Putting in gauges

I didn't even think of that.  That is going to save me some work, thanks James.

ChrisH did you use the 2281 autometer 3/4" for water temp connector or you go one size bigger? Did you ever get your Gaffrig gauges installed? If so, do you like them better? Where did you buy the temp sensor from?

DHILL wrote:

ChrisH did you use the 2281 autometer 3/4" for water temp connector or you go one size bigger?  Did you ever get your Gaffrig gauges installed?  If so, do you like them better?  Where did you buy the temp sensor from?  

Truthfully, my setup is kind of a hodge-podge. The switch panel is fro Black Rhino Performance, as is the inline temp sender housing. The switches come from OTRATTW 

on the forst page of this thread, the gauges you saw were from Black Rhino. My gauges were getting fogged up real bad and it was driving me crazy. I also wasn't praticularly fond of the 90 degree sweep needle as small changes are hard to read at that low of a resolution. The BRP gauges and wiring is super nice, however. I called BRP to see if I could purchase another gauge. Over the phone they told me that they were having some issues with their gauge supplier (Livorsi Marine) and they were unsure when their gauge lineup would be back in stock.

That led me to Gaffrig Performance. They specialize in marine gauges, and offered the newer style 270 degree sweep gauges which have much higher resolution. I was all set to order a water temp and voltmeter from them. In fact, I did order from them online. A few days after placing my order, I never received a confirmation email or anything. The company called me letting me know that the 270 degree gauges I wanted were on backorder for 8-12 weeks. So I thanked them for their honesty and time and cancelled my order.

That led me to try out a set of the Glow Shift digital gauges. Eventhough I attempted to waterproof them, they only lasted one ride and went belly-up. They looked cool but I need something more suited to wet environments. At least I got them real cheap.

Finally, I decided to give the AutoMeter gauges a try. They had the 270 degree sweep gauges I wanted in the correct 2 1/16 size I needed for my dash. So I took a chance and ordered a set of Ultra Lite II gauges from SummitRacing. These gauges were not cheap by any means ($160+ each). So I took care to waterproof them well.

So far, these have been the hot ticket. I have not had any issues with water or fogging, and believe me I ride a lot of water. I don't submerge them as I am not currently snorkeled, but I ride wearing swimming trunks and get soaking wet every time I go out. I like the high resolution sweep of the needle as I can now tell the difference between 160F and 180F. Likewise for the volts; 0.5VDC is a lot and you can tell real quick what is happening electrically. Finally, the AutoMeter Ultra Lite II have LED through lighting so they are super easy to read at night as compared to incandescent perimeter illumination that I had on the BRP gauges.

Most water temp gauges, whether I had the BRP, Glow Shift, or AutoMeter, use a 1/4" sending unit. which is included with the gauge. I know that UTV Inc sells an inline temp housing and is setup for this common sending unit and NP threads.

Here's a finished pic of what my dash ended up looking like.





Good Luck!

nice!!

Thanks for doing all the hard work for us Chris, great information.

firefighter....can you give any advice on making my own water temp inline adapter?