One of the US Navy's requirements was that the Seagull's replacement had to be able to operate both from ocean vessels with a big single central float and two smaller ones in the tip of the wings, and from land bases with the float being replaced by wheeled gear.
Since the SO3C entered into service, it had to cope against two serious flaws: inflight stability problems and problems with the Ranger air-cooled inverted V-shape inline engine.
In order to solve stability problem, upturned wingtips were introduced and a larger rear tail surface that extended over the rear observer's cockpit which was attached to the rear observer's sliding canopy and pilots claimed that there were still stability problems when the canopy was open. It was usually open because the main role of the aircraft was spotting. Eventually, the stability problems were addressed, although not fully solved.
However, the engine it was equipped with, the Ranger XV-770-8 inline air-cooled which delivered 600hp (447Kw) of power, proved to be an utter failure, even after many modifications were made to fix it. Due to that problem, combined with bad maintenance records, led to the type being withdrawn from the frontlines by 1944 and forcing the older but more trustable SOC Seagull (which had also been relegated into training role) into frontlines until the end of the war. Until then, it served with the US Navy in many secondary observation roles, mainly on board of light cruisers and escort carriers, with added tailhook. Some of them were used after 1944 as target drones and were known as SO3C-1K and were completely painted in yellow.
Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtiss_SO3C_Seamew
2. http://www.aviastar.org/air/usa/curtiss_model82.php
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