1993 Hydroswift 1900 bowrider

[spktho]

Just want to say what a great site this is and has a ton of information on it. Not too much on Hydroswift boats, but that's ok. I bought this boat about a month ago and have had it on the lake twice so far with only minor problems probably associated with age--the trim gauge works only part of the time and the tach goes really high sometimes without the engine revving.

It has a Volvo 431b engine and DP outdrive(I think its a 290, but not too sure). It gets on plane in a hurry, turns on a dime, and has a surprisingly comfortable ride. A couple of pics, covered in driveway, but pictures:

 

[Maclin]

Re: 1993 Hydroswift 1900 bowrider

Neat boat, drive is ceratinly clean!

It probably has the DP-A drive, they all look like the 290DP and are almost identical inside and out.

Where are you located? My Hydroswift seems to be pretty far from home here in Kansas....

 

[spktho]

Re: 1993 Hydroswift 1900 bowrider

Thanks. I think the family and I will enjoy it. I'm in Southern California. I had been looking for a good boat for about 5-6 months and put a wanted add on Craigslist with no replies for about 3 months. Then I get an email from a guy saying he was thinking of selling his boat. He had bought it new in 1993 and had used it a few times a year since, but had only been taking it out for about 30 minutes every few months the last couple of years. So, I ask him to meet me at a local lake one morning to look at it and test it out. Needless to say the boat was the cleanest one I had looked at in that year and price range and it ran flawlessly, plus has the DP drive.

I called Titus Boats who now owns the Hydroswift name to see if they had any specs for the boat, but unfortunately they weren't much help--but were very pleasant to talk with. There also is a Volvo Penta certified shop here in town when I need it serviced.

Any tips for this boat is appreciated.

 

[Maclin]

Re: 1993 Hydroswift 1900 bowrider

Regarding the drive and engine, they respond well to having regular maintenance like all drives. It is important to get the manuals for your particular drive and engine combo so you know what Volvo recommends. They are tough, reliable and very serviceable, an excellent drive.

I can tell you what I have done to mine but it had a hard life before me, I picked it up as a repo for slip fees from the Marina/Dealer, and they were pretty far away. You are lucky to have the Volvo certified shop there. When I first got mine I was in a small landlocked town and had to do a lot of web searching to figure stuff out. Where I am now there is a large boat shop that has Volvo penta parts in stock, very nice. I am posting some links to the Volvo Penta site, they have a comprehensive publication search and you should be able to find some manuals there. There will be an Owner's manual and and Operator's manual, both are important pubs to have and read.

Basically start at the VolvoPenta.com site, and go to Parts and Service and look for the Publication Search. Put in the Engine Group (Sterndrive), and Fuel Type (gasoline) and Power (HP range) and Number of Cylinders and Production year range. A list of pubs should come up when you click Search. The list may not match up exactly with the year of the boat but you should be able to figure out which ones are for you. Don S has lots of knowledge on the Volvo Penta drives like ours, you can catch him almost anytime by posting in the Merc/OMC/Volvo I/O section.

Here is a link to the VolvoPenta pub search begin page....:
http://www.volvo.com/volvopenta/na/en-us/parts_service/publication_search/publication_search.htm

Regular maintenace is key, hopefully you have some records from the previous owner or at least his word on what has been done regularly. I am talking about the drive bellows, ujoints, regular greasing of the lube points on the drive inside the boat and outside, just normal I/O items.

There are some items that deteriorate over time that are peculiar to the Volvo 290 style drive. I have posted some of what I went thru on my drive in my other posts in this sedction so I will not go into that here. It would be interesting if you could post what all has been done to your boat thru the years if that is available.

 

[spktho]

Re: 1993 Hydroswift 1900 bowrider

The previous owner had the drive serviced last November 2008. The invoice showed oil change, bearing grease and inspection, u-joint inspection and grease and "prop balancing". Nothing about the bellows, but they feel ok and have no signs of cracks. I will have them checked again this year, though. The engine oil was also changed. I had it out on the lake a couple of weeks ago and the alternator belt was slipping, so I tightened that up.

I'm thinking the tach and tilt/trim gauge problem may be a bad ground, so I need to trace that down.

I was searching the Volvo site for manuals, but so far have only found a "product bulletin" for the Volvo 431DP. I haven't found an owner's manual or operators manual. I'll have to get the serial #'s and post them up to see if Don S has any information. I see the tag on the top of the engine with numbers, but are there other places to look like on the drive itself for other numbers? Thanks again for the information.

 

[Maclin]

Re: 1993 Hydroswift 1900 bowrider

Sounds like it has been treated well. The drive bellows has to come off to inspect the u-joints, so all that must have been ok or they would have had to do more.

My search for the exact ID numbers for my setup has been very confusing too. I have seen mine called an AQ271C and also an AQ570. My flame arrestor cover has some serial numbers on it but they do not seem to mean much. The AQ271 or AQ570 seems to mean more when looking for parts and such.

You and your family have fun this year!