Cobalt Boats Forum

As said previously, you mighty want to check the tightness of the screw terminals on the ground bars located both fore (under the front seat behind the access panel) & aft in engine compartment. I was able to put nearly a 1/4 turn on every screw I touched on my R4. I discovered this while ...

Not likely your batteries if you are able to actually start your engine. Sounds more like an intermittent power connection issue. Have a video of what happens?


I have no problems starting the engine at all. The engines will run, but just sometimes the screens go blank.

Only other thing I didn ...

stifflkd wrote: Tue Jul 29, 2025 10:30 am Do you have glass panels? If so configure them to display both batteries.

I do have glass panels. Not sure I have ever messed with batteries on them though.

Sounds like a low battery voltage to me, that gets charged back to acceptable levels temporarily once you've run it for a bit. I'd certainly start by measuring battery voltage, or better yet, take the battery in to a shop and have them test it.


Yeah I was thinking the same about getting the ...

So just recently, my navigation/instrumentation screens have sometimes not worked. They either don’t fire up after I turn my key to on, or they have just gone out while driving. They usually fire back up on their own within 5-10 minutes. This weekend, a couple of times, my stereo didn’t want to turn ...

I have a friend that has an R30 with 350’s and that boat will run! Of course it is definitely lighter than the r35 and 336. I think 350s would be fine, but betting the 380 or 430 would be noticeably better.

And I just added a new post yesterday. Lost all power. I am fairly certain this issue is due to electrical shorting out because of water. Both instances occurred when it was raining and dash area got wet.

Next time I am on the boat I will look in that storage area you suggested and see if I see anything.

You really have to unscrew a carpeted vertical panel back there to be able to see all the wiring behind the dash. If you have a water (or some other) problem back there, it does seem like a ...

Next time I am on the boat I will look in that storage area you suggested and see if I see anything.

My Cobalt isn't an R7, but it's certainly been out in the rain. It looks from photos I can find online like you have two rows of push buttons, one to each side of the wheel, and there was water puddling somewhere below them? Is the gear shifter "N" on the shift lever itself rather than the dash ...

I will add that the gear shifter also had N lit up even when I was in gear. Also, when you turn the boat on, it makes the beep sound to indicate everything is powering up. Mine just started making all kinds of beeping noises. So clearly something electrical got wet and shorted out. Just frustrating ...

So while driving the R7, got some rain on the dash. It seems to pull a little bit just below the buttons for bilge, blower etc. beeping sound came on. It is an electrical issue. Eventually lost power and wouldn’t go into gear. Anyone have this issue?

billk2632 wrote: Sun Jul 07, 2024 9:45 pm Assume you are letting enough rode - at least 3:1 or so for a “lunch hook”.

Yeah I try and stick to the 3:1 methodology, but if it is shallow (10 ft), I may just do closer to 2:1. Never been an issue in the past, until recently.

I guess I really never paid attention until the past several times as I didn’t back up and set it. I always drag now, and pretty sure it is because when it hits the bottom, it is facing the wrong way. May just try and make sure I back up to make sure it is setting.

Almost every time I drop my windlass on my R7, it swivels and drops in reverse. So it doesn’t hold my boat. Is there something I can do or check on the swivel to keep the anchor from dropping like this? You can see it spin right before it hits the water.