Looking to buy, Looking at 2002 Bayliner 3488-gctid406068

[Guest]

Hello!

We are looking to buy a cruiser, have owned many boats and we are ready to have one that we can do a few nights on, have the dogs and have fun. We have come across a 2002 Bayliner 3488 for a reasonable price and (no survey yet) looks to be cherry. I do have a few questions.

1. Are the cummins T250 6 cylinders? ANy info on these good or bad?

2. Deck shaking/softness? I come from a long history of boaters and lets face it, Bayliner did not have the best 80's-90's reputation, I know that they changed hands in 200 or so but I have ready numerous posts about the decks being extremely shaky/rattling and getting soft (poor infrastructor) I also know that many forums do not have actual owners of the boats, so it's easy to bash them, thats why I came here!

3. Is the boat underpowered with those 250's? Seems that it would be, but experience from someone would be great

4. We live in Hawai'i, and will not be going out in massive seas by any stretch, but we have a fairly consistent1-3 foot movement and breezes, Any 3488 owners (especially 2001 and up) have any thoughts on those conditions and how the boat would handle? Seems the boat is not very heavy but it does state a 38" draft.

Thanks in advance for any help!

[Guest]

Not familiar with that model, but welcome aboard. Keep an open mind, I had a bad rep in high school wihich was totally undeserved.... Really.. My 2001 is rock solid.

[ksanders]

I had that exact model, and would be very hesitant to recommend it.

First the good.

Its hard to beat the interior of the 3488. The raised settee forward has great visibility, the salon is well laid out, everything adds up to a good looking functional interior.

The challenge with the boat is the engine layout. The boat has a narrow hull form with a steep transom deadrise. The engines are in a vee drive configuration and there is almost no space between them. Performing maintenance is next to impossible. The vee drives make it all but impossible to get to the prop shaft seals.

Then there is the hull form itself. The boat being a true deep vee hull wants to run fully up on plane. Cruise is either over 20 knots or at displacement speeds. The boat is very fast and a great rough water boat once up on plane, the problem is getting there. Put any load in the boat at all and it's really hard getting up on plane. You have to really baby the throttles to get the engines to get over 1800 RPM where the turbochargers start producing boost. I've had to get people to sit in the foward stateroom many times just trying to get up on plane, and I had 315 HP engines. I really think the boat is aft heavy with the vee drives.

Oh, BTW, the bayliner reputation is pure unadultered BS. I've had 6 Bayliners from 19 to 47 feet and can tell you that they are strong well built boats. I'm just not a big fan of this particular model having owned one.

If you have any other questions about the boat, please feel free to ask. I've been over literally every inch of the boat for years and am happy to help.

[talman]

Are you sure that the 1996 model is/was comparable to the 2002. I think there are lots of differences in the drive train, including 4 cyl. vs 6 cyl.

[ksanders]

talman wrote:
Are you sure that the 1996 model is/was comparable to the 2002. I think there are lots of differences in the drive train, including 4 cyl. vs 6 cyl.

Could be...

The one I had was a "tel:1996 3488" wrote:
1996 3488. It had vee drives and the diesel were 6 cyl.

If they changed the boat to straight drives and more room to service the engines then it would be a much better boat.

Edit...

Talman you are 100 percent correct.

It looks like in 2000 or 2001 they totally changed the boat. They kept The same model number but redesigned the whole thing. 4 cyl engines, straight drives, stairs to the flybridge. A whole new design.

[talman]

You can steal some Avanti 3488's right now with diesel. Add about $50K to get the newer design.

[Guest]

The 250 hp four cylinder Cummins was/is high strung and not very civil. You may be able to find useful information on Boatdiesel.com. I have read that it is noisy and rough at low engine speeds. The six cylinder version of the same engine is remarkably different.

I have had Cummins diesels for 20+ years and am quite biased in favor of them but that four cylinder I have heard bad about.

[Guest]

I have a 2002 34 bayliner. I think the layout is great, the admiral liked the layout best of all the boats we looked at. The main cabin is very comfy. The 2nd stateroom is pretty small but who wants their guests to stay too long anyway. I like the stairway to the flybridge better than the old stairs. The cockpit is adequate.

I have the twin 5.7 mercruiser engines and while I don't like doing the maint due to space constraints its all doable just tight. I did look at the 4 cyl cummings that they were offering at the time and found quite a lot of trouble had been reported. Even cummings admitted that they were prone to injector problems. It seems they were pushing enough air and fuel to get the horsepower but heat was an issue. Cummings may have solved the problem by now or if you are getting the 6 cyl cummings it seemed to be better.

It seems to be quite seaworthy but I do have trouble getting it up on the plane with much of a load.

I have had no problems with soft floors or any other real problems with it.

Good luck,

[ksanders]

talman wrote:
You can steal some Avanti 3488's right now with diesel. Add about $50K to get the newer design.

I saw my old boat at the harbor the other day. Not a plesant sight. The new owner hasn't washed or waxed her and she shows it.

The 3488 avanti has some very nice things about it. The layout cant be beat. Looking at the new model photos, I like the older interior much better.

If you could overcome the difficulty of maintenance, and run with light loads to make getting up on plane easier it could be a very good boat choice.

[Guest]

Thanks for all of the info. We took her out for a sea trial, and I think it would be a great boat in inland waters, but felt really shaky in 1-3 foot seas (which is our flat ocean) Hull felt good, but everything on the boat was shaking and not sounding very solid whatsoever. Too bad though because the layout is great and the fit and finish has come a long way. Thanks again for all the help!