Seakeeper Ride R27

[Esox]

I seem to recall Seakeeper Ride being offered on the R27 but I don’t see it listed when building one. Is this option only available to be installed at a dealer? I’m also curious if it was offered from the factory why isn’t it now, were there performance issues? I have it on my current CC and its a game changer so as I’m dreaming about a Ranger, that would be a nice to have.

 

[hawk232]

I know there is a guy on youtube who has it on his 27, havent heard of any others though. Would love to know more about it myself. I know its quite costly to install after the fact, but if its THAT good, maybe its worth it?

 

[JMarshallR25]

I seem to recall Seakeeper Ride being offered on the R27 but I don’t see it listed when building one. Is this option only available to be installed at a dealer? I’m also curious if it was offered from the factory why isn’t it now, were there performance issues? I have it on my current CC and its a game changer so as I’m dreaming about a Ranger, that would be a nice to have.

The SKR has never been a factory option, to my knowledge. It can be installed by an authorized Ranger Tugs dealer or third-party installer. There are plenty of tug owners who have the system. It works fantastically well on my R25 and I have heard it is similarly excellent on the 27.

 

[hawk232]

The SKR has never been a factory option, to my knowledge. It can be installed by an authorized Ranger Tugs dealer or third-party installer. There are plenty of tug owners who have the system. It works fantastically well on my R25 and I have heard it is similarly excellent on the 27.

I am going to hijack the thread a little, hopefully the OP is curious about this as well. Did you run the boat with trim tabs or has it always had the seakeeper ride? I am really curious to hear from someone who has driven in both forms.

 

[JMarshallR25]

I am going to hijack the thread a little, hopefully the OP is curious about this as well. Did you run the boat with trim tabs or has it always had the seakeeper ride? I am really curious to hear from someone who has driven in both forms.

I never ran my boat with trim tabs. I have ridden on similarly sized boats with trim tabs. That is how I knew that I wanted to install the SKR system. My preference is to fiddle with tab adjustments exactly never while boating. I can turn the system "off" or operate the system manually, which I guess is sort of like trim tabs. But why?

 

[Jesperjo]

AFAIK, the only Ranger Tug model with an option for the Seakeeper Ride is the R-43. Several people have installed them on other boats in the range though. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of negative feedback on the Seakeeper Ride. A number of us also installed the Lenovo Autoglide. Those are more for just leveling the boat automatically, whereas the Seakeeper Ride does so much more. @JMarshallR25 how many batteries does your R-25 have? We had problems with the Autoglide on our R-25 LE because it has six or seven batteries on the port side of the midline and the Autoglide just wasn’t fast enough to compensate for that.

 

[JMarshallR25]

AFAIK, the only Ranger Tug model with an option for the Seakeeper Ride is the R-43. Several people have installed them on other boats in the range though. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of negative feedback on the Seakeeper Ride. A number of us also installed the Lenovo Autoglide. Those are more for just leveling the boat automatically, whereas the Seakeeper Ride does so much more. @JMarshallR25 how many batteries does your R-25 have? We had problems with the Autoglide on our R-25 LE because it has six or seven batteries on the port side of the midline and the Autoglide just wasn’t fast enough to compensate for that.

I have the house and thruster batteries, and three lithium batteries, in the port lazarette. I have three additional lithium batteries in the center lazarette all the way aft. This was the factory-installed configuration on my 2024 model. Above 10 mph, the SKR is powerful and fast enough to compensate for any uneven weight distribution I have experienced, including three or four people on the port side.

 

[Jesperjo]

I have the house and thruster batteries, and three lithium batteries, in the port lazarette. I have three additional lithium batteries in the center lazarette all the way aft. This was the factory-installed configuration on my 2024 model. Above 10 mph, the SKR is powerful and fast enough to compensate for any uneven weight distribution I have experienced, including three or four people on the port side.

That’s the same setup I had. That’s great that the SKR handles that. I found that the Autoglide did not do that very well. It didn’t have enough power to control for all that weight on the port side if any passengers were on board, and it was too slow to control the tilt when the autopilot did course corrections. It sounds like the Seakeeper system is a significant upgrade.

 

[gregc]

Whats the power draw on one of those?

 

[JMarshallR25]

Whats the power draw on one of those?

Around 5 amps at 12V at cruising speeds.

 

[gregc]

Oh wow, waaaaaay less than what I figured.

 

[JMarshallR25]

Around 5 amps at 12V.

Oh wow, waaaaaay less than what I figured.

Just to be clear, the Seakeeper Ride is smart "trim tabs," not the extremely similarly-named Seakeeper gyroscopic stabilizer - the company's other product. I think the smallest Seakeeper gyro draws 25-50 amps at 12V. The big ones draw far more power.

 

[gregc]

AHhhhh I missed that very subtle point. Here I was thinking they 10x'd their stuff.

 

[Esox]

I appreciate all feedback. I plan to meet a dealer next week or the following to discuss options. @JMarshallR25 are you able to share approximately what the SKR ran you for your R25?

 

[JMarshallR25]

I believe it was about $7500 all in. There’s a good bit of labor including programming and calibration involved.

 

[Genuine Drift]

AFAIK, the only Ranger Tug model with an option for the Seakeeper Ride is the R-43. Several people have installed them on other boats in the range though. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of negative feedback on the Seakeeper Ride. A number of us also installed the Lenovo Autoglide. Those are more for just leveling the boat automatically, whereas the Seakeeper Ride does so much more. @JMarshallR25 how many batteries does your R-25 have? We had problems with the Autoglide on our R-25 LE because it has six or seven batteries on the port side of the midline and the Autoglide just wasn’t fast enough to compensate for that.

The R-43 has an option for the Seakeeper 4. Seakeeper Ride is a far less sophisticated system.

Here is the link for Seakeeper Ride
https://ride.seakeeper.com

 

[Jesperjo]

@Genuine Drift are you referring to the Gyroscope option on the R-43? The Gyro Fluid Motion installs in those boats is actually not a Seakeeper but a Quick MC2, although he spec sheet doesn’t specify which one it is. Talking to the factory it also turns out that if it were a Seakeeper, the R-43 would need the Seakeeper 6, not the 4. I thought the 4.5 would be sufficient but Andrew told me yesterday that it would be the 6.

However, as of a few months ago, the R-43 also has an option for the Seakeeper Ride for slightly different purposes, and a less expensive stabilization option at higher speeds. The two serve somewhat different purposes obviously, and it will be very interesting to see how many boats end up getting built with one, the other, or both.