March 2026 Column MULTIPLE ENGINE GAUGES VS A SINGLE MULTIFUNCTION DISPLAY…WHAT’S BEST? By Capt. John N.Raguso The majority of my past 16 boats were all equipped with either multiple analog or combination analog/digital engine gauge clusters. Some of my earlier late 80s and mid 90s twin engine boats had cluttered dashboards that rivaled those of a 747 jumbo jet. These had panel arrays that contained 10-to-12 combined 3-1/8”and/or 2” gauges. This translates to a lot of hardware, drilling, cutting, wiring and crimps, rigging and time… especially if someone is charging you anywhere from $135-to-$175 per hour for their labor rate.
Keeping it Simple? Some of my recent boats like my 185
EdgeWater CC and 228 EdgeWater CC have been upgraded with fresh engines, next-gen gauge packages and the latest marine electron- ics. On the smaller EdgeWater, I kept it simple with a pair of Mercury SC1000 hybrid ana- log/digital 3-1/8”circular displays (one tach, one speedo), plus a lone 2”fuel gauge (whose
data is also replicated on one of the SC1000 multi hybrids). You can get a wealth of critical engine data like fuel economy, engine hours and odometer data by cycling manually through the mode key. Full disclosure requires me to tell you that this is a real PITA, since the micro digital monochrome displays positioned at the bottom of each SC1000 gauge are hard to read, are not in the operator’s natural line of site when driving standing up, plus any sunlight totally washes out the info. I’m sure some engineer in the lab thought this was a great idea, but it doesn’t quite work up to expectations in the real world…plus the driver has to take eyes“off the road ahead”to cycle through or read the alternate information, which is not ideal on a crowded waterway.
Other critical data that is displayed in the digital boxes as the oper ator cycles through either the tach or speedo modes include a digital tach; fuel consumption in either gallons or liters per hour; total fuel used since the last reset; trim that shows the current angle of the engine; engine temperature; water pressure that monitors water flow; battery voltage; engine hours that shows the motor’s total accumulated running time; plus range that shows the estimated distance remaining based on fuel consumption (if calibrated). The analog aspect of each gauge, the speedo and the tach functions, dominate the 3-1/8”dial with a sweeping electric red needle that’s easy to see with a quick glance to ascertain boat speed and engine RPM.
Change of Pace When I repowered my 228 EdgeWater CC back in 2020 and again in 2024, the Mercury 250 V8 was digital throt- tle and shift (fly by wire operation), as was the subsequent 250 ProXS V8, and both required a new digital archi- tecture. I upgraded to a compact 5”Mercury (made by Simrad) multifunction display (MFD) to show all engine of a softkey on my Simrad GO12 MFD, I can pull up the engine data on the big screen, which makes it much easier to see. Of course this comes at the cost of subjugating the chartplotting, radar and echo sounder displays to much smaller screens. To keep things as they were intended, the engine info goes to my dedicated Mercury/Simrad 5” MFD and the larger GO12 unit stays in its lane with big screen chartplotting and fishfinding duties.
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