday, because between you and I we've pretty much got Carver covered between about 1970 and 2008. Taking apart those old boats was something of a passion for me, back when I had the time and was stupid enough to try it. Thank God I can now afford the all-fiberglass versions...

Anyway, thanks for being such a big part of this forum, Kenny. Your expertise greatly enhances the experience here. My main concern in putting this post up was to just make sure nobody felt left out when posting info on older boats. Partially because I know there are some resources for older boats out on the Web and I want to get as much of that knowledge over here as possible without doing anything to detract from BoaterEd. Its a bit of a fine line we moderators have to walk, and some of us have been arguing internally about it for awhile...

Regardless, I'm glad this forum is one of the better ones in terms of participation and sound advice, and hope we can continue to work together to make it better!!!

PS - are a lot of the people you knew "way back when" still at Carver these days, or has it all changed??? I remember back in the pre-Genmar days when I wanted to take the cabin and deck off of my 2895 I spoke directly to someone who faxed me a hand drawn picture of how to do it! I don't know if they'd still be so obliging now, at least not to the general public...
 
I'd love be able to get a wiring diagram for my 1980 33 Mariner. I'm having some issues that might be minor, but it sure would be easier to trouble-shoot if I could get ahold of one. Any ideas?
 
My boat has a good owners manual including some wiring information. The next time I go up there (its 65 miles away from home!) I'll take a look and see if any of it also pertains to the 3396, and if so I can make some copies (Kenny please let me know if its not legal to do that). I'll keep you posted...
 
Pete,

As long as you and Ram/Kenny stay put, this forum is perfect for me and my ol' '82 Carver. All questions posed have been answered. I've owned the boat for a year and have learned lots, thanks to this forum.

-Greg
 
Pete:

I agree with Greg - although I don't post that often I read everything posted and likewise have learned a lot from you, RAM and others - helpful in my mid-80's Carver.

Thanks and lets keep it up!

Ted
 
Pete,

The nice thing about Carver is tht most of the people from my early days are still at Carver. They really don't have access to the hand drawn diagrams anymore as they are stored deep withing one of their lesser used buildings (they have 14 buildings or so throughout Pulaski). Our Parts rep is still the same one we had 27 years ago, and the service guys are long timers too. BTW, not sure if I mentioned this, but we are Carver's oldest dealer at 47 years selling Carver Boats, we aren't the biggest, but MM has proven that bigger isn't better. We just took second place in the CSI ratings for 2007 :-)
 
Am I allowed to ask the name of the dealership? I promise not to tell Les on you ;)???

To the rest of you folks: thanks so much for the kind words and encouragement. I was a bit worried that we might be leaving some folks out. As long as everyone feels they're getting something out of this forum, then I'm happy. Lets build this together for all our benefit!!!
 
As long as PascalG doesn't complain that I'm trying to sell something one here, like he does almost every time I've replied to a post. For the record...I'm not here to sell anything and have not given my company name for that reason. But this is something to be proud of. I' work for Sima Marine Sales in Eastlake, Ohio (20 minutes east of Cleveland)
 
Thanks, Ken. I'll go check out your website so I can learn more about the facility. It sounds like a great place to work...

As for me, I work part time for a dealer of much smaller boats. We sell Stingray runabouts/small cruisers, PartiKraft pontoons, and Sunsation sportboats. None of which compare to a Carver! Although I have to say that one thing I like about Stingray is that the company is run much like I imagine Carver used to be about 30 years ago - where you can call the guy who was in charge of building your boat and he'll give you all the information you need, with a nice friendly jovial attitude to boot. The Carver Boat Corporation of today is a lot more institutionalized, although from Kenny's descriptions it sounds like if you know the right people you can still get results up in Pulaski...
 
The website isn't too exciting, but we are about to launch a totally new one :-)
 
quote:
Originally posted by manticore999

I'd love be able to get a wiring diagram for my 1980 33 Mariner. I'm having some issues that might be minor, but it sure would be easier to trouble-shoot if I could get ahold of one. Any ideas?

Click to expand...


I can send you a PDF of my 1977 manual for the 3396, i think those models are similar.
 
Those boats should be very close. The main difference between the '77 and the '80 was in the design of the window frames. The older boat has the teakwood frames, which look better but seal worse, and the newer model has the aluminum ones, which seal a TON better but look worse, IMHO...

Actually the difference isn't as pronounced on the 33s, but on the 28s I definitely preferred the look of the older style. I just never could keep the water out of the cabin...

IMHO the one big mistake Carver made in going to the aluminum windshield on the bridge was in doing away with the front opening windows. I LOVED those, and they were so handy because you got a lot of fresh air, and because the window opened upwards like a tailgate you could leave it open and not get rain in your face. The aluminum windows, while larger than the old wooden frames permitted, are pretty darn hot in the summer as the air tends to stagnate, even with those little side vents...

But either way, they are great boats...
 
Thanks mhanch, I'd really appreciate it if you could send that to me. steveflowers at email dot com.
 
quote:
Originally posted by PBardunias

Thanks, Ken. I'll go check out your website so I can learn more about the facility. It sounds like a great place to work...

As for me, I work part time for a dealer of much smaller boats. We sell Stingray runabouts/small cruisers, PartiKraft pontoons, and Sunsation sportboats. None of which compare to a Carver! Although I have to say that one thing I like about Stingray is that the company is run much like I imagine Carver used to be about 30 years ago - where you can call the guy who was in charge of building your boat and he'll give you all the information you need, with a nice friendly jovial attitude to boot. The Carver Boat Corporation of today is a lot more institutionalized, although from Kenny's descriptions it sounds like if you know the right people you can still get results up in Pulaski...

Click to expand...
 
Hello -

If this isn't the appropriate forum for this question, please direct me to the propper one.

I have a 1989, 32' Mariner. I discovered all the gasketing on the bridge glass/windows/windshield need replacing. The internet has plenty of sources for gasket material, but I don't know what size and shape. Since I'm on the hard and shrink wrapped for winter, I hope to save some time with this question and not wait until spring to pull the glass to look at the current gasket, and then order the material. I'll feel more prepared with the goods in hand, as our boating season, such as it is, is way to short and I need to maximize every opportunity.

Second question: In the stateroom, the forward, port 'window' frame appearts to have been sprung slightly on the outside, probably from a previous owner smashing into something, and the window is leaking. Not quite sure how to attack this project, as inside fasteners seem to be absent, or at least not visible. Anyone know how Carver initially installed this style window?

Thanks in advance for any help and advice you can provide. tlb
 
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