gauge question

My boat dash doesnt have any more room for additional gauges. I have Speedo, Tach, Fuel, Volt, and Trim.

My HDS displays the voltage, its tied to starting battery.

Would anyone recommend against just trading the volt gauge for a water pressure gauge...because I am adding the water pressure gauge.

thanks

To me the trim guage is the most worthless.

I just use it religiously. Maybe I am weird. I am keeping that one though.

I could cut a hole in the panel down and to the left of my console, but would rather just swap.

I had several boats that had spots for 4 small gauges in addition to the large tach & speedo. I lived in South Florida where we ran water that looked more like you might be able to walk on it vs. float. This meant the risk of blocking water intakes, so I considered water pressure critical, and cylinder head temperature a wise investment. I rounded out the 4 small gauges with trim and fuel. I moved the voltmeter to the side panel at the driver's console, adjacent to the shifter. That worked well on two boats I rigged that way. It was available to check, but not critical to the driver's instrument scan. You might consider that for the voltmeter if it's not a big deal to install your's that way.

Water pressure and tach is need. Everything else is useless and unreliable.

Not if but when that trim gauge fails. Tank gauge is a wild guess. Volt gauge?
And none are more useless than a non-GPS speedometer.

Totally agree.

My Skeeter has multiple tanks and sending units.....both full to the cap or empty, neither read greater or less than 1/2-1/4 tank. Volt gauges? My Skeeter has 3 ot them. They are accurate and a waste of space. Speedo is optimistic at best. Water pressure and trim are the only things I look at. The tach reads correctly, I think, occasionally. Unless my Yamaha 4-stroke really does exceed 7000 rpm a lot.

Tach, GPS Speedometer,fuel, water pressure and hour meter. To me the hour meter is crucial, but I'm religious about 100 hr interval maintenance.

I use tach and water pressure and temp religiously. I also do use trim and jackplate height gauge, both very important for optimal speed. Fuel works on mine so that's nice I guess. Voltmeter and speedo are WORTHLESS.

my water pressure and tach are the only gauges I can read during the day due to the hazy cracked lenses.
Lowrance tells me speed, and voltage, a quick look over my shoulder tells me jack plate position, the boat tells me trim position. My gas tank is under my console exposed so I can see my fuel situation. otherwise I would have a fuel gauge that works.

My Yamaha interface cable connected to my HDS gives me quite a bit of useful info, speed, tact, engine temp, alt output. Some options are available without the cable.There are more info options some of the fuel info needs additional parts.
What engine do you have?

If you can’t tell your trim by the speed and feel of the boat, then you haven’t been boating very long.

eeks..shots fired.

Its more just personal preference. I just like it. I can tell by the ride of the boat and sound of rpms, but I just like to have a trim gauge.

I like a trim gauge to pard, especially with a jackplate. Very easy to get it too high a cause a motor overheat. I think the water pressure gauge is the next least reliable gauge on a boat, behind a fuel gauge. Not all motors have low water pickups. I have run bass boats since 1976.

I can see it being useful with a hydraulic plate.

Ranger had dual tanks and fuel gauges were very reliable. 12 gallon tank and first 1/2 was about 5 and second was 7. I really liked the 2 tank set up. Also, my speedo was dead on to the GPS. Thing is even when I was pulling tubers I always used the tach more than the speedo. Boat did not come with PSI but I cut hole and added it as soon as I could. Did not have a voltmeter and really did not need it. Went through 2 trim senders in first few years and gave up on the trim gauge. On the bass boat I never needed one. I just trimmed by ear and feel. Now the Bay Champ is different with the Optimax. I can hardly hear it. Gas gauge too. 95 gallon tank and no idea how accurate the gauge is. Right now I know it is somewhere between empty and 1/4. Bought it with 1/2 tank. Last 2 trips I have been carrying enough gas in a can to get back to the dock. I am trying to figure out where the guage will sit when empty.